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

[Labster]

I've had some really good ideas today, but I can't quite come up with the next sentence here:

   In the corner of my bedroom sat a full-length mirror.  I saw the glass of the mirror begin to shimmer, then distort, as a woman in elaborate robes flew through the mirror -- as if it were a portal to another world.
   Belldandy droned in a monotone, "Please state the nature of the magical emergency."


   In the corner of my bedroom sat a full-length mirror.  I saw the glass of the mirror begin to shimmer, then distort, as a woman in elaborate robes flew through the mirror -- as if it were a portal to another world.
   Alice Carroll huffed, "Ugh, finally back.  I gotta be more careful around a looking glass."


   In the corner of my bedroom sat a full-length mirror.  I saw the glass of the mirror begin to shimmer, then distort, as a woman in elaborate gear flew through the mirror -- as if it were a portal to another world.
   The device attached to the woman's potato said, "Welcome to the Aperture Science Interdimensional Dormitory and Clone Depository."

[Rajvik]

Two things,
1- the character is Alice Liddel. (Spell check the last) if your using Louis Carol's books
2- where is a woman's potato?

[Labster]

No, this girl is Alice Carroll, check our wiki or, like, one page back in this thread. The woman with the potato is named Chell, which is not the name of the computer attached to the potato.

N.B. these are all omakes, but I'm legit not sure exactly what Belldandy would say next.

[robkelk]

I've had some really good ideas today, but I can't quite come up with the next sentence here:

   In the corner of my bedroom sat a full-length mirror.  I saw the glass of the mirror begin to shimmer, then distort, as a woman in elaborate robes flew through the mirror -- as if it were a portal to another world.
   Belldandy droned in a monotone, "Please state the nature of the magical emergency."


   In the corner of my bedroom sat a full-length mirror.  I saw the glass of the mirror begin to shimmer, then distort, as a woman in elaborate robes flew through the mirror -- as if it were a portal to another world.
   Alice Carroll huffed, "Ugh, finally back.  I gotta be more careful around a looking glass."


   In the corner of my bedroom sat a full-length mirror.  I saw the glass of the mirror begin to shimmer, then distort, as a woman in elaborate gear flew through the mirror -- as if it were a portal to another world.
   The device attached to the woman's potato said, "Welcome to the Aperture Science Interdimensional Dormitory and Clone Depository."

Have another:
In the corner of my bedroom sat a full-length mirror. I saw the glass of the mirror begin to shimmer, then distort, as a woman in elaborate robes flew through the mirror -- as if it were a portal to another world.
"I hate formal events that go wrong," Sam Carter complained, before noticing she wasn't at a Stargate.

[Labster]

Now you're thinking with portals!

I visited the Getty Museum today down in L.A.  One of the consequences of writing this story is that it makes me realize how little exploring I've done near home -- and basically how no one is a tourist in their hometown.  But since I'm writing about new immigrants who work in the tourism industry, it's now all background research for me.

Part of writing is that I have to keep mental models of your characters in my own mind, so that I can ask them how they would react to stuff.  Normally this happens during the writing process, and the rest of the time I'm not really thinking about how they feel.  But at the museum today, when I rounded the corner and realized I was in a whole room of Venetian art, well, six voices inside me went "Squee!!" simultaneously.  Akari was the loudest, of course -- she's such a fangirl.

BTW I still rank the Getty on the lower end of museums in LA (but still above the one with the Space Shuttle, which is the only good exhibit if you actually know science).  It has a few great works, and a lot of stuff that, well, I wouldn't mind owning but doesn't quite count as Great Art.  There's a lot of rough in which to find the diamonds.  Of the local museum founders:

• Norton Simon was an art collector who was rich
  
• J. Paul Getty was a rich man who collected art
  
• Henry Huntington was a rich man who knew what he liked
  

Jury duty ... later today.  Better sleep now.

[Black Aeronaut]

I think Rajvik forgot that there was a character by that name already in the setting and that you were just riffing off the theme.

And you just had to get me thinking of Cave Johnson.

I now have this mental imagery of TNB!Benjamin channeling FenSpace!Benjamin and showing GLaDOS that Cave Johnson isn't the only one capable of Blue Hair Moments...

Benjamin: *After a 48-hour SCIENCE! bender with Washu-chan and Teltha...* "OOOOHHH  GLLAAA~DOOOOSS!  Lookie what I made!  EXPLODING LEMONS!  BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAH!  NOW WE CAN BURN THEIR HOUSES DOWN WITH THE LEMONS THEY GAVE US!"

GLaDOS: "..... Mr. Johnson?"

Benjamin: "There is no Cave, only Xuul!"

GLaDOS:  "Okay, not Mr. Johnson.  Annnnd I'mmm just gonna call Fate up real fast because she is the best at handling cray-cray."

[Labster]

If you're doing exploding lemons then I really am going to bring Casey and Andy in.

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, all I can find is that Casey and Andy is a (relatively) short lived webcomic. I have no idea what they have to do with exploding lemons, though.

[robkelk]

You found the right reference, BA.

As for exploding lemons: everything else in that web comic explodes, so...

EDIT:

• Casey at the Bat: "Mighty Casey has struck out."
  
• Casey and Andy at the Bat: Relativistic Baseball
  

[Labster]

C&A is a webcomic full of self-inserts, poorly considered mad science machines, and picking fights with President Grover Cleveland. And considering that Andy Weir is dating the Princess of Lies herself, it makes an oddly suitable counterpoint to Ah My Goddess.

[Mamorien]

I want to know if the Casey and Andy of the webcomic would overwrite the "real-world" versions of Casey [whose last name I seem to have misplaced] and Andy Weir.

[Black Aeronaut]

Hmmm.... After reading through the first 250 pages, I can say this with absolute certainty:

This setting is, even if only a little bit, deconstructionist. The moment one of those boxes of antimatter gets set off, it will probably wipe the entire tri-county area off the map and cause serious problems for everyone else in the short term.

Besides, as chaotic-evil as these two chuckleheads are, I wouldn't be surprised if Hild has tasked their version of Satan to keep those two lunatics in check and in a very far away place that will have air ducts so small you couldn't even fit a Roomba through 'em.

[robkelk]

I would not be at all surprised if they're sequestered in a holosuite somewhere. It would explain the negative continuity of the strip - they never stay dead, time travel never appears to change the timestream, etc.

[robkelk]

I want to know if the Casey and Andy of the webcomic would overwrite the "real-world" versions of Casey [whose last name I seem to have misplaced] and Andy Weir.

We already allow for multiple canon characters if anybody wants to go down that route (e.g. manga, anime, live-action, and Crystal Sailor Moon), so I'd say "no".

[robkelk]

I need a good "real name" for a Misaka Sister who's good at hacking. Not sure whether this will be for Arc 1 or Arc 2.

Silliness (or is it?): She would, of course, be Misaka 13337.

[Bob Schroeck]

Lita, of course. <grin>

[robkelk]

And when she finally shows up at Blossom Apartments, Makoto can ask "What kind of name is Lita for an electrokinetic?"

I think we have a winner. Thanks, Bob!

[Bob Schroeck]

You're very welcome!

[robkelk]

I also think she's probably going to show up in Arc 2... <sigh> Ah, well.

[Labster]

Take me to your Lita!

Sorry no writing lately.  This weekend was picking up family at the airport, helping remodel a mobile home that a friend is getting evicted from, precinct walking for a friend of mine running for college trustee, setting up a new computer, and trying to keep up with work.  I was hoping to get a Halloween story out (not actually on Halloween, but on theme!), but it's probably not gonna happen.

I did start rereading C&A, and I had kinda forgotten the extent to which they were all terrible people.  Like, comic violence doesn't always register as violence.  I was actually thinking more about this kind of relationship.  But maybe Akari will help me find the Bug Fairies who mess up my code.  If I really, really end up using it, Andy has written some Ranmafic so we should probably tell him about it.

I would not be at all surprised if they're sequestered in a holosuite somewhere. It would explain the negative continuity of the strip - they never stay dead, time travel never appears to change the timestream, etc.

This is canon -- to the extent anything is canon in C&A.

And an unexpected epiphany, the origin of Aika's surname, Granzchesta, which doesn't seem to have any use in real life, or seem to be from any language.  Until I remembered that Grantchester is a place.  It's just a really odd romanization -- there's no "Z" in グランチェスタ.

[Labster]

• BlackAeronaut wants the SIs to get abilities of some sort. Dartz is still a 33-S. BA will be developing his "mages can't sense him" trick, and has plans for "Squishy" to give him an arm cannon. Rob's been to Hvergelmir and is now all wet (and has been geased into having a third girlfriend). Labster... seems to be having trouble coming up with something for Brent.
  

Early on, I decided that it would be fun to do a "real SI", because I had never done the format before.  And it is fun to get to play around with animu girls.  But then when I think about what kind of power to give myself, I don't know what kind of power I would even want.  Like, I wouldn't even deserve power, I'm kind of a total asshole, just wasting half my life on stupid shit.  Lately I haven't even tried that hard to do anything -- meet people, do my job, help my family.  Let alone trying to revolutionize the world -- I just don't care enough about people to do that.  So I just sit around and waste my intelligence, and sometimes get angry or frustrated.  It's hard to see how an SI would be any different.

I mean, I know I could just make a character of myself, like an idealized form.  Maybe that'd be cheating on the SI concept, maybe not.  But it's still hard to get the separate concept, as I'm pretty sure I'm not judging other characters as harshly as I do myself.  And, like, Tomoyo would know something was up.  And that still doesn't solve what the SI character would want.

[Bob Schroeck]

There is no such thing as "cheating on the SI concept". (Unless you're dating it, and you're seeing other fanfic conventions behind its back.) An SI is an SI, and phenomenal cosmic powers are not automatically part of the package -- just look at, say, John Trussell in NXE. (Yes, yes, I know, not strictly an SI as he was inserted before he joined the writing team. You're missing the point.) He got exactly two things out of insertion -- Maya, and reasonably good with a handgun.

You could always go for something subtle as a counterpoint to the other guys, you know. Like a Luck manipulation talent, where things just start happening right for him when it really matters, or when it really doesn't. You could even justify it as some kind of unexpected link to Yggdrasil that tweaks things in his favor kind of automatically.

[Black Aeronaut]

What Bob said. Useful skills are a valid thing. So feel free to go wild.

[robkelk]

Replying again to an older post...

I got to visit my apartment complex a week ago too -- not enough to go inside, but to get a pretty good look at the place.  There was a sign on it reading "Oceana Apartments", which gets a thumbs down from me, for reasons including "oceana" is not a word.  I'm sticking with Aria House for now, or maybe something with "Hall" in the name to get a collegiate feel.  The sign also mentioned one and two bedroom apartments.  But I still think there's enough space to put in all 2 bedroom units based on the measurements, so I'm not going to retcon that either.

I described it as needing a paint job in the early chapters, as it looks on Google Maps.  The building now looks newly painted in boring gray.  It may end up yellow, or possibly white with blue highlights in the story.  On the coast, you have a constant battle between paint and salt, so the building change colors a lot.  The back alley side of the building has more than enough wires to look like a proper Evangelion scene.

The downstairs level has a small mail room, which is something I hadn't thought of at all.  I mean, who needs snail mail when you just arrive in a universe?  The garage on the ground floor you can go straight through from the back to the front, so there's definitely space to fit 10m gondolas, considering how few of us drive.  How long is a Tomoyo-wardrobe-limousine, anyway?

Regarding paint jobs: I suspect we can find you something more durable than paint for that white-and-blue (with an accent of yellow-and-black to match President Aria's hat) re-paint job. Powder coatings might work if the surfaces can receive it (and if you want to use the electrostatic deposit technique mentioned in the Wikipedia article, I'm sure a few Misaka Sisters would enjoy a working vacation in L.A.). If not, Washuu-chan no doubt has something that'll last longer than what we can make.

Snail-mail is still useful... especially if somebody's waiting for a university admission letter. (Here's hoping it isn't a small envelope!)

And, judging from the views we had of it from different angles the first time it appeared in the anime, a Tomoyo-wardrobe-limousine is only slightly longer than a VW Microbus. I think.

[Labster]

I guess I didn't state it quite as clearly as it was in my head, so let me say simply: It's hard to write an SI when I hate myself.  And I dislike stories with excessive angst so I'm definitely not going to write about that.

@Rob: I think I came up with a new food for Taeko: ganachos.  ganache + nachos!  Also I have a story on the wiki that needs proofreading and feedback.  First half written yesterday, the second half written a month ago.  And I'm totally electric about your paint proposal!

Is this what the Blossom Apartments look like?  (technically SFW)