[OOC][PLOT] Planning for Arc 2 - Crisis on Infinite Earths

[Mamorien]

The Arcus Prima (Simoun).

[Dartz]

Castle Wulfenbach?

[Norgarth]

Well, thinking of airships, Don Karnage's Iron Vulture came to mind, that would require it to be captured first.?

And thinking of sky pirates brought to mind the possibility of Porco Rosso showing up in the Mediterranean region

[robkelk]

So... finally got around to watching Sword Oratoria. We definitely need to put the entire Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? universe into the high-fantasy world in Arc 2.

Anybody else think that, by the end of Sword Oratoria, Nanoha would be telling Lefiya "Ease off on the firepower, girl"?

[Black Aeronaut]

To be honest, I have no idea since I haven't seen it myself yet. I was too disappointed when they came out with that instead of season 2, but now that its finally happened...

[robkelk]

Planning for Arc 2's high-fantasy world.

Wiki page listing what various races are called, listed by ficton. Only four entries on the list so far: Middle-Earth, Forcelia (Rune Soldier, Record of Lodoss War, Legend of Crystania), Raxia (Scrapped Princess, Dragon Half), and DanMachi. EDIT: And Norse mythology.

Add 'em if you've got 'em (and if you've got wiki access) - by the time we actually reach Arc 2 and need the list, it might even be long enough to be usable.

[Black Aeronaut]

Honestly, I don't think there's a whole lot of variance to that theme. The only really striking differences that I know of are franchises that deal more with the Fey side of things WRT elves.

Although there is Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, but these are pretty much the same as others already listed, just with a much greater number of subspecies - enough that it's almost a can of worms. Not that I'm averse to opening said can, but sorting it all out might take a bit of an effort.

[robkelk]

There isn't a lot of variance to the theme, but there is variance in the names... which is what that page is intended to track.

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, so a while ago, I cracked a joke about Largo pretty much taking over things... and people just shrugging it off like, "Whatever, at least we're not being robbed by the government."

And then Dartz says that Largo pretty much wants to enslave everyone, human and buma alike.

But suddenly I realized why that was ringing false to me.

What does a machine (even a Buma) REALLY know about the difference between choice and slavery?

I mean, stop and think about it.  The whole thing with the 33S Bumas is that they're having trouble understanding what it really means to have a choice in the first place.  So how would Largo be any different in that matter?  So what if he's a Hyper-Buma?  He still has the same amount of emotional development and life experience.  (Which is to say, not much at all, and probably even less than Dartz's 33S girls.)

On top of that, his entire context in regards to slavery is going to be that of wage slavery in a corporate environment.  And even that can be skewed even further if we take Bob's interpretation of life inside GENOM Tower (aka the man-made Mt. Fuji that's actually an arcology).  And that being that the people that live inside that thing never have any real need to leave for anything - the Tower has everything; shopping centers, grocery stores, convenience stores, entertainment, schools, housing - you name it, it's got it.

The only downside was that you were pretty much stuck living the GENOM Life.  Which actually wasn't all that bad.  You do your job and generally don't screw up, then you're set for life.  Literally.

So, Largo wants everyone to serve him, both human and buma alike.  That's nice.  What does he REALLY want, though?  Because at some point, he's gonna wind up like the fraudulent stock brokers in the movie, Boiler Room, where they all had gobs and gobs of money, but no fucking clue on how to spend it all!  And thus, no matter how many he has under his thumb, will he really know what to do with it all?  And how would he react when confronted with this simple truth?

Total control is only a means to an end.  The real question is: What is that End?

(And in this context, Largo suddenly seems like such a 2-Dimensional character.  Even Quincy was a more well-developed character, and he was kept shrouded in mystery as much as possible.)

[robkelk]

(And in this context, Largo suddenly seems like such a 2-Dimensional character.  Even Quincy was a more well-developed character, and he was kept shrouded in mystery as much as possible.)

I think you hit the nail on the head there, BA.

Largo as a bad guy? Why write a story about a flat character?

---

Closest I can find in a one-minute search

Which got me thinking... who's going to be in the ICPO? That's the Interstellar Criminal Police Organization (a brand-new only-exists-in-the-Metacontinuity branch of the Galaxy Police), of course

Tomo, of course. Mii and Kazari, probably. Mihoshi, maybe. Who else?

[Black Aeronaut]

(And in this context, Largo suddenly seems like such a 2-Dimensional character.  Even Quincy was a more well-developed character, and he was kept shrouded in mystery as much as possible.)

I think you hit the nail on the head there, BA.

Largo as a bad guy? Why write a story about a flat character?

Pretty much. Thinking about it a bit more, I suspect that no matter what Largo's true End is going to be, it'll probably fall comically short of The Means. How to bring comedy to cyber punk - ask the big bad that wants total domination what it is they REALLY want, and have it be something incredibly lame.

Closest I can find in a one-minute search

Which got me thinking... who's going to be in the ICPO? That's the Interstellar Criminal Police Organization (a brand-new only-exists-in-the-Metacontinuity branch of the Galaxy Police), of course

Tomo, of course. Mii and Kazari, probably. Mihoshi, maybe. Who else?

Dunno. Not Ben. He's going to be more of a... Military response. The kind where, once presented with a target, he'll quote Basher in Ocean's 11: "Do you want blind, broke, or bedlam?"

That said, though.... The Metacontinuity being what it is, it's entirely possible that the IPO from Atomic Robo would actually exist, as well as their arch-rival organization, Big Fire. (EDIT: In other words, no need for a Bland Name Product here when we can have the Real Deal.)

[Bob Schroeck]

Weren't they from Giant Robo, not Atomic Robo? (Or Giant Atomic Robo, for that matter...)

[Black Aeronaut]

Weren't they from Giant Robo, not Atomic Robo?  (Or Giant Atomic Robo, for that matter...)

Sorry, getting my various Robos mixed up.

And boy, can't that ever be a thing in the Metacontinuity.

"Uhm... We were expecting something bigger."
"Dude.  That's Atomic Robo.  He does what Giant Robo does, only with slightly less collateral damage."

[Black Aeronaut]

Sudden realization: the fictional corporation, Elliot-Chatham Technologies from Jeph Jacques's Questionable Content, could definitely be a thing in the Metacontinuity - complete with the spacestation Hanelore's eccentric-as-all-freakin'-hell father lives on.  They'd provide for some good competition in all the fields GENOM occupies.

[Black Aeronaut]

A bit of inspiration, perhaps?

Really, this thing is just drop-dead beautiful.  And not only in the artistic sense.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QzLw93

Here, we see Her Royal Majesty, Queen Serenity II, with her daughter.  And for the first time, Little Usagi is seeing her mother and her aunts as they once had been - as sailor soldiers who fought in the name of love and justice.

The child is absolutely awe-struck, because she had always known that her family was special.  She just never really understood how special.  It is here that Little Usagi swears to herself that she will live up to her mother's legacy.

[Bob Schroeck]

That's a gorgeous piece of work.

[Black Aeronaut]

Even more fodder for Sailor Moon stuff.

Who says that another bundle of joy can't arrive?

Say hello to Diana's younger sister. She's far more sassy, but every bit as loving and lovable.

https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/1254285/en

[Black Aeronaut]

(And in this context, Largo suddenly seems like such a 2-Dimensional character.  Even Quincy was a more well-developed character, and he was kept shrouded in mystery as much as possible.)

I think you hit the nail on the head there, BA.

Largo as a bad guy? Why write a story about a flat character?

Pretty much.  Thinking about it a bit more,  I suspect that no matter what Largo's true End is going to be, it'll probably fall comically short of The Means.  How to bring comedy to cyber punk - ask the big bad that wants total domination what it is they REALLY want, and have it be something incredibly lame.

Getting back to this, what I'm really trying to say is, "Why can't we flesh out his character?  Actually do him some (metaphorical) justice?"  I mean, it's not like it hasn't been done before...

* Black Aeronaut eyes his other subforum, where Minmei is busy giving him the stink-eye over the lack of attention.

Uhm... Yeah.

[Bob Schroeck]

Here's a question for everyone, because I don't recall this being addressed anywhere. Is there a procedure or protocol for the discovery of the refugees by someone in the world at large? A big red "SECURITY BREACH" button on a wall somewhere? <grin> I've come up with a story idea, you see, and it kind of involves an innocent revelation, and I'd like to cover the ramifications on the displacees' side properly.

[Black Aeronaut]

Hrm...

That is a good question. I honestly hadn't put much thought into it because I'd kinda automatically relegated the mundanes as sort of background NPCs.

Okay. Hows about this.

We've already kinda made things incredibly flexible with the whole malleable causality thing, as well as having it that the displacees can and sometimes do arrive without any warning or guidance.

So why not have the same thing happen with a "Mundane"? Someone who is, in reality, a displacee themselves, but because the Metacontinuity is basically just plain ordinary Earth (for the moment, anyhow), they don't notice anything really different.

At least, until they meet another displacee.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: Oh wait. This is the thread for Arc 2... the point at which Earth suddenly stops looking like Kansas, and starts to look like The Land of Oz instead.

[Bob Schroeck]

Well, I put the question here because I wasn't entirely sure when I wanted to set my little story, and it seems like Arc 1 is kind of crowded as it is. (Although it probably would fit better there.)

[robkelk]

Don't worry about crowding. We've got at least seven months of in-story time between where I just pushed the in-universe now to and the revelation... and all the revelation does is let us bring in the more obvious displacees (such as Monsters versus Aliens and Rental Magica). Arc 2 comes after that.

[Bob Schroeck]

In that case, we need to find a place to pencil in a new story, tentatively entitled "What Did You Do, Yui?"

Oh, and decide if there is a big red "Security Breach" button. <grin>

[Labster]

There is that button, and naturally Tomo Takino pressed it. Unfortunately, for this reason, the MODE SELECT button does not fire rockets.

I may have to rewrite that one a little bit, since it predates the other apartments getting Good Neighbor systems by a lot... maybe this is the reason they decided to notify other apartments rather than goddesses.  Currently that snippet is planned for October 14, 2016.

[Bob Schroeck]

Heh. I remember that... not quite the BRB I was thinking of. But it might serve in a pinch.