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

[robkelk]

These things are software-configurable and upgradable, you know. (Uiharu did an upgrade to the Windsor terminal in Time Away, after all.)

If you want a big red button, then write the code for one.

[Bob Schroeck]

It depends on the answer to one of my original questions: Is there sufficient concern about the discovery of the displacees (during arc 1, now) that there would be a system in place for "security breaches"?

[robkelk]

Deductive logic says "yes". We've agreed that Dartz gets to tell the story about how something that 33-Stars does reveals the secret, so it follows that the secret needs to be kept until that happens.

[Bob Schroeck]

Ah, missed that. Thank you. Fortunately my developing plot is not "reveal to the world" levels of breach, just "a couple people learn and keep their mouths shut".

[Dartz]

Can't really call dibs on something I'm not going to use.

If it's holding a better idea up it can be forgotten. It's not like an empty house - can't sit on it for years to jack the price up.

I really couldn't think of one for the girls beyond having them honestly present themselves as 'Gynoids from the Future who are hiding in the past to escape the human opression', or some better worded version of that.

And having *everyone* assume it's Kayfabe.

[robkelk]

Fair enough...

In that case, quoting from my "stories to write" list on the wiki:

6. The 2017 Panda Game in October 9, 2017. Real-world final score: double-overtime, Carleton 33, Ottawa 30. Outside of pro hockey, this was the big game in Ottawa in 2017 - they played to a sold-out pro football stadium. Mii and Ami cheering at opposite ends of the field, everybody else preventing Cinder/Unselie/Leonard/Kyubey/etc. from spoiling it for the fans.

So... Bob, you've got until after October 9, 2017 to keep the secret - unless we're going to have the secret blown wide open in front of a packed stadium at the Panda Game. We're barely at Valentine's Day 2017 so far.

[Bob Schroeck]

Eight months. Cool. I think I only need a two-month span or so.

[robkelk]

Back to Arc 2 stuff... Spotted in "Stupid dialog, free to a good home", one forum up the ladder:

"Your mother and your older sister – their combat style can win Sensha-dou matches, but isn't suited to actual life-and-death battle.  Not when employing the limited forces available to us, which can't be so casually expended.  Your approach is.  I'm not asking you to play a game, Nishizumi-san; I'm asking you to save lives and win wars against men and women who have no honor, no decency, no mercy for the helpless. 
"Please consider my request.  You need not decide quickly.  I know you still have, at minimum, three years of college ahead.  When you've completed your schooling, though, Nishizumi-san, I hope you will join the United Nations' standing peacekeeper army."
He bowed, then, the grim old man, turned, and strode away, cane compensating for nearly all of his limp.  Miho looked down at the card in her hand.  She knew it was merely imagination and a trick of the sun's glare that turned the lettering the color of blood.  Wasn't it?
John Mattathias, it read.  Supreme Commander, World Armed Forces.
The Hammer himself.

DHBirr goes on to say "No, it's not a crossover.  John Mattathias was my own creation; I invented him and the U.N. force he commands just to invite Miho to put her skills to work in a cause even higher than saving her school ... with a significant "Take That" to her mother, who never received such an invitation."

I'm sure we can do something with this... and the thread is titled "Stupid dialog, free to a good home" for a reason.

[robkelk]

Something for early in Arc 2.

I did some digging for numbers... The Port of Montreal can dock a 300 meter long vessel in 12.9 meters of water (on average over the last 12 months), and that's as shallow as the St. Lawrence River gets from Montreal to the Atlantic Ocean. A Majestic-class aircraft carrier is 215 meters long at the flight deck and has a draught of 7.5 meters.

So it isn't unreasonable to assume the Academy Ship Ooarai could find itself suddenly sailing into port ... and Terry calling for help because docking a ship that size isn't cheap.

Any of the other Girls und Panzer Academy Ships would have to sail into deep-water ports, such as Halifax, Vancouver, New York, or Los Angeles. (Or maybe San Antonio - is that a deep-water port?)

PFFFT!

The Port of Texas City, on the other hand, sees all kinds of industrial traffic and is considered one of the busiest ports (ranked number 14 in the US) by tonnage shipped (47.7+ million metric tons annually).  ...

Not Texas City - Corpus Christi. "Either I'm seeing double, or we've got two flattops tied up where we only had one yesterday." Have Saunders appear moored across from the USS Lexington.

And as long as I'm suggesting who ends up where...

Anzio shows up just off Venice Beach because they got the wrong Venice, too. ("Who let Pepperoni chart our course?") They're ordered to make for the Port of Los Angeles - if I'm reading the aerial photos on Google Maps correctly, it would probably take them half a day to get there, avoiding the shoals near the coast. And then, instead of doing so, they beg for permission to anchor offshore, because they can't afford the docking fees of a real port. Ferry service between Anzio and Kaleido Stage, maybe? Gondola ferry service to Anzio for extra-special occasions, maybe, if somebody would be foolish enough to take a gondola out onto the lagoon. (looks at Akari)

Halifax Harbour can take a battleship. As for climate... well, better have Pravda be the displaced ship to show up in the Bedford Basin.

Looks like the docks at Sandy Hook Bay are the closest large-craft facilities to New Brunswick. But I suspect something as big as Saunders, St. Gloriana, Kuromorimine. or Pravda would have to dock at Governors Island or the Erie Basin, so it's more likely that one of the smaller school ships ends up in NJ.

One of the smaller school ships might get through the Welland Canal... but there's a reason that Great Lakes shipping is transferred to ocean-going vessels in either Montreal or Quebec City. And there's not a hope of a ship that large sailing up the Ottawa River. No school ships for Windsor/Detroit or Ottawa.

Okay, who did I miss for displacee cities and on-screen ships? (looks through the list) Dublin and Philadelphia, and St. Gloriana and Kuromorimine, respectively. Bad combinations, either way. Maybe the manga-only pseudo-French school ships (Maginot or BC Freedom) for Dublin and Philadelphia (flip a coin as to who gets which). St. Gloriana could end up in London... but for fits and giggles, I'd rather put it at Victoria, BC because they have a reputation of being more British than the British, too. Kuromorimine... maybe Honolulu? Give Stitch some place new to "terrorize".

And as for any of them going "home" to Japan... "Well, you could, but it would involve a trip through the Panama Canal and then either a trip around the Ring of Fire or an open-water voyage across the Pacific - either way, you're using up whatever supplies you're carrying. Do you think you could make it?" (Okay, Anzio, St. Gloriana, and Kuromorimine are already in the correct ocean.) Yes, I know that at least Ooarai has aquaculture and other farming below-decks, but Ooarai also has regular supply shipments that Yukari takes advantage of to go spy on other schools' teams, indicating the smaller school ships aren't self-sufficient.

[robkelk]

Dropping this here for future reference - Spacecraft size comparison video

[robkelk]

More size comparisons, from the same folks:

Real-World Space Vehicles (includes probes, satellites, and launchers)




Fictional Land Vehicles




Fictional Air Vehicles (I would have called this one "Fictional Flyers")




Fictional Buildings




Movie Robots

[robkelk]

And one more

Video Game Monsters

[robkelk]

I knew I saw this somewhere...

I can easily imagine the Federation showing up, starting off with the monstrously huge Starbase 1, and then confusion setting in as suddenly there are four Enterprises in dock: the original pre-refit vessel, the rechristened post-refit ship, the Galaxy-class, and the Sovereign-class.

But only two crews between them - Kirk's and Picard's.
...

So, Starfleet's showing up with more berths than crew. Not an issue - just put some of the smaller ships into mothballs until they're needed and crews are available for them.

Then First Order and various Basestars start showing up. Get those ships out of mothballs stat!

And somewhere in there, the surviving crew of a battleship from a completely different story altogether show up, almost undetected. They, along with a dozen Misaka clones and maybe an EMH to assist their only doctor, are enough to fully crew and fight a Defiant class... which they get to keep once they prove themselves in combat (they have eight battleship-to-battleship kills to their credit before showing up in the Metacontinuity) and somebody (*cough*Usagi*cough*) volunteers to keep them resupplied.

Hmmmmm... Looks like the Crystal Millennium might actually end up with enough non-Jurai ships to form at least a pocket fleet in Arc 2 after all.

[Norgarth]

... on the topic of ships with young crews, There's Gundam Seed's Arkangel.

[robkelk]

... on the topic of ships with young crews, There's Gundam Seed's Arkangel.

I don't know enough about any of the Gundam universes to be able to write them, but that doesn't mean they can't join somebody else's fleet...

---

I wanted to write something today but I'm not in a creative mood given yesterday... so I worked out who from the Amaterasu gets which post aboard the Defiant-class ship (which I've named "Courageous" since there are only two named Defiant-class ships in canon). The list is on the wiki. No big surprises, other than that I didn't make Shinon the captain or XO.

[robkelk]

Girls und Panzer planning:

Looks like the docks at Sandy Hook Bay are the closest large-craft facilities to New Brunswick. But I suspect something as big as Saunders, St. Gloriana, Kuromorimine. or Pravda would have to dock at Governors Island or the Erie Basin, so it's more likely that one of the smaller school ships ends up in NJ.

I was going to call St. Gloriana because they're my favs, but then I read that other thread. I do see the thematic consistency of Anzio being in Venice, so I guess that idea wins. If only we had another complex where the residents are interested in tea time for after school clubs.

Right - St. Gloriana docks at Governors Island. Good thing I hadn't figured out a different place to send them that has displacees nearby.

EDIT: And let's not forget how many good cooks attend Anzio. If the anime is to be believed, everybody on the team is good at cooking. (Unlike Ooarai, where only two out of 32 are shown as being good at cooking.) Fujitaka and Pepperoni trading recipes?

Ahem. However, Douglass Gardens is a low-drama zone (at least so far).

That's all right - the St. Gloriana girls are (on the whole) very good at the stereotypical calm British resolve.

[Black Aeronaut]

Girls und Panzer planning:

Ahem.  However, Douglass Gardens is a low-drama zone (at least so far).

That's all right - the St. Gloriana girls are (on the whole) very good at the stereotypical calm British resolve.

They're such an even-tempered bunch that it would have been amusing to have them in San Antonio.  Imagine having this little island of Britain in the Westwoods courtyard where the young ladies are playing strategy games over tea while observing the low-key mayhem going on around them...  And they'd simply laugh politely and comment on how delightfully spirited everyone else was.

Ah well.  We could probably have them visit.  After all, Camp Bullis is practically tailor-made for Sensha-Do....  At least, once Season 2 kicks off and we don't have to bother the US Army+Marine Corps to use it.

You oughta see a topographical map of the place.  Actually, I'll do ya one better...

BIG!

The girls would have an absolute blast in this place.  Hell, it'd probably go very quickly to the top of everyone's list for "Favorite Venues for Sensha-Do".

PS: If the meme of "Australians are just British Texans" is true, then so is the reverse: "Texans are just American Aussies", and therefore Texas would be just as much of a novelty to the British as Australia is to Americans. 

[robkelk]

Here's a little something I found that I suspect will turn out to be useful. All craft are to scale with each other:



Source


EDIT: From the same page:



I amn't landing a runabout on an Alpha launch pad, alas - it's too fat.

[Norgarth]

I was looking at the first one and thinking 'I thought the Space 1999 Eagle was larger than that?' then realized it said 'Hawk' not Eagle. ;p

[robkelk]

...
video game map size comparison

Dropping this here so we know how much room they'll need on their Earths once the rosette shows up.

[Mamorien]

From Alvaro at MetaBall Studios, water vehicles including the Ōarai and Pravda school-ships:

https://youtu.be/ykCMsLPMca0

[Labster]

From Alvaro at MetaBall Studios, water vehicles including the Ōarai and Pravda school-ships:

https://youtu.be/ykCMsLPMca0

Hey, cool!  If you want to see the school ships, you can skip to the last ten seconds, because they're the biggest things in the video.  My only complaint is that Zuikaku (or Kiev) could not actually get that close to Jamaica Bay -- they'd need to be 80 Nmi further out to sea in Hudson Canyon to be in a place that could handle her immense draft.

[Black Aeronaut]

Yep. It is saying something when those two are the biggest girls in the video. And this from a series of videos where it’s all about who swings the biggest dick in town, at that!

[robkelk]

Aargh. Busy three-day weekend - by the time I realized I wanted to do something creative, the fireworks were being set off (It's Victoria Day in Canada) and they're distracting me from working on a story.

So I looked at something I've been puttering around with for Arc 2 and later - the list of nobles and gentry for the Crystal Millennium. (Wiki page here, for those who have access.) Focusing on the gentry this time around, since I have the starting list of nobles pretty much finalized.

(D'oh! No, I haven't... because I have completely forgotten to give Luna and Artemis noble titles! Must fit Usagi's existing advisors into the framework of her new advisors somewhere.)

One paragraph of importance from the wiki page:

Since the nobility is intended to be the equivalent of the upper ranks of the civil service, nobody in military service (or pseudo-military, such as the Sensha-do team members) will be offered a title to begin with - with the exception of the Countess of the Lacus Aestatis, who is expected to be the equivalent of the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But expect to see a boatload of Knights in military service (Dame Melissa, Dame Miho, Dame Azusa, Dame Kay, Sir Ryuga, etc.)

(That "Ryuga" is Toh Ryuga from Mahoromatic, not a typo for Hibiki Ryoga.)

The Countess of the Lacus Aestatis is better known as Tessa Testarossa. She'll ask for (and get) indefinite leave as soon as she's ennobled so that she can study under Seto Kamiki Jurai, but she's still on Usagi's "Coronation Day list" so that she gets the precedence that Usagi wants her to have.

One does not need to be a displacee from a military or paramilitary in order to be named a Knight (Ruiko will be named as Kazari's first knight, for example), but it helps.

That said... who gets named "Sir" or "Dame"?

Any SI who wants a knighthood will get it (save for Rob and Ben, who are getting noble titles instead - Rob will be one of Ami's nobles, and Ben will be one of Rei's, at the same level as Phobos and Deimos). Any SI who doesn't want a title won't get one.

As mentioned above, Tessa's getting a noble title. Melissa Mao will be her first knight. with Kurz and Sosuke esquired to her.

Hayate's getting a noble title. Nanoha and Fate will become her fifth and sixth knights.

I've already grabbed the combat monsters from Mahoromatic to be knights under Mercury's nobles.

That quoted paragraph mentions "Dame Miho, Dame Azusa, Dame Kay" - all from Girls und Panzer. (Azusa is the commander of Ooarai's "Rabbit Team", and canon has her as Miho's 2IC once the student council in the anime graduates.) I haven't chosen who's going to give them titles, though. Who gets them? (One thing I'd like to see there is that members of the same Sensha-do team get their titles from the same Princess / Sailor Senshi (or nobles under the same princess) - no splitting up existing teams. One princess gets a knight or two from Ooarai, another princess gets a knight or two from Saunders, and so on.)

And who else gets a knighthood?

One highly-skilled computer/persocom specialist will be offered a knighthood from one of the more tech-savvy nobles, citing the precedent of the UK where a knighthood is offered for continued excellence in sciences, arts, or sports. After this happens, that precedent from the UK could be followed in other fields... but who gets the nod?

As for who doesn't get one... The Juraiians have their own noble or royal titles, so offering any of them a knighthood would be an insult, not an honour. (The implication would be that Usagi considers herself to rank above the Emperor of Jurai.) Likewise, offering the small-d democrats at Penscacola a title from a monarchical system would be just as much of an insult.

Any suggestions for additional knights?

[Bob Schroeck]

Rob, I take it you're using a British-flavored system? In that case, shouldn't Usagi be "Majesty" instead of "Highness"? With "Highness" reserved for Mamoru and princes/princesses?

As far as titled SIs go, TNB!Bob and Peggy are unlikely, pending unexpected changes in planning, to come anywhere near major plot events, so unless hosts as a whole get recognized they are unlikely to qualify for anything.