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

[robkelk]

Halloween story updated on the wiki (before the wiki went away for a while). I'll update it here some time today (assuming the wiki comes back soon).

EDIT: And done.

[robkelk]

Just tossed a little something onto the wiki, and asked involved people to comment/update it... It's a slice-of-life thing, sort of.

[robkelk]

So... I was Looking through the dusty corners of the board, and re-discovered This post.

Since ECSNorway never added any stories beyond a couple of undated scenes, and BlackAeronaut mentioned wanting the Nanoha StrikerS characters in the story somewhere, shall we make this an NPC residence? (Maybe dropping the Divine Blood part.)

Unless, of course, ECSNorway would like to take part here.

As for having the Nanoha characters in San Antonio as youngsters and Rochester as adults, there's always the "different continuities" dodge - and the Nanoha movies are definitely a different continuity from the TV series.

[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.

And at the other end of the issue... twilight barely setting in at 9PM and a blackout blind is required to sleep past 5AM? Must be mid-to-late June. (checks calendar) Oh, look - the solstice happens at the end of this week.

[Black Aeronaut]

With regards to the StrikerS characters, I believe either InquisitveRaven or Itsune expressed an interest in MGLN characters.  (They were kinda put out that I'd nabbed the main characters already. )

[robkelk]

Lots of folks have expressed interest in those characters.

Who's actually writing?

[robkelk]

Dartz, where do you want me to put your latest story in the timeline?

Good bit of writing, there - I was wondering whether she was going to make it.

[Dartz]

Thanks.

Well before the halloween party. This is the starting of the band.

[Labster]

Every once in a while, I wonder if the Metacontinuity is starting to intrude on "real life".  So one thing I came across is that there is a city in Lithuania called Utena.  It's the center of Utena County, and yeah, I'm aware that Tenjou was a prince, not a count.  But then, look at the coat of arms for the county:



FFS a star riding a white horse?  What the hell, is the symbolism escaping into our world?

I guess one of the keys to Discordian Magick is pretending that all of these sorts of coincidences are true.

[Labster]

Every once in a while I get completely nuts ideas like: maybe Saki Asamiya could join the Kaleido Stage with her yo-yo skills.

I think I probably need to explain to people who Saki is, despite the twenty-two volumes of manga, three live action series, three feature films, an an OVA.  She's the title character of Sukeban Deka (Delinquent Girl Detective), which I guess I'd describe as an extraordinarily violent shoujo manga.  Not extraordinary for shonen, but a fairly high body count for a girl's manga.  Anyway I came across this fairly cool old manga and it looks like only the first 5 volumes are scanlated.

She probably wouldn't need to use the weapon yo-yo, at least.  But on the other hand, this might just be a bad idea.  Either way, the part of me that's Tomo loves this manga.

[Black Aeronaut]

And this is part of what makes this thing so much frickin' fun.

.... Provided I get the druthers to actually write something.

[Labster]

I'm not usually all that much for writing the stations of the canon, but when the same characters have the same discussion about the same topic -- but do it in the metacontinuity -- most of the same things would happen.  It actually feels more constraining than easy.

The good news is that I got a chance to do some location scouting last week, so I can at least give a good description of where the action has moved to.  Venice Beach isn't quite deserted right now, but it's less crowded with more people wearing masks.  A lot of the sports and weightlifting stuff is closed, but the skate park is open and like five or six henna tattoo places are selling their wares on the beach.

[robkelk]

Coming back to this one...

I want to point out that wherever Duck is, Fakir will be

You don't really think fate will be that kind to them, do you?  How boring!  What they really need is to show some more suffering, so that we can have an interesting story.

In that case, he's working his way to her as quickly as he can... possibly by writing his way into the right direction.

...then again, someone like him with the story-spinning power might have gotten recruited by the goddesses or their agents...

Now you're thinking with portals.

In that case, what was Duck doing in Venice? I would not expect the goddesses to casually separate them.  So either he's working out of Venice, or Duck was on some kind of solo excursion, which I find kind of unlikely.

We've already established that there have been glitches in the displacee delivery system - the Sailor Senshi were deposited in at least four different locations, for example. (Five, if you include Phobos and Deimos.) One reason the building managers stay in regular contact is so they can connect scattered displacees with each other.

But before people can be connected with each other, somebody needs to know that there are people who need to be connected with each other... and nobody knows where Fakir is.

(I suspect the reason we haven't heard very much about HAL 9000 on-screen is because he's busy monitoring the internet, looking for scattered displacees and connecting them with local managers, who can then connect them with each other. It's an essential job but not one that lends itself to storytelling.)

[Labster]

Well, it's not so much glitches in the displacee delivery system, it's a slightly more general problem:

---

"Okay, I know the answer is probably one of those 'beyond the ken of mortal men' things, but I have to ask anyway..."

Urd blurted, "I don't mind telling you my three sizes."

Brent ignored it, "Why are we still getting new universes being merged into the Metacontinuity?"

"Oh, that one's easy.  That's how it's supposed to work."

"Huh?"

"Have you ever learned something new, like a family name that sounds weird to you -- and then you keep seeing that name in the next month or so in different places?"

"Yeah..." Brent feared that the point of this conversation was how dense he was.

"And then you just write it off as something you just never noticed before.  Or say you hear about some video game that everyone else has been playing for years, and you start to wonder why you're the last to know.  Well, there's a reason you feel that way.  Those feelings are what you experience when universes merge back together."

"Whoa," Brent keanued.

That's how it's supposed to work, where compatible timelines are woven back together.  Probabilities multiply, but they often converge, and it makes it easier to handle this way."

"So is it like a universe garbage collector or something?  Closing the dangling pointers?"

She shrugged, "If that's what your mortal mind can handle, sure."

"So why does it seem so strange here?  Too many universes?"

"Too many universes, and not all the right ones.  Other universes are still destabilizing, so they get dumped here, the most stable place for now.  But the integration of transfictional worlds means we can't smooth all the paradoxes."

"So we can expect more weirdos showing up.  Great?"  Some of the weirdos had been more fun than others, prompting his ambiguous response.

She smiled, "You got it!  Please excuse our mess as we fix the multiverse."

"Oh well, at least I don't feel so bad about not noticing things now, if it can't be helped."

Urd accused, "Are you sure about that?"

"I think?"

"So you didn't even notice what day it is?" Urd accused.

"Um, Thursday?"

"Our one-month anniversary!"

"Are we doing that?!"

[robkelk]

Dartz, where do you want me to put your latest story in the timeline?

Good bit of writing, there - I was wondering whether she was going to make it.

Thanks.

Well before the halloween party. This is the starting of the band.

September 30 looks good - there's nothing in the chronicles for that day yet, and that gives you a month to get the band together.

[robkelk]

I just sent a scene off for a possible re-write... but it's either the second-last or third-last scene for the skating party story.

[robkelk]

I just sent a scene off for a possible re-write... but it's either the second-last or third-last scene for the skating party story.

And the other scene or scenes are going a bit more slowly than I had expected... so have a teaser instead of a full set of scenes.

Rob cleared his throat. "I hope you mean email address, because we already know where you're going to hang your hat."

"I don't have a hat."

"It's a figure of speech," Brent said before Rob could reply. "You can stay with us until you hit it big - we still have some bedrooms available. I'll help you get a legal ID, somehow, and then you can get a job and an internet account."

"About that..." Rob grabbed two stacks of paper from the table. "You have appointments Monday morning to go pick up 'replacement copies'" - everybody could hear the air-quotes - "of your ID cards, courtesy of HAL 9000. SSN, birth certificate, and California ID for you, and SIN, birth certificate, health card, and Ontario photo ID for you. You just need somebody who already has ID to vouch for you." Rob looked at the stacks of paper, then handed a stack to each Mimi.

"Oh, in that case, there might be a problem," Brent replied, completely deadpan. Then, seeing the nascent look of panic on Mimi's face, he quickly added, "I won't be in Ottawa on Monday."

[Labster]

Sorry about the lack of contribution lately, I was really feeling bad at the beginning of the week due to dental issues, but now I'm feeling almost 100%.

About the only thing I was able to figure out is that the proper address for Tomo Takino, Baroness Ameno Uzume, is "Her Cromulence".

[robkelk]

I just sent a scene off for a possible re-write... but it's either the second-last or third-last scene for the skating party story.

And the other scene or scenes are going a bit more slowly than I had expected... so have a teaser instead of a full set of scenes.

I've made a minor change to that teaser - not changing the joke, just clarifying what's going on in the background.

Folks with wiki access are invited to preread. Everybody else... maybe this weekend, assuming the story passes prereading? (It's a long weekend in Ontario, so that includes Monday.)

[Black Aeronaut]

Nice update, Rob! And that bit with Ben and Mimi talking while on the ice...

I seem to remember working on that with you, but I can't seem to find any of it on my side. Starting to drive me bonkers. Did we do that bit collaboratively?

[robkelk]

We did, yes. I threatened to have both Mimis in the scene, but you thought that would be too much for Ben to handle...

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, so I'm not having one of my "moments".

Did we do that here in the forums, PMs, or something else?

[robkelk]

PMs, IIRC. Definitely not the forums.

[Labster]

Mine was written by PM at 2AM or so because Rob needed to publish; hopefully that all made sense.

[robkelk]

And it gave me an excuse to say what Taeko was doing during the party. Win-win!