FeatherWriter fanfic fan club :)

[FeatherWriter]

Yep, all four of the girls are supposed to represent sort of differnt kinds of fangirls.

• Anna's the one that really sees the good in him and wants to stand up for him for his own good. She probably understands his characer best, but even then she's probably overestimating how trustworthy he is. She knows that he's very likely to betray her, but she just can't bring herself not to help. 
• Lynn is a bit more of a casual fan of him, really genuinely enjoying him as a character, but if not for Anna she might not have put forth tons of effort into this. She is up for more of an adventure though, and sees this whole plan as exciting. She's in this for the thrill mostly.
• Yumi is the far more rational one. She liked Loki only when he was fictional, but is not willing to excuse the things that he's done when she comes face to face with him. She realizes that this is a lot more than just an interesting character now that he's real and knows that there will be major consequences for her actions.
• Xandra is.... Xandra. Whew. I knew that quite a bit of the audience that this kind of fic would attract was going to be this kind of fangirl, and I wanted to give them some representation. (And a pretty good number of the comments that I got said that Xandra was the character that they identified with the most.) She was fun to write, but I worry that she gets too over the top sometimes, especially for people who don't think like her. I hope I managed to make her humorous, rather than overbearing, but I suspect that it comes down more to personal preference than anything else.

Aaaaand, for those who know me a little better, you might be able to find an easter egg in the girls' initials. Specifically the order I used above. *coughs nervously*

 

Yep! That's TFE that Lynn's got there! Gotta promote Cosmere somehow! In keeping with that little thing above, all of the girls have a little bit of me in them. I'd probably react most like Anna in this situation, though my Yumi side would tell me it's a really bad idea (and there would a tiny side of me that might want to just grab him and kiss him. Bad Xandra side, that's a terrible idea!) Lynn's got more of my interests, speaking French, cosmere fan, and she's also got my hair and favorite color. And I'll admit that I put in the French both as a way to amuse me, but also to talk about how the All-Tongue works with other languages. (Because the linguist in me is fascinated by the idea of it.)

 

Yeah, I wrote this fic directly after doing the long-form analysis, Loki's Perspective, so I was very in tune with his character at the time. I'm far more proud of this portrayal than the SS fic one, because I feel like I managed to capture him quite a bit better here. When things work, he's absolutely fun to write, though he tends to throw wrenches in plans, as he is wont to do. I have read comics, but only the more recent ones with Loki, Journey Into Mystery and Young Avengers. I absolutely adore the two runs, JiM in particular, but Kid Loki is a much, much different character than MCU!Loki, of course! And yes, he's being portrayed pretty sympathetically (because I am very sympathetic to him) but hopefully not so much that he's out of character. Occasionally I worry that my Loki is too "nice" but he's still almost exclusively self-motivated, so I figure it's working okay.

[FeatherWriter]

Welp, I was gonna wait until you posted again, but that's lame and it's my thread so RULES ARE FOR SUCKERS DOUBLE POST AWAAAAY. 

 

But yeah, Sydney Scroungers Session #15 is now up, if you feel like taking a break from all those weaponized fangirls, Quiv. (Or you know, if any of the rest of you are reading!)

 

EDIT: Also, I am apparently now "The Broken One" and I am inordinately proud of that little rank earning. Muahahaha.

Edited January 15, 2014 by FeatherWriter

[Joe ST]

you're now broken in

[Quiver]

Welp, I was gonna wait until you posted again, but that's lame and it's my thread so RULES ARE FOR SUCKERS DOUBLE POST AWAAAAY.

But yeah, Sydney Scroungers Session #15 is now up, if you feel like taking a break from all those weaponized fangirls, Quiv. (Or you know, if any of the rest of you are reading!)

EDIT: Also, I am apparently now "The Broken One" and I am inordinately proud of that little rank earning. Muahahaha.

Such devilish laughter and disregard for the rules! Truly, the Broken One Reigns.

Anyway, I finished Fangirl so I'll read Scroungers soon. Just wanted to give my thoughts on this first.

What a shock; I liked it. Now, admittedly, I didn't like it as much as might have Ben expected, but that's just a matter of personal taste; with this sort of crack idea, I generally prefer them to be played more comedically, or more seriously. In either case, insanity is usually the motivation for characters and hilarity ensues. Saying that, what you've done is a piece a bit closer to the spirit of the actual marvel films, one that hits the middle ground between madness and comedy. It fit's in with the tone of the MCU better than my versions would have.

I thought your interpretations of the film characters were well done. I singled out Tony because, as much as Loki might dominate the scenes, I think that that sort of pop culture character is much harder to write without straying into annoying. He comes across as being every bit as arrogant, flippant and funny as the RDJ interpretation does. Similarly, I think your Thor was very good, reflecting a lot more of Hemsworth version. Cap and Bruce were good as well. The only Avenger who maybe didn't quite feel right was Clint, but that's more due to his lack of characterisation in the films; I'm really used to the 'classic' Hawkeye, so the more serious version is odd to me (he's still badass in the film though).

Loki is kind of the shining point in it, which is exactly how it should be. As much as the story focuses on Anna and the fan girls, my favourite scene is the epilogue, with him setting up the puzzle box of tesseracts. It took me a moment to remember who the Other was, mainly because I was expecting a Thanos cameo, but when I did, I thought that the lines about how he moved and spoke reflected that sort of wraith-like creature we saw in the film.

On other notes, you were right; I was surprised at how straight you played the army of fan girls. I have no concept of military tactics (and have no idea of your background, period) but it was interesting to see them actually use what sounded like decent strategy. Given the ending, I have to admit I'd be kind of curious to see Anna, Lynn, Xandra and Yumi in their own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D spin off fiction; make it happen.

I've just started Scroungers, so here's the scene by scene recap:

Scene oneworks as a nice quick refresher on where everyone is and what they're doing. I know I mentioned Sylvie joining the Assembly, but I can't recall if you openly said so in the session itself. Regardless, it still puts Eleanor and her directly in conflict now. The only other thing I have to comment on is that Miranda's brain really has been scrambled badly, and I'm curious to see how long this plays out for.

Scene two makes me curious. Pretty much everyone is adamant that this is a bad idea. On that note, I like the subtle differences of their concerns; that Seiko's worry is only half-hearted, Eleanor is heartbreakingly betrayed and Miranda (having first hand experience of it) is concerned about the whole brainwashing thing. Infiltrating a group of tentacultists sounds fun, but I'm curious how much of the resistance to the idea was in-game and whether or not anyone of the people you were playing with thought it was a legitimately bad idea. Because while it might be fun to read/write/play cultists in a game, the whole situation is a bit off when you think about it in the real world.

I like the short moment shown from Eleanor's POV. I've said before that I like how the way you use language changes when you talk about Drifting, and while it's not the same here, I still like how she refers to the cultists as Kaiju-worshipping sickos. I've mentioned before that I find it a little difficult to get to know El, but the more recent sessions, and even that brief moment on it's on, have really helped me with that. I also like the indignation she has when they start using their own guns against the police; while I don't think that's something she ever wanted, I get the feeling that the fact that it's the Assembly doing it makes the situation so much worse for her.

Same point, the way scene four ends with her trying to be optimistic and useful and 'failing miserably'. These sessions are making me a lot more sympathetic for El; this has not been a good day for her. There's also some lines I found rather funny here, like Seiko being concerned about the homeowner, Martin's broken babbling, and Eleanor's description of the cultists arriving through the door.

Scene five is action, and we've well established that's not my forte. I liked Katie's brief fight, but I particularly enjoyed the ending; Seiko saving a cops life and getting a cultist arrested is very gratifying. I like seeing good actions rewarded. The middle section with Lucy makes me wonder if her appearance was another lucky roll on the players behalf or an intended plot twist. I like how Miranda captures her even though I wonder why she risked pickpocket ing from her. She wasn't going to just ignore Lucy, so I was a little confused as to why she didn't save rifling through the pockets until after the interrogation when she was pinned, or following an 'accident'. It was a moment which didn't seem entirely natural to me.

As for the last scene, I've already made it clear that I love any more information we can get on the cult, so it's not a surprise that I enjoyed it. Besides the Judges, Prophets and Blessings, though, I liked the mysteries that are being set up for the future, like who exactly Deena is and what the Assembly wants with Sylvie. I also liked the little touch of Miranda forming the blessing of Acid when she mentions the indoctrination. From how the session ends, I'm guessing the next one is going to involve less action and more character stuff and question-answering, so I'm curious and looking forward to it.

I'm also looking forward to Zhu finding out what just happened because oh boy that's a train wreck I wanna see.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Quiver

[Natans]

The broken one comes in 62 days?!! Pftttt. She already here =)

[FeatherWriter]

How can you hope to outrun me, WHEN I AM ALREADY HERE? *Eternity Served Cold begins to play* Oh whoops, wrong fandom.

 

The Fangirl: Weaponized

I'm glad you liked it! I told you I played the concept fairly straight, and I'm glad you think I captured the MCU feel. That's always the thing I attempt to do most when writing fanfic, so I'm glad you think I pulled it off!

 

I'm especially pleased that you liked Tony, since I was most nervous about him. And yeah, Hawkeye's a hard one to characterize, because he didn't get much in canon. I've recently started to read the Fraction and Aja comics with him, but I hadn't at the time so the MCU version was the one that I had to base it off of.

 

I am rather proud of Loki's portrayal in this. I think staying out of his POV for most of the story and keeping everything external worked very well, and it made the epilogue shine as we finally got to see inside his head. I really, really like how the epilogue turned out as well. The set up with the tricky tesseracts (don't ask me which one is the real one, I have no idea, Loki won't tell me) and the fact that I got to end on that note worked super well. His writing style is a bit more elevated than the girls' as well, which was fun to work with. Also, "Oblivion seemed to him a more enviable state than existence," remains one of my favorite lines I have ever written. (I also accidentally almost had Shallan say something about Renarin "suffering a gross misunderstanding of her character" in ASMoB before I realized I'd already used that line with Loki, OOPS.

 

I'm not too much of a strategist, but it helped that the whole weapons thing was actually a bluff and they weren't planning to actually fight. And... I've had quite a few people hounding me for a sequel but I've always said no because I had other projects. (Of course, that was before I had an idea for it and now this little story is niggling at my brain again, so I might just end up caving and writing it anyway.)

 

Scroungers #15

Re: the group being against Sylvie's infiltration. It's worth noting that Sylvie and Leah's conversation in Session 14, everything after "Status Update: You're a prisoner now" was done in a private chat, so the rest of the players were unaware of what Sylvie was planning until I had her switch back to the main chat to talk to Eleanor. I warned Gavin ahead of time that this was Sylvie's intention, making sure ze was okay with me splitting the party if we pulled if off. Since ze was, we went through with it! Everyone else pretty much just went along, reacting in character. (After Sylvie goes off in the car Gavin and I switch to private chat again, so the rest of the party stays unaware of her actions until later.)

 

Lucy's appearance was a compel actually, a development meant to cause trouble for the characters. So more of a plot twist, actually. Gavin was compelling Miranda on the fact that she was going to have to act against somebody that she knew. I think that might be why she hesitated and decided to go for pickpocketing first before realizing she was going to need to attack her before she did something to their car.

 

I will certainly be working to bring you Session 16, which, yes I believe is more character heavy! Should be fun! 

 

Also, if you're a glutton for Scrounger stuff I had a really rather tragic dream about the Scroungers last night and ended up typing it up to inflict it upon others. *still crying* I think my subconcious is punishing me for being so monstrous all the time.

[Quiver]

I have no idea what to say about that. Seriously, no idea.

Well, okay, 'Harmony!' comes to mind, as well as some other blasphemous expletives. A bit of jealousy that you literally came up with a better story I could in your sleep. Some admiration/chuckles at just how much you committed to the dream world when you thought that it was real and still a game, since Eleanor dying was a GM-moderated death.

A little fear/optimism that you're going to start having dreams about the Assembly and start preaching their word here, actually...

So I guess I have some things to say about it.

Oh, and minor Fangirl question. Is the All-Tounge something that's in the comics or did you make it up? Because it sounds like you could do some cool linguistics story about proto-languages with it.

[FeatherWriter]

My brain is evil and that image of Seiko and Miranda is burned into my mind. As for the Assembly... Well, I am in the class BLIT 3433 - Minor Prophets this semester... and the first day of class we talked about how the precursors to the minor prophets were the major prophets and then the Judges... so heh. That's fun.

 

I'm pretty sure it's a comics thing that Asgardians speak the All-Tongue. It went around tumblr for a while after people were criticizing that Loki was speaking "English" in Stuttgart to a group of Germans, but I think it's actually a thing. I didn't come up with it certainly.

 

And it would have to be magical of course. I've tried to wrap my brain around how universal translations would work, and they always just eat at my brain a lot. (I do the same thing with the Tardis' translation core from Doctor Who). Do you hear only your own language with regular inflections and connotations, as though it is translated? Do you hear the actual spoken language, but are somehow able to understand it? Do you hear your own language, but are somehow able to grasp the differences between translations and the inflection of the original? I DON'T KNOW IT'S SO COOL. (Though my linguist heart would almost always hope for the second option. Hearing every other language as English, while useful, would seem very boring very quickly.)

[FeatherWriter]

See, I'm always tempted to do the right thing and just hit edit, but I want to notify you guys, and I don't think it's quite as big of a deal in these kinds of back-forums, so I won't worry too much about double posting.

 

ANYWAY. Scrounger Session #16 is up!

[Quiver]

You know, I've always had a joke about that scene, that when Cap is talking about "one man standing over everyone else", he's talking to Loki and the old German man, and he intended on fighting the German after he beat Loki.

Now I find the idea that all the German's had no idea what he was talking about funnier.

EDIT Ninja'd! I knew you were a FeatherSurgebinder! Anyway.

I'll get back to you in a bit with Scrounger thoughts.

No, probably not ones involving Seiko and Miranda bleeding to death in the fifth floor of a building. Don't be silly.

Okay, scene one, and... Honestly, I don't have much to say, since it's mostly re establishing stuff from before. I thought Miranda's body horror was known to everyone, but this part reminded me that it's only Katie and Seiko, so I'm curious to see if Eleanor catches on. The only thing that threw me was, I didn't see where El tied Lucy up. Maybe I accidentally skipped it, but when Seiko mentioned her knots, AI found myself looking over the scene again to see what I missed. Sensible, of course, but I was surprised. Oh, and extra edit, I did like how Miranda is still suffering the indoctrination effect, and how it's impacting her judgement with Deena, but I think my magic system shows I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

Scene two is a nice quick action, especially since I'd sort of forgotten about Katie; that opening made me think that the combat actions were over.

Eleanor is enjoying this a lot. She's coming across as actually being quite creepy. I almost feel sorry for Lucy here. When you outline the situation like that, with Sylvie turning and her stuck in a car, it really does look pretty bad for her.

Scene four is some neat teamwork. I know you pointed out that they were keeping up the accents, but that just makes me a little bit more concerned about the fact that Miranda dropped hers and addressed Seiko by name. The last time someone did that, it didn't work well for your team.

And wow, Sylvies plan is not going smoothly. I have to admit, I was expecting more of a religious fanatic, so how her interrogator (and Lucy and Craig for that matter) are coming across is a bit surprising. It also makes the Assembly a lot more realistic, and scarier. After this scene, I'm starting to think infiltrating a cult might actually be a bad idea. There's some interesting set up with Deena, though and Sylvie's plan to brainwash fiVe? Wow. That's unexpectedly dark. I kinda hope it ends up happening.

And once again, Sylvie's obsession with computers gets the better of her. Given her enthusiasm for the set-up at first, I'm kind of glad that she ends the scene miserably alone. It seems like karma getting back at her for abandoning the team. And I'm only a little surprised at how quickly she overlooked what Karl said, about bringing in the first subjects, since that is quite a creepy sentiment.

Huh. Karl is... surprisingly reasonable. I mean, at least Sister Amatje has the decency to be kinda obsessive about the faith. Karl really does take away a bit of the mystique from it, which I think even Sylvie realises. It's not like she's going to convert, but he makes her not want to offend and be curious about their theology. A reasonable person is at least as dangerous as a maniac.

So, sorry for not having much to add. Apart from Sylvies section, this feels a lot like moving on from where we were, so I'm not sure what to say. As I've said, I'm sure I'll have more to say as Lucy gets interrogated and the Assembly's plans become clearer, but right now, it's more set up for that stuff I think. There's moments to pique curiosity, like the drift scene, but I don't have much to say beyond being curious as to where their going.

Edited January 17, 2014 by Quiver

[FeatherWriter]

Yep, this was a pretty quick session, especially since the actual session was just the first few scenes. They Sylvie stuff was actually done the day after with just me and Gavin. Don't have much to comment on in the first scenes, since I wasn't really a part of them, but yeah it's mostly just a wrap up for the house scene. We'll get some good stuff in the next one, I believe. I think the group mostly wanted to take it slow for Megan's first run. She's not a full time-player, just picks up NPCs every now and then to help Gavin out. It's pretty fun.

 

Ha, haha, Sylvie? Plan going smoothly? NOT LIKELY. I'm almost 99% sure Gavin was planning to have her get kidnapped but then... she went along willingly. Oh Sylvie. You really can be oblivious sometimes. As for the cult's workings, remember they're also a terrorist organization. The "Darwin Incident" was a bioterror attack using Kaiju Blue and Sarin gas together. They're certainly going to operate like an underworld organization... with a fanatic kind of loyalty. 

 

Scary indeed.

 

And Gavin's first reaction to Sylvie's comment about the brainwashing tech was "Oh no, fiVe! I'm so sorry..." Ehehehe. It isn't often that the players get to upset the GM!

[FeatherWriter]

And because I'm a crazy person who apparently has nothing better to do... I COME TO YOU WITH THREE SCROUNGER UPDATES ON TOP OF THAT ONE. A session, and two extra goodies!

• Audio recording from Sylvie
• Session #17
• Audio recording of a convo between Miranda and fiVe in Session #17 (EDIT: new link because the last one was weird)

So you know, if y'all are like super curious to hear me attempt to voice-act fiVe and Sylvie NOW'S YOUR CHANCE. We're going to pretend that I didn't decide to make Sylvie an American just so that my accent would match hers, shhhhhh. 

[Quiver]

Commencing bombing commenting run.

Okay, scene one, and again, I think there's a nice bit of character development for El. Besides the new information that she likes using accents just because (which, as someone with an awful one, I find adorable) I like how she refers to Sylvie as being missing. It reinforces her actions in the previous sessions, that she almost seems like she's writing her off as a casualty or a convert. Hearing the brig get mentioned again was funny, though I doubt Lucy will be as helpful as Greg was, and you guys really ought to invest on a better prison. I also had something to say about Katie and contacting Rachael, but then I heard Zhu was in an apron. Which, for some reason I can't articulate, is mind blowing. It's so... strange seeing Marshall badass being domestic but it rounds out her character as more than just being cool and tough.

It's a bad habit, but I enjoy scenes where characters are discussing things, so I liked this. Again, I thought there were some neat character things being done by all of the players, like Seiko being the first to mention Deena, and Eleanor's bad day getting... well, worse. Zhu nearly calling Katie by her first name was sort of interesting too. Until now (partly based on what you said) I had assumed Katie's crush was one-sided. Given the moment of respect between them, I thought that if Zhu was going to be affectionate to one of the PCs, it might be Eleanor. I might be forgetting a particular moment between them earlier, but it makes me wonder if anything happened between these two between sessions.

Well, the prophet sure is creepy. Like I said before, I think, right now, what's happening to Sylvie is fitting, so I just want to talk about the Prophet. I thought his reactions to Sylvie was interesting. The way he paused before saying vision makes me wonder what's going on. It could be that he needed a second to think of a word to encompass the religious event, or maybe he's talking about the earlier nuke. In that case, I'm curious how far back this cults influence reaches. Your ketek says they refer to Miranda as the false prophet, and Sylvie is the blessed snowflake. I wonder how (or if) the rest of the team fit into things. Seiko is Miranda's love interest, Eleanor has family in the group, and Katie is, on her own words, a blasphemer against the Judges. I wonder if that's all coincidence and, if it is, how that all ties into the Assembly's theology...

First, minor grammar point. You missed the word 'seem' when Katie is comparing Sylvie and Syl-Vees social skills.

Besides that... I'm intrigued by how Syl-V comes across here. I think this is the first time we've seen her interact without Sylvie around, and, again, the way she mixes up her pronouns adds to how interesting the drift relationship (and the inevitable confrontation with fiVe) is. Like I said, Sylvie sort of deserves to be where she is, so I'm with Katie on making a list of curses, which may or may not be magical in nature. Eve seems to be a lot more aware of Sylvies faults than she is. You said Sylvie was tempted by the tech, and Vee knows that, but she still realised much quicker what a bad idea it was. The Vs might think their the same, but even the two who stuck together are slightly different, even if they are still, as you said, co-dependant.

Having the whole scene (more or less) from Lucy's POV is an interesting decision. I think Greg had one of those last time, but, again, I doubt Lucy is going to be as helpful or friendly as he was. Seeing things from her side did remind me how creepy El and Seiko can be though. I've said it before, but the disgust that Eleanor has here, referring to the Assembly and Lucy as tentacultists, goes a long way to explaining why she is so, as other characters have noted, scary. Sure,the giggle she gives is part of the bluff, but, I'm still filling it under my personal theory that, of the main cast, she's a little unhinged. It was kind of strange to have that juxtaposed with Seiko. You know I've been the greatest supporter of him, and when he tried to discuss things with Zhu earlier, I thought 'now isn't a good time' right before she did. His line about being disgusted at Lucy working with J-Tech following her conversion though... I hesitate to use the word (since it's so stereotypical, and not entirely accurate) but that along with his concern for children, really is building him up more as a man of honour.

Speak of the devil and she shall appear. This whole final scene with fiVe and Miranda seems like a mirror of Katie and Sylvies, and I love that sort of thing. FiVe is cogent of Sylvies flaws, just like Vee is, but she's less willing to brush over them; even Vee had to admit that she would probably done the same. The earlier scene was Vee calling Katie for help, this one is Miranda calling Vee; Vee is worried about Sylvie being captured, fiVe was gleeful over it being a 'trap'; I just love that sort of reversal. The fact the scene ends with Vee being added, meaning it's entirely possible those two mirrors are about to see each other has me really excited.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Quiver

[FeatherWriter]

Not much to comment on the first two scenes, because I'm not in those. I basically just took out the Skype usernames and left them as is! I do remember watching from the side chat and scolding all of them for telling Zhu that Sylvie did the thing after Sylvie's last words were "DO NOT TELL ZHU I DID THE THING." It was fairly funny.

 

I just want to comment on how stinking amazingly Gavin wrote the prophet. Like, aside from the one comment about his eyes having a "magnetic" quality or something like that, ze didn't tell me anything at all about how Sylvie should react, and I just completely picked up on his super-charisma through the text alone. Just the way that Gavin played him was alluring enough that I had Sylvie start to be kinda taken in by him. ((Also, whoops, I told you that ketek was semi-spoilery. At this point in the story, Miranda's not the False Prophet... yet.))

 

In response to your comment, I changed the original quote from: "You are making the flesh-and-blood Sylvie Mansen look like she has social skills" to "You are making the flesh-and-blood Sylvie Mansen seem like she has social skills." I usually don't go in and change wording within dialogue too much (unless I'm the one who wrote it) and I try to avoid changing even prose that specifically relates to the character if I don't have to. For one, I don't want to come in and write all over everyone else's writing, for the other, I'm a lazy bum who would rather just leave everything as is.

 

It's worth noting that Vee is reacting exactly the same way as Sylvie would. Like, Sylvie was well aware of how dumb an idea this was when she went in... but did it anyway. Vee would have done the same thing, but here, she has the luxury of not being in the situation, so she gets all protective and blames Sylvie for being dumb. She's thinking "That is such a bad idea and I can't believe we did that... Except I can believe it because UGH THAT SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE US, WHY ARE WE SO DUMB?"

 

Re: Lucy's POV... not really my decision actually. Megan (tinandpewterstrength) continued to play Lucy in here, and she chose to give us a lot of insight into what she figured Lucy was thinking. She wrote a lot more introspection than Gavin might have, so it almost seems like we're exclusively in her POV, especially since it starts there. I just left things as is. That writing is all them!

 

Speak of the devil and she shall appear. This whole final scene with fiVe and Miranda seems like a mirror of Katie and Sylvies, and I love that sort of thing. FiVe is cogent of Sylvies flaws, just like Vee is, but she's less willing to brush over them; even Vee had to admit that she would probably done the same. The earlier scene was Vee calling Katie for help, this one is Miranda calling Vee; Vee is worried about Sylvie being captured, fiVe was gleeful over it being a 'trap'; I justlove that sort of reversal. The fact the scene ends with Vee being added, meaning it's entirely possible those two mirrors are about to see each other has me really excited.

 

I really adore the kinds of reversals I can pull writing Vee, fiVe, and Sylvie. fiVe would never admit it, but she still uses the same kinds of phrases that Sylvie does, and I really enjoy playing that up. I was also very excited to see that the two of them were going to be interacting for the first time... until I realized that fiVe's reaction to hearing Vee would be: Go silent and make sure she doesn't find out I'm here. Despite this, keep in mind that Marshall Zhu also just got comm access and is now hearing "Sylvie's" voice coming through...

 

Did you listen to the two recordings? The first one with Sylvie is new info, though the second is just Emma and I recording fiVe and Miranda's convo there. I'd be interested in any reactions you had to those as well!

 

[Quiver]

Okay, first, I know less about critiquing audio than I do fiction, so these reactions might be... Vague.

The first one... I know I've almost gloated over how Sylvies is getting what she deserves. Congratulations on taking that away from me, because that recording makes her sound really miserable, and now I feel guilty.

The second one... I kind of like it a bit more. Hearing the dramatisation of that scene was interesting. I like the vocaliser effect you have on fiVe. It's interesting hearing the contrast between her and Sylvie; I have to admit that I sometimes 'hear' fiVes voice as being colder or more mechanical than Sylvies, with emotion denoted by the stuttering. I know that's not exactly how you describe it, it's just... how I have it in mind.

Sorry. Honestly I... Just have no idea what to say. Audio isn't my medium.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Quiver

[FeatherWriter]

Fun fact: I definitely gave that file to the chat while they had no idea what was going on with her. So the last they see of Sylvie she's getting hustled into the back of a cult car and then suddenly they're getting a very terrified recording from her.

 

Also... (I've kinda been waiting for you to respond...) Session 18's up! 

[Quiver]

Hehehehe... Feather, you have made my day. Vee vs fiVe? Just the confrontation I wanted to see. I suppose I ought to thank Seiko for outing her to Zhu; given the minor scene between fiVe and Seiko's sister, and the fact that he already putted her to Sulvie, I'm looking forward to a scene between those two, in private. I imagine it wouldn't go well.

It seems like Vee has a slightly different opinion of fiVe than Sylvie dies, or at least she's better at framing her argument. It's also kind of neat to see Sylvies arguments get used against Vee. Calling her Sylvies mind-slave makes her sound like she's the defective one. At the same time, it's interesting how Vee doesn't refer to fiVe as being broken. She calls her mentally ill. I wonder if being an AI makes Vee more willing to accept fiVe as more than a rewritable computer code the way Sylvie does.

Scene two, and I like Katie's money being used this way. I know she financed the boat at the beginning, but since then, the fact that she is so inordinately wealthy hasn't really been relevant. It's kind of fun to see her just buy her way into places. I'm sort of surprised by her leaving though; what business is more important than this? Besides that i liked seeing the others operating without her, and this kind of reinforces my earlier belief that Miranda is the Cap to Katie's Iron Man. And that is an interesting cliffhanger to leave on, even if I'm not sure cliffhanger is the right word for the end of a scene...

Two scenes with fiVe in one session? Hehehehehe...

Actually, I have to say, Katie and the rest of the team are surprisingly accepting of fiVes independence. I still haven't watched Pacific Rim, but judging by Vee being her pet project, I can guess that these particular AI's aren't the norm. Is this a typical reaction for most people in the PR universe, or these characters reacting to special circumstances?

And the last scene is basically set up, but I have to admit, I like the idea of the mystery hunt more than I do another gunning action scene; by now, you can take it as read that I prefer the drama. The only thing I really have to say about it is that what Eleanor did by getting in disguise seems like a good move that could so easily backfire, and I'm looking forward to how they start looking for her. My guess is that she's still in the hospital, at least for the moment, and I'm just interested in seeing how they track her down.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Quiver

[FeatherWriter]

I was also very grateful to Ellie for making Seiko out fiVe. I was also very much hoping for a confrontation between them!

 

Actually, again, Vee's thoughts on fiVe (at the beginning) are the same as Sylvie's. It's worth noting that Vee was unaware of fiVe's hostility until this conversation towards them. She was operating the way Sylvie was at the beginning: thinking that fiVe is still V2, who will happily reunite with them at the first opportunity. Sylvie found out from Miranda, and got angry with her (and still doesn't quite believe that fiVe is actually hostile towards them. Sylvie has yet to meet fiVe, remember!) Vee on the other hand finds out from fiVe herself and has to deal with this new knowledge on the fly, which is very upsetting to her. 

 

As for Vee's choice of words, she does say this of fiVe: "She doesn’t know what she’s saying! Her processing is damaged! She needs help!" Marshall Zhu is the one who makes the analogy to mental illness. (Though apparently Zhu is actually thinking Vee is the one who needs help. She sees Vee's taking the blame for Sylvie's actions as markers of behavior from a child who is abused by their parent.)

 

Okay, and I'm kinda going out of order here, but we're talking AI's so let's do this thing. There are not AIs such as these in the Pacific Rim universe, you are correct! (In fact, Gavin has said that if anything is liable to make us really diverge from canon and change the world, it's Sylvie's AI research.) And Syl-V was originally designed to work as Sylvie's Drift partner in a piloting situation, since she is not Drift compatible.

 

It's worth noting that the current reaction to the AiVees is pretty interesting. I wasn't quite expecting that everyone would side against Sylvie in this, but... that's the way things are shaking out. Sylvie is of course, thinking that she is the one who knows most about the programs... seeing as she designed them but everyone else has decided where they stand, and it's not in line with her. At first, Sylvie and Vee are together, but Vee's going to move groups the longer she is exposed to fiVe (while Sylvie's still trapped) and change.

• AiVee's are not independent: Sylvie, Vee at first
• fiVe is independent, Vee is not: fiVe and Vee
• AiVee's are both independent: Everyone else.

So, while everyone's trying to convince Sylvie that both of the AiVees are independent... fiVe and Vee would both agree that Vee is not independent. This becomes a bit of contention. fiVe believes her independence is something that she's earned and fought for, and doesn't want to extend that regard toward Vee. Vee sees the independence as a dangerous flaw and something to be avoided and feared. She likes being Sylvie and she doesn't want to lose that.

 

As for Vee being able to understand fIVe better than Sylvie might be able to... Well, I'll wait until we get to the end of this arc to comment further on that. I will warn you that Gavin (and quite a few of the others) have become "Backwards Compatibility" shippers, AKA they're shipping fiVe and Vee together. I... may or may not use this to cause evil and emotional harm to them all, muahahaha.

 

Katie throwing money around is something you'll see more of. There wasn't much in the first arc because they were in the middle of the ocean, but she did offer to hire Wulagu's people away from her and when she bursts into Martin's house, her first instinct is to reach for her checkbook to make everything better. Shoving money at her problems is the way she operates. As for the cliffhanger, I was going to have the Katie/fiVe scene first, but... then we ended with fiVe telling Katie that something was wrong with the girl before we saw it happening, so it was best to follow up to the cliffhanger before cutting away, then reuniting with the revelation.

 

Now we're set up for the next session, which will be a very fun game of "find out where Katia is" hehehe. I... may or may not try to do session 19 tonight. (And Session 20 is the last "actiony" setting in this arc. After that is just wrap up before the Intermission!)

[FeatherWriter]

And because I'm a crazy person who enjoys avoiding homework: Sess 19's up!

 

...so many line breaks. So many... TRANSCRIBER'S EDICT: The party is not allowed to split up five ways EVER AGAIN. 

[Joe ST]

YAY I' just read #18 and it was awesome, I really liked the AIs and if I'm honest, I enjoyed it a lot more because there was less Sylvie... >< I liked her recording very much, so hopefully I might empathise with her more now, but her stance against fiVe and her general gung-ho attitude and stuff, it just doesn't currently help me empathise with her at all... I'm sorry ><

 

EDIT: #19 was just as awesome thank you

[FeatherWriter]

Pssssssssssst...

 

Sylvie's not entirely wrong about fiVe and Vee, despite everyone siding against her! They are copies of herself, made at her design and... I'd say that her right to decide what happens to something that is, in fact, a duplication of her own mind, is probably not quite as unreasonable as everyone thinks? fiVe is still Sylvie, deep down... but she's a version of Sylvie who hates Sylvie. The only way for her to deal with that is to decide that she's independent and declare herself as such.

 

Aaaaaaand a lot of fiVe's hatred towards Sylvie is based on a misunderstanding... which hasn't quite been cleared up yet. (fiVe thought that Sylvie abandoned her and didn't care about her anymore. Which is not true.) We'll see how it all shakes out, but I wouldn't write my little programmer off yet. 

 

I think Sylvie tends to be people's least favorite character, while fiVe is overwhelmingly popular, which amuses me to no end, because fiVe is basically Sylvie but glitchy and about 700% meaner. Poor Sylvie just doesn't know how to people. She tries so hard, but in the end, the great art of how to people eludes her.

[Joe ST]

Indeed I can see that she isn't wrong, she's just going about it totally the wrong way. There is definitely problems with both the AIs, and Sylvie is right to worry about herself being not under her 'control' and being corrupt.... man its a rather non-black/white issue that she just doesn't seem to accept that it's rather ethical and morally stuff.. I mean it was probably ok when they were all her pet projects, maybe.... but once other people interact with them they are gonna be different, and that blah... Id on't know ><

[FeatherWriter]

No, you're right! It's a really interesting issue, and I think the fact that almost all of the characters are treating this issue as black-and-white, when it's anything but, is what's causing so much contention. I'd actually say that... Vee is probably the first person to really start to consider both sides of the issue as possibly right, and that's because she has such reason to. I think Vee's arc with this is almost more interesting than fiVe's here. Vee sudenly has this possibility toward independence, and it terrifies her. If fiVe isn't acting this way because of damage, if she is actually her own person and has made this decision on her own, then... there's the possibility that Vee could do the same, and that's not something that she wants. 

 

Anyway, it's cool and now I wanna work on the next session so y'all can keep reading. TOO FUN.

 

Also, I just want to point out that GAVIN IS A HORRIBLE PERSON AND EVERYTHING IS AWFUL. I don't know if some of you know this... but I have a certain... fondness... for a particular British actor who may or may not play Loki. (Hush, I know it's cliche but Tom Hiddleston is wonderful.) So yeah, that convo is a thing that happened last night and now I am eternally upset by Dmitri Yegorov.

 

*still sobbing*

[Quiver]

I just want to point out the Gavin is awesome and everything is perfect.

Sylvie being people's least favourite character? I can see that, though she isn't my least favourite character (even though I think she's not a great person.) backwards Compatability sounds like an... interesting shipping.

Anyway, I've started session 19, editing as I go, etc.

Again, I like how Mira is still a bit scrambled from the Drifting, and confusing Katie and Katias names for a second was a nice way of showing that without going overboard on it. Katie finding the combination was surprising. Until now, I was assuming that, if Katias knew how to open it, it was incidental knowledge. The fact that someone thought it was important enough that spit be opened by puting it along with contact details makes me wonder what is inside it.

Kudos to Eleanor on taking her infiltration mission to the next level. I suppose it makes sense for someone who likes accents to be switching between roles so easily- kind of reminds me of Wayne a little. This new guy adds an interesting element to it as well; I'm expecting his flirting to have some sort of role in how Eleanor gets the information.

I was about to say that I thought it odd that Miranda was so competent in medicine, and then I remembered about Jason. So instead, I'll just say that I liked the fact that set up was used, and that it was used without mentioning him. It might have thrown me for a minute, but if I was reading these all in one go rather than interspersed, I'm sure I would have remembered it. I liked him not being mentioned as well, since it's such a common trope in fiction for characters to mention dead loved ones at the drop of a hat.

Seiko... really does favour the direct route, doesn't he? He outted fiVe to Sylvie and Zhu, and his way to find Katia is just to ask someone. It's kind of funny/ironic that the guy with the most guarded secrets is the one whose solution to problems is to confront them head on.

And having the flirting backfire is even better than if it had worked. I aphave absolutely no knowledge about hospitals, but it's cool that this guy hasn't been so overwhelmed by El's charms that he notices something's wrong when the professional doctor doesn't know how to find the files. I'm sure she could bluff it,but it's nice to see competence from NPCs.

I hope this is a lesson to Miranda. When you start telling people dangerous disease could be loose in the hospital (and imply you yourself are infected by coughing surreptitiously), quarantine might kick in. Okay, maybe it's not the most obvious of problems- the intern double-checking her story would have been my first concern- but still. I have to say though, you guys aren't very good at the 'sneaking around without being caught' parts, are you? ; )

I know. I ought to say something about Seiko, but Eleanor's ending is a moment that is just way more intense. Given everything unto this point about her relationship with the cultists, this is maybe the most interesting turn in the scene. I guess this means that the suspicion is less to do with the professionalism and more for the general point of the Assembly, but it was still nice to see, and even better to see Eleanor playing off it. I would not want to be him right now.

Again about Katie's money, I love the fact her notepad is a cheque book. Something about it is indescribably charming. Also, Miranda has learned her lesson, and it's cool that, if you can't get in and out without tripping the alarm, that you can get out through stealth. As IVe made abundantly clear, I'm more of a fan of drama over high octane action, so this is shaping up to be an interesting segment.

And... speaking of charming, there's something about El referring to (de Clancy?) as her cultist which is neat. It's so innocuous, and threatening, given everything that's happened before now, though I'm starting to think you guys can't go anywhere without taking hostages lol. Continuing what I've said about Seiko being honourable, I might have read it wrong, but I took his remarks about stealing an ambulance as an indication that he was not alright with it. It's a sentiment I agree with (people need those), but again, it's almost odd to see him as the voice of reason.

Minor question though, is the kanji religion an established part of the Pacific Rimverse, or something invented for this? I ask since I had assumed the Assembly were the only tentacultists running around.

damnation. Now I really don't want to be in de Clancy's position. Forget ever seeing his niece again, right now, the best outcome I can see for him is being arrested and charged with conspiracy. The reason I call that the best is because being in the custody of a man who likes children, a woman with maternal instincts for her in her head, Eleanor(not much more to be said on that front especially since given how creepy her parting words and smile were), and all three are working for a woman with the money and contacts to make sure that, if he died, his body would never, ever be found.

He is in so much trouble.

That last scene reinforces what I said. Having him shrink away, then just shrink is funny... but damnation. He is so completely screwed that it's almost not even funny. I know you guys have a tendency to take them alive, but I honestly can't see Cultist Ryan making it to the end of the week.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Quiver

[FeatherWriter]

*stumbles through the gates of Kholinar late at night*

*collapses*

*Session #20 coalesces from mist*

 

Okay, Session 19 response:

 

First of all, HOW DARE YOU SIDE WITH HIR DO YOU NOT SEE THE PAIN THIS CAUSES ME???? GAVIN IS TERRIBLE FOR THE PAIN ZE PUTS ME THROUGH. DO NOT TAKE HIR SIDE.

 

*coughs* Moving on...

 

Yeah, we all figured out why Miranda was so great at hospital stuff about halfway through and then we were sad. Emma laughed at the pain she caused us, I'm sure. And Seiko is very efficient. He knows how to get stuff done and he's not afraid to go do it.

 

...We have a hostages problem. We're aware. Also, I think Seiko was more concerned with the difficulty of stealing an ambulance than the moral qualms. Because... he doesn't really have many of those. Like... Seiko's really not an honorable person. Outside of his family, he's pretty much willing to let the world burn. 

 

Kaiju cultists are actually canon! There's a passing remark about them in the film (two characters on a balcony looking down on a group of worshippers entering a church) and that's about it. It's just a cool little bit of worldbuilding, though tumblr comments by the film's writers have told us a little bit more about the religion in general. It's collectively called BuenaKai, but there's apparently lots of branches. When we were trying to come up with stuff for our campaign someone suggested a rogue branch of cultists causing issues. It was such a cool bit of worldbuilding that we wanted to play with it! There's a few really cool pictures of BuenaKai churches actually!

 

 

Yeah, Cultist Ryan is not getting a good rap here. I loved that line about shrinking too. Absolutely cracked me up.  We really do have a hostage problem don't we? So many hostages...