ooc OOC Deep Science 1x1 with Blitz Boom

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

Here's the OOC thread, you already know the premise.

Null and Void have been abducted by a secret science organization, now they look to escape.

Here's the RP Thread!

Edited October 4, 2018 by Illiad Easle

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

Very excellent job on your first post, I am impressed.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

Thanks, you did a most impressive one as well.  Curious how this is going to go from here, though I will admit that things certainly look grim right now.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

Minor thing mate: While I green-lighted your use of godmodding in the first post, please refrain from it in the others. I'd like to control my own characters.  Remember: Setting it as *She could* or *she may think* for example is grand territory, but saying that she does for sure is a bit of a nono. It kinds limits me to just fill in on whatever you've decided I should do.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

I am aware, I didn't think I controlled anyone in my last post, rather than having the scientist rant.

As I have mentioned to Randimaxis, and will tell you as well, I do tend to ramble a bit sometimes, you are free to have your character interject in the middle of my posts, especially if you would have them perform an action. I have no problem taking a step or two back to keep the story real.

If you think I was overstepping I do apologize, let me know where I overstepped to correct the post.

 

I was writing this when you posted, but it's still important.

It will take a little bit still of exposition before we get to the good part, a sort of tutorial if you will.

So you can know something for reference: In Deep Science, everything has three classifications depending on their progress: S,C,and P. There are also different safety levels or Known levels, being Safe, Euclid, and Keter.

Null and Void are S-2113, KL: Euclid

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

I know the classifications and what they mean. I have read a half thousand or so actual SCP's so far.

As for things where it is controlled, let me show you what I mean.

(Null quickly recognized her as a deer, a doe actually, with short brown fur with white speckles and deep purple eyes. Null only caught a glimpse as the doe raised her hoof to walk)

(Null, having been distracted by the deer, was suddenly made aware of the other pony's proximity when he spoke, almost directly in her ear.)

(Void could feel that she was being lightly prodded)

There is one at the start too, but it's minor. These are the prime examples.

The first indicated for a start that Null knows what a Deer is, and that she at all cares about about her. Something which she may or may not, though that will depend on my response in the matter. The second indicates that she wouldn't focus on the doctor at all until he got near, despite him clearly being the one to focus on. The third is less, as yes, Void can't move away, but it still should be worded differently. Let me show you how the sentences should be.

(If she looked, Null may recognize her as a deer, a doe actually, with short brown fur with white speckles and deep purple eyes. She would only catch a glimpse as the doe raised her hoof to walk)

(If Null had been distracted by the deer, she would suddenly be made aware of the other pony's proximity when he spoke, almost directly in her ear.)

(Void would feel that she was being lightly prodded)

It changes nothing if I follow your line of thought, but it gives the options and choices in the matter, rather than locking me into a singular path with decided actions. Null may well not give a rats about the deer for example, which the one written in the thread wouldn't allow, whereas the example I gave would give it as an option, and then say what would happen if she so chose to keep her focus on the doe.

Don't feel bad about it though. I had the same issue with Randi for a long time after joining his thread. I think it's a DM sort of trait, to want to have everything follow the story that they want, yet things aren't that linear when you're writing with others, instead of writing a book, or a guide. Ambiguity is your friend mate.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

I think there is a difference in what we see, what I was writing there is something called perception. Given what you indicated on your sheet Null would have a very high perception, and given she was said to have gone to many different nations, and that in Troy there are a number of deer, especially in desert communities, it was very likely that she had at least seen a deer before.

As to the being distracted part, yes that was an overstep by me, I'll fix that.

And further, I typically use would and could interchangeably, so there's that.

It will be fixed in like a minute, don't worry.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

She knows what a deer is alright. That was more of an example for the future  The part about her definitely looking at said deer were the real thing to focus on.

And you have plenty of time, no worries. I won't be able to reply until tomorrow. I still need a ton of replies in my own thread, and then there's raid in WoW. I won't have the time.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

6 minutes ago, Blitz Boom said:

I won't have the time.

Well, it's ready when you are!

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

There, posted now. If the item I describe is too out there or won't be a good enough factor to stir things, let me know, and I'll conjure up something else. I figured a potential Keter classification memetic entity would work nicely, but I could find something that would rot away through chains, walls and such instead, to incite a sort of *prison revolt* rather than a mental take-over that would work as a fine distraction to allow the sisters to escape at some point.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

Do you get you deer from the show? Or from somewhere else?

Because if that description is from the show then she show's really gotten racist since I left. (I mean pastel colored 'good' changelings was bad enough.)

But I love that object you have. It's range is a bit drastic though, I think 1m for total domination would be sufficient. Though to start feeling it's effects at 50 meters is perfectly fine. (Though with what I have planned after all this exposition, it may be more trouble to you then it's worth.) Or better, it's influence is dependant on those under it's power. More minds = more range. As it presently has no minds under it's power it doesn't have much of a domination effect, but could easily get anyone to pick it up and dominate them to start the process again. Just a thought.

If you are going to interject, please quote the part of my quote right before your interjection, so I know how to respond to it please.

Writing my response now, stay tuned.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

Good points about the object and range. I'll add that in soon.

As for the deer, I only vaguely remember what I read about the deer. Something about Twilight going to make them help stop the forest from going amok, and them going *nuhuh* for a while. Far as I know, the show have not depicted them as badly as Null does.

But that is the fun part to having one as well traveled as her and Void. Being many places outside of Equestria, they have seen many things throughout the world, and that means that I can make up things. Like say, a semi-large village of extreme isolationist deer for example, that have colored the views of the two sisters drastically. Also, she's causing Void to have a panic attack and Null is an overprotective bigger sister that were already in a bad mood. Even if things are not as bad as she puts them, anger fuels a less kind perception of things. Though she does have a point here in her defense. The doctor thinks he have the right to just strip away freedoms, and call out living creatures as being freaks of some kind that he can do with as he wants, so he is the actual monster in that place. Well, except for the actual monsters that I'm sure if locked up somewhere... For now. *rubs hands and grins*

Don't feel too bad about the doe though, if she had been a changeling, this would have been far, far worse. Their experiences with them are less than stellar, and involves a lot less quick escapes, and a good deal more prolonged capture, starvation and failed attempts of conversion. Nasty stuff.

As for the quote thing... I usually don't work with that, but I'll try. Might look a little choppy sometimes before I get used to it though.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

Just do what you can, I also have my very own, very different, idea of deer, but I suppose it fits just as well as yours. My deer come from Cervidas, well, West Cervidas. another continent to the south East of Equestria which also includes the Zebra Homelands, the reindeer, and the llamas. (The llamas actually have a similar ability to null and void, given their (the llamas) coats are naturally resistant to everything, meaning nets made from llama hair act as anti-magic nets and the first anti-magic formula came from experiments, by Equestria, on llama hair.)

You may actually have some idea of what you've gotten into. But no spoilers. This is going to be verry different from my Escape from Deep Science thread.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

I have no idea whatsoever what I've gotten into. Also, I haven't read the one you mentioned, so... Yeah, can't tell a difference.

Interesting to learn about Llama's, that's a new one. I think I'll have that as one of the few places Null and Void never went, as they'd likely be perfectly at home among the Llamas, since they can relate to the sisters ability.

And both our ideas of deer can be perfectly valid and cannon. Remember: They may have just run into a village of isolationists, that wouldn't get along with their regular kind either. Sort of like a cult town, you know?

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

Exactly, in fact it is just like the town they started in, compared to how the rest of Troy is.

Can't wait for your response, then the testing will really begin.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

There you go, hope the quoting is done right.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

Perfect actually, I was very impressed.

Typing up the response now, should be there any minute.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

I've been mulling over something.

Seeing as how Null and Void had their anomalous ability their whole lives, isn't it strange how the Grey never seemed to report them back to Deep Science? It's almost as if they knew all along, and didn't do anything because the situation was already handled.

In a way, it would make sense that either the townfolks had been threatened to not interfere too much with them whilst the foals were kept under unseen observation, or perhaps... They were being studied from the very beginning? Keeping them isolated for a long time, not seeking out anypony about help, only eventually going outside with them, and not facing issues with the locals beyond dirty looks...

I think we might've accidentally written in the logical explanation of the parents being with Deep Science. They observed the foals, kept them under as much constant guard as possible, and only allowed them out when it were time to try different experiments. Was it also really locals that wanted to clip Null's feathers because of fear from a barrier, or is the town controlled by Deep Science, and the real reason were to keep her from escaping, as well as not potentially harm the barrier.

It's been nagging me for the last day when I try to think on how everything fitted with Deep Science, and the parents being in on it or accidentally living in a town of researchers simply covering as actual citizens who just likes to be on their own, makes the most sense.

The parents being researchers could also fit in easily with the escape, by them having grown more attached than they were under orders to, and when they yelled at the Grey after the accident, they were actually being asked to come in for a debriefing, and potentially separating them and bringing in Null and Void for testing under more sterile conditions. They panicked, beat up the guards, and eventually made it so that the foals could escape.

They'd either be demoted to D-class, terminated, or potentially gone in for a vigorous reeducation to ensure their loyalty to Deep Science would harden yet again, and have actively helped them to find a way to capture their foals - that is, if they are actually theirs, and weren't taken from somepony else and given to them, or just found - since. Would explain how they knew how to look for them as well. They'd have six years of samples and studies to perfect a tracking algorithm, and have just waited until they could work out a way to get them through the portals.

I may just overthink this, but there have been some holes here which seems to be only explainable through thinking that Deep Science in some way knew about the siblings for a long time. Hay, they might have specifically wanted a place where others would dislike them, because they wanted to turn the two into weapons, and making them hate anypony else than their family - and by extension Deep Science - would make it easier to direct them as such. Dealing with tons of magical items, their strange abilities could be highly valuable after all.

And no, I'm not saying I want to control any part of Deep Science. If this makes sense to you as well, the parents are out of my hooves, and you can do whatever with them. Hay, let them be alive and use that against the two in some way for all I care.

Anyway, just something that won't leave my head. I'd be interested to hear what your take is on it? I might just be overthinking things again.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

Sorry for the wait, I was traveling.

As to your idea, I was thinking something similar, but really what you've put is almost exactly perfect for what would make sense.

To give a bit of back story, Deep Science is called such because it is the deep underground of the Trojan science organization TrUST, which is completely open to the public and seeks to find and help scientists all around the world with their projects for the progress of science globally as well as, in the official text, "Make Princess Celestia absolutely furious."

Deep Science tackles the projects that TrUST won't or can't handle themselves, primarily over cursed or other anomalous items. Just about all safe class items and those in the P category are moved from Deep Science back to TrUST, as well as most TrUST inventions being placed in the P category with their patent number.

TrUST has a number of scientist villages outside of the cities designed to help the scientists conduct experiments without much distraction, and Deep Science uses some of these settlements as well.

Thus: Null and Void were living in a science settlement, I would say adopted by the scientists who posed as their parents, given it is very unlikely for both of them to share this trait, and neither of their parents to show anything similar. By extension you could even reveal that they weren't even sisters at all, but two ponies that were found with this trait.

(I'm getting distracted, but that story would go like this.)

They would show this trait from the moment of their birth, even before actually as the magic ultrasounds simply couldn't reveal the child, leading many doctors to conclude that the child had been cursed, but the mother was undeterred. Complications arise in the birth, as the doctors could not use most of their methods due to lack of magic, and the mother's refusal to leave the foal after birth, led ultimately to the death of the mother. The doctor would comment the strangeness of the lack of magic, and someone from TrUST or Deep Science would hear about it, arranging all of the paperwork to get the child adopted out to their research station so the power could be analyzed.

When the second one was born, the process repeated.

(Back to your post)

The parents, upon their betrayal and allowing the specimen to escape that TrUST and Deep Science had invested so much into, were administered a powerful amnesiac and left to wander the wasteland, not remembering anything of their previous life. What they do after that is up to you, I would like to imagine that they started a farm or something.

There will be some papers that they'll find at some point in the story to indicate their past.

And really it looks like Deep Science trained them well as they set out to recover many items that Deep Science would be very interested in.

Short of it is that it's a great idea, one that I fully accept in my own canon.

My official post will be there shortly, again sorry for the wait.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

No worries mate, I don't mind a break now and again.

As for your rendition, I think it's about the best route to take, and it opens up for a few heart wrenching moments. Finding out their parents wasn't their actual parents, that they don't have the same mom - although, I wouldn't leave the option out that they had the same father who is the origin of this effect, for some future ideas - and that if they were to meet their parents on a modest farm somewhere in the wastelands, that they couldn't get answers because everything were gone. They wouldn't even be able to remember the two of them.

As for them gathering items, it had nothing to do with training, unless it was subliminal. They just took them because they were afraid of what would happen if others had them, or because they wanted something that could help them against others.

...Huh, I guess they subliminally actually have worked like Deep Science then.

If you want to know, the items are in their house, just on the outskirts of Ponyville. It is possible for them to enter and take them, though it will raise suspicions. I'd advice sedatives to the few who traverse around the outskirts, or sending changelings to disguise as the siblings.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

Glad you like it, I've found I'm much better improving the ideas of someone else, than I am at having my own ideas.

I'll see about working in these details to the story, it'll come soon enough.

I suppose i don't need to mention in the story how the items were retrieved, as the story is pretty limited to the perspective of the sisters, but if and when they find them in the facility, I'll have an acquisition log there to tell them, then, how they were retrieved.

Gives me a short time to think.

So, any SCPs you want to have them run into? I ponify most of them to fit better in the lore so I'd like some time to study your choices to work them in well.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

Well, the items were gotten from their home. It's a pretty easy list to go through. Unless you mean they have been under surveillance for their entire lives, and Deep Science knows where they got everything. I would think this to be a little bit... Well, going way too far, as they would have sent somepony to bring them back in nets or something a long time ago if they could just keep them under observation 24/7. Plus, you know, let them have had some kind of privacy throughout their lives. Ain't any fun if they're always watched, since that would basically mean that Null would not just go for the doctor who took them in to begin with, but also the entirety of the site, and likely others, no matter the consequences. She means it when she says she wants Null to have a normal life, and if that requires genocide of a lot of facilities like this to prevent anypony from spying on her... Let's try not to get to that point.  Let them have some kind of hope.

Though if you meant that Deep Science found out they had been in certain areas after the fact and gathered evidence from there, it can be handled more fairly. Less Big Brother. ^^

As for SCP's, I have no preferences. You work with what you think won't kill them on the spot.  Just no SCP-610. None of us wants that sort of thing out in the open, and it's likely best to keep that particular one out of Troy really.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

I was referring to a log of how Deep Science got the items from their house, not how the sisters got the items. Unless they have a list of where they got them, then Deep Science can only guess where each item was from based on when they noticed they started to have it and where they had been. They kept tabs on them, but hardly know everything about what they'd been up to.

And don't worry too much about getting killed, just have them be smart about it and they'll be fine.

Plus most of these SCPs are deactivated by their magic anyway, but I'll work around that.

[Illiad Easle 3,139]

@@Blitz Boom

To comment on race, while ponies are more than any other group, they are not a majority, not even when combined. In total they make up like 45% of the population (17,17,11)(E,P,U), while the rest is a pretty even distribution between Diamond Dogs, Deer, Reindeer, Cows, Minotaurs, Changelings, Camels, Griffons, Zebra (Which due to their history refuse to be grouped with ponies), Thestrals, Bat Ponies (Those two are really similar, but in a matter of pride they demand separate grouping), and Dragons.

In all, really I got the wrong impression of your writing ability by how you wrote in TBQ, I am continually impressed by your posts, keep up the good work.

[Blitz Boom 4,627]

@Illiad Easle

I'll correct my mistake right away, sorry.

As for the second part... Thanks, I think? Apparently, my posts in the Quarry thread are bad. xD In my defense, I have to work with more aloof and kind-hearted ponies there. Null and Void have seen the harshness of the world, and especially Null - who is the main point of view in the posts because she is the dominant sister - have grown bitter and can't see much of the beauty in it anymore. It allows for a... Shall we say *less kind* outlook on things.

I like your posts too, by the way, though I keep thinking *Oh dear god, what's he gonna do to them now?* every time I see you have posted.  And yes, that's a compliment.