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

[robkelk]

Can't quote from a locked thread, so see here for Black Aeronaut's post that includes:

NPC Manager for the Chicago Area is go, complete with Gunsmith Cats, Harry Dresden, and The Blues Brothers.

I believe we were only waiting for people to accept the existence of magic before bringing Astral (from Rental Magica) into the Metacontinuity. But if we've already got Harry Dresden... (Also, there's already a wiki (red)link to Kuroha's writeup, but that's less important.)

Should we add them in now? And if we do, where do we put them?

I seem to recall some space being available in Montreal, where they would get to share a residence building with the Fate/stay night folks...

(Assuming we're adding them now, character images for the wiki: Itsuki without his eyepatch, Honami, Nekoyashiki, Mikan, Kuroha, and Adilicia. Oh, and outfits from/for the Obligatory Beach Episode with anime-canon appearances all around.)

[Norgarth]

Windsor Lofts has loads of space, according to the floorplans I had saved for the building, it started with 186 bedrooms spread between 83 apartments (roughly 2/3 of which are 2 bedroom units) 

***

Speaking of residences, I had an idea for another NPC location, this one based on the TV series Sanctuary, starring Amanda Tapping. 

The show centres on Dr. Helen Magnus, a 157-year-old teratologist, and her team of experts who run the Sanctuary, an organization that seeks out extraordinarily powerful creatures and people, known as Abnormals, and tries to help and to learn from them while also having to contain the more dangerous ones.

The main cast included a lycanthrope as her computer and security specialist and a 'bigfoot' as her assistant.

EDIT realized I had forgotten to mention I was think of this for another international location, you could probably plop Sanctuary down in whatever part of the world needs a residence

[robkelk]

Can't quote from a locked thread, so see here for Black Aeronaut's post that includes:

NPC Manager for the Chicago Area is go, complete with Gunsmith Cats, Harry Dresden, and The Blues Brothers.

I believe we were only waiting for people to accept the existence of magic before bringing Astral (from Rental Magica) into the Metacontinuity. But if we've already got Harry Dresden... (Also, there's already a wiki (red)link to Kuroha's writeup, but that's less important.)

Should we add them in now? And if we do, where do we put them?

I seem to recall some space being available in Montreal, where they would get to share a residence building with the Fate/stay night folks...

(Assuming we're adding them now, character images for the wiki: Itsuki without his eyepatch, Honami, Nekoyashiki, Mikan, Kuroha,  and Adilicia. Oh, and outfits from/for the Obligatory Beach Episode with anime-canon appearances all around.)

Nobody's said "no" (and I mentioned this at this week's writers' chat), so I'm going ahead and having them show up in Montreal. EDIT: On January 21, 2017, so that their arrival will go practically unnoticed.

While I'm at it, I'm doing some load-balancing (discussed with other writers) and moving the lead quartet from Lucky Star from NJ to Montreal.

[robkelk]

Nobody's said "no" (and I mentioned this at this week's writers' chat), so I'm going ahead and having them show up in Montreal. EDIT: On January 21, 2017, so that their arrival will go practically unnoticed.

Which means my current story is delayed again for a re-write. There's no way that Astral wouldn't send at least a small group in response to the call for help over the Good Neighbour System - helping people is what they do. (Usually for a price; they are consultants, after all. But Itsuki could call this a loss-leader.)

[robkelk]

Folks with wiki access are invited to review the new page for the Addams residence.

I guess if we put them near downtown LA, that one new years dream I wrote for Brent will make more sense. And by “I wrote”, I mean I actually had this dream with Utena symbolism, and it was kind of weird for it to be set in Union Station when at the time I hadn’t been there for fifteen years.

Well, the article that I got the building's photo from says it was at 21 Chester Place. Is that close enough to downtown to work?

This week's discussion has made it necessary to actually answer this question, so that we can write an arrival story for the Addams family. Are they in New Jersey (as per the original Addams illustrations) or LA (as per the exterior shooting for the TV show)?

EDIT: I just realized... Addams Mansion has a garden with some very unusual flowers. And we all know who's rooming in the mansion with the Addamses. What happens when some of those flowers are plucked for Rose Duels?

[Norgarth]

well, are there already established Residences in LA or New Jersey, and if so how close would they be to the Addams' place? Keep in mind if they're are fairly close to an established residence, then that's a bunch more character for the writer of said residence to juggle.

[robkelk]

Which we're already doing with Blossom and Piffle in Ottawa.

[Bob Schroeck]

If we use the TV series as a source of inspiration, the Addams residence could be somewhere in the suburbs of Washington DC. There was an episode where a visiting Soviet dignitary randomly picked the Addamses from a local phone book as a "typical American family" to visit. So they could be either near the UN and NYC, or near Washington DC. (However, there are also embassies/consulates in Seattle, San Francisco and Houston that they could be near.)

[robkelk]

Speaking of this week's Teams chat... DAZ3D has a coupon good today only for 70% off up to four models from a selection of 150 - including this lab. My first thought was "This looks enough like a cybernetics lab that I should get it." So I did. I'll download it later...

[robkelk]

well, are there already established Residences in LA or New Jersey, and if so how close would they be to the Addams' place?  Keep in mind if they're are fairly close to an established residence, then that's a bunch more character for the writer of said residence to juggle.

Now that I'm fully awake and can intelligently parse this comment...

I don't understand the concern here. Unless somebody wants to join the writing circle and contribute stories, it doesn't matter where a new residence is placed -- "the writer of said residence" is one (or more) of the five current writers no matter whether the new residence is in Lisbon, Los Angeles, or Luna City.

I already know I'm going to be writing some of the stories that involve Addams Mansion, All I need to know right now is where we're sticking the map marker.

EDIT: Also, "close" is relative. I'm already responsible for everything from Thunder Bay to Alert to Antigonish, and around Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls... but Bob has Buffalo (and everything south to Miami and west to the Mississippi). Dartz has all of Europe. Not that this stops anybody from writing stories in anybody else's territory, of course - current plans have me using DC, which is firmly in Bob's bailiwick.

[Bob Schroeck]

Bob has Buffalo

I do? Okay...

Didn't we find a Castle Stark or something else GoT-y up in that area on Google Maps a couple years back?

EDIT: Ah, right -- an alleged Castle Winterfell on Lake Pleasant, NY, that doesn't actually seem to be there. And it was less than a year ago.

EDIT 2: And looking at the photos of the site it's definitely someone's idea of a joke that somehow made it into Maps' database. A couple pics of a campsite, and then an image of the castle from the show.

[Norgarth]

I was think more that if the Addams Mansion is just a bus ride away, there's more chance of a character there coming over to the main residences to visit .

Rob note regarding the small circle of authors is something I failed to take into account admittedly

[robkelk]

Bob has Buffalo

I do?  Okay...

Well, you're on the right side of the border for it, so...

EDIT: Ah, right -- an alleged Castle Winterfell on Lake Pleasant, NY, that doesn't actually seem to be there. And it was less than a year ago.

EDIT 2: And looking at the photos of the site it's definitely someone's idea of a joke that somehow made it into Maps' database. A couple pics of a campsite, and then an image of the castle from the show.

Maybe it's a copyright trap with a sense of humor.

[Bob Schroeck]

That makes a bit more sense than "a camper did it for a gag and got it into the system".

[Labster]

Brent has probably the largest district right now, with all land draining into the Pacific Ocean (with the exception of Japan proper), Southeast Asia, Australia, Oceania, and the Great Basin (Nevada/Utah). I’ve written one story in Thailand, will probably write one in Australia (unless I move the mermaids closer), one in Hong Kong, Seattle, and Zion. Still not sure what to do about South America, unless a certain space pirate wants to add more nazca lines on a whim.

[Norgarth]

(EDIT: Post moved out of IC thread; it refers to this message. -- Bob)

And I get ninja'd by the author's note 8P

Yes, Paris is between Toronto and Windsor in SW Ontario, not too far from London Ontario actually

[Labster]

I finally watched the second season of Kaleido Star.  My hot take: a decent fanfic of Kaleido Star, but generally just repeats the same character development from series 1 again.  For sure a star being insecure even at the top of her game is a real thing that happens a lot.  Other characters get less development.  How did they manage not to progress Ken/Sora at all?

It weakens the message of the first series a lot, but I'd expect to have fanfic go in a different direction.  What the heck is a "true star" anyway?  Might as well ask "what is beauty?" while you're at it.  And omg, "Only a demon can raise an angel."  What the hell is that.  Is this supposed to be justification for the abusive behavior that happens in show business? Even in the "surpassing your mentor" version, I disagree with that concept entirely: life is not a zero-sum game.  Stars shine whoever they're with.  Entertainment is not a sports manga.  Physical and emotional abuse of main characters is not fun to watch.

The new characters are interesting, but lead me to one big question: If they really wanted to write a Cardcaptor Sakura cross, why not just write it, instead of adding expies of Sonomi, Meilin, and Yue?  Cindy looks exactly like Sonomi, and May Wong is a slightly more chuunibyou Meilin.  The last one to figure in my mind was that Leon was Yue.  When I realized that he was a white-haired pretty boy who decided to be a jerk until someone lives up to the greatness of his lost partner, I was finally sure it was a real expy cross and not an appearance ripoff.

It was enjoyable to watch, but all of that means that we can do better.  Not with animation and music, which were pretty good, but with story.  We have the real characters, not the imitation versions.  It means a CCS/KS crossover makes sense.  Now, it's just to figure out who can see Fool.  Akari can, but that's just because she can see all the spirits.  And how to bring Meilin into the story.

Also, the location of Cape Mery in California?  If we take the second season as canon: nope.  That scene in the last episode with the sunrise over the ocean and hills to the left of the sunrise is a tight constraint.  Venice can't do that.  Huntington Beach is closest, but the beach is not quite angled east-west enough.  Malibu could, but is not really built like a big city, but is a 21 mile long strip of smaller buildings.  San Pedro... except there's an ugly port there.  Santa Barbara would work best, except no islands are ever shown offshore.  There's nothing in Northern California.  The combination of palm trees and hills and beach angle preclude all other locations in the U.S., sadly.  But if we imagine it somewhere near Tokyo... yeah.  This is a story written by people who are used to seeing sunrise over an ocean, not west coast dwellers.

[Bob Schroeck]

That sunrise (and the airflight time to Port Mery from Japan) is why I originally placed the KStage in Hawaii...

[Labster]

Yeah, Hawaii works, doesn’t it. If it wasn’t for that bus painted “City of Santa Monica”, and the LA/SF architectural vibes. Though, to be fair, my student union owned double-decker buses from London still bearing the painted signboard destination “Piccadilly Circus”. Unitrans also had “NOWHERE IN PARTICULAR” programmed into its sign boards. Having the students run the city bus service was fun. After 40 years, they resold the buses to London at a profit.

[Black Aeronaut]

Heh.

This has shades of the discussion in my Macross story (Being You is Deculture) written all over it.  That is, the one where we couldn't quite figure out where in Canada the SDF-1 accidentalied an entire city.

That said?

Take the whole thing with a grain of salt, because it's like what you said, Brent: This was obviously written by folks who are used to being on the *Western* edge of the Pacific Ocean, and didn't think much about the location other than going, "Yeah!  Let's do this in 'Murica!"

Which means I think we can be pretty safe with disregarding that bit and not treating it as immutable canon.

So let's just put the Kaleido Stage wherever is most convenient for the purposes of telling a story, and not sweat the stuff that obviously falls under the "The Writers Didn't Do Their Homework" trope.

[Labster]

The location was probably the least interesting thing of everything I wrote. But it did stick out to me, because being a West Coast kid, I never would have written a sunrise over the ocean, because that seems so counterintuitive to me. Suns rise in the hills and set in the waters. That's common sense.

[Bob Schroeck]

So let's just put the Kaleido Stage wherever is most convenient for the purposes of telling a story, and not sweat the stuff that obviously falls under the "The Writers Didn't Do Their Homework" trope.

Agreed. To be honest, I don't know why I put so much weight on the sunrise in comparison to the city that looks like someone put New York, San Francisco and LA in a blender set on "frappe".

[robkelk]

Just brought a draft story (with the very tentative working title of "Somewhere over the rainbow inside the Beltway") into agreement with what we discussed during this week's Teams call... and thought I'd share an early teaser from it.

---

Rob opened the files and started looking through them. Three minutes into his reading, he opened a photo, stared at it for a moment, then said, "Well, I know who to send to D.C." He swivelled the monitor so that Mii could get a good look at the photo.

She dropped her carton of milk.

[Labster]

Hi all, does anyone want to preread a story for me?  I wrote a new story but none of the other writers have seen Yurikuma Arashi, and I don't want to publish an embearassing mistake.  It's only about 12kB so not much time is required.

[robkelk]

Teaser:

"It's a good thing they're here," Accelerator commented. "We're gonna need them to pull off Rob's crazy scheme."

"I think this is the first time I ever wholeheartedly agreed with you," Ruiko commented. "No offence, Rob-oji, but your plan sounds like something out of a badly-written toku show." After a brief moment, she asked, "Why are there four of them?"

"Didn't I mention? You're going, too."

"I'm what???"