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beccaelizabethI think I was swapped out for Parker today? Hardison was there, she wasn't, but I was only all over Eliot as per usual. But I am by no means bendy or athletic enough to be Parker, even in my dreams, so I had a different speciality, something more to do with magics I think. Because my dream version of Eliot mushes together with Lindsey pretty routinely.
So the dream plot was that he'd got epically beat up and he was freaked out about not being able to protect us, so he was going to go do another deal to get even more upgraded. Because he'd already done that once, to get the combat skills and some extra resilience and possibly a working hand. But the problem was he was doing deals with demons and sucking up the dark power to make himself more violent, and the payment was... nasty... but he was pretty convinced he was headed for hell anyway so he didn't think he could screw up his soul worse, after everything he'd done.
So I haven't watched much Leverage but that seems like a very Eliot compatible plot? Like, he doesn't like himself much, thinks he went really wrong, keeps doing it anyway. It's just the magical/literal manifestation of that, to make it about demon parts.
Me in the dream was AI made flesh, because dad was a programmer and wanted a kid. Pinocchio again. ... I'm actually really tempted to make that a trans story. I don't think I've seen that before? Like, parental unit really wanted a son so they carved one and brought it to life and then free will happened and tada actually a daughter. That's more interesting. But almost all the ones about making a woman are about making a sexbot or falling in love with a sculpture, which is actually really creepy. Like really wanting a child to be a child and grow up and all that, that's about wanting a son, but really wanting a woman you have created? The only time that's about children that I've read is when it's Wonder Woman. Which is among the reasons I epically dislike the retcon on her origin story. Some people actually do want a daughter so much they'd pray her to life.
So there's the usual how do you human plots, for new AI pinocchio girl... is there a girl version of the names? And also being quite literal and only telling the truth is a classic for both pinocchio and classic faerie lore. And if you can do magic it tends to be a good idea, because words change the world. DDuane just did a hilarious post on that one, using Sherlock Watson as an exemplar, about how mage swears can go poorly. Cursing, original issue.
But also? I want her to be studying up consciously on human behaviour. AI training isn't a big feature of most TV, but when it happens it's kind of assumed to be like teaching a child. And yeah, but also no, because there's a lot of assumptions about wiring and development that plain don't apply without a shared biology and biochemistry. So what she needs is someone consciously human. And if you talk to people trying to be good people they might tell about religion or how to trust the Lord or how to be mindful and avoid suffering, which has some useful rulesets, but it's still a little fuzzy on how people work, other than 'poorly'. So you really want someone who knows how to work people. AI learning humanity from a con artist. Cause they know all the levers.
Also also I don't like it when AI only worry about how to human. Why not explore how to AI? Different, diversity, just as good.
Some of this AI stuff do resemble what I recall of Parker, but again with the magic/literal.
AI relationship with Hardison? She'd be the most vulnerable to his skills, but he'd also have the most potential to understand her. With Eliot? Him and his cooking are very physical, how to human on the biological level. Too simples to split them up mind and body, not correct.
Hardison stays human-human, especially if stays black. No othering the black guy. No making them blown up cyborgs or zombies or otherwise enslaved. No making them any of the assorted Scary Things. Because already with just existing while black the stories cast them as scary enough, and it's creepy and wrong, and doesn't need extra FX on it. Making him the tech genius works plenty fine in an urban fantasy AU.
He'd want to know how magic works though, especially if it's like the programming language of the universe.
How magic works makes such huge differences to the universe, but is seldom systematically explored in TV.
There's really three sorts: internal power, external power, and making deals.
Like, if you're using your own bodily resources or like a personal store of mana, that's a very independent sort of magic, but logically limited. Unless you're the Chosen One, with more power than everyone else. That's annoying though. Keeping it linked to physical fatigue gives a range without making one person off the charts. Better.
But it do leave you wondering how some of the spectacular stuff gets done. Like, if what you're doing is like throwing a baseball around but with your mind, it feels reasonable for that to be done on your personal power supply, but what if you're throwing a bus?
So then there's external power, where what you're doing is using a little of your own resources to tap an external source. Like plugging in to the mains. The Force flows through you, and through everything, so it can do pretty much everything because of already being what does it, but only some people consciously manipulate it. If there's no drawback to use though then there is wondering why people aren't generally omnipotent.
If the external power source can be Dark or Light, if drawing power in anger fuels your anger and drawing power from love fuels love, then you've got an amplifying factor with no personality. Good for making literal / manifest, not so great for plot generation. Does tend to lead to spirals, one way or another.
I very much dislike when anger or the dark side is shown as any kind of more powerful than the light. Love can be plenty fierce and urgent too.
If there are already beings who staked a claim to the power and don't want to let it go? That's when you've got to make deals. And TV magic is awful at this one, it uses Names as set dressing, invokes powers at random and cares little for how they would react. But it has the most possibilities. Sure, it makes everyone Clerics of one side or another, or gives them power with a Pact limitation depending on how you look at it, but there's so much more flavour to that than the standard fireball merchant.
It can also leave you in debt up to your eyeballs to beings with agendas possibly very divergent from your own. All the plots, right there. All.
So if you've got a character, Eliot or otherwise, who has been drawing on demon power and dark deals, but wants to get back to the light, they could do it several ways. They could just let go of the power, but then they'd be vulnerable and quite likely wouldn't like it much. They could retrain in a very different tradition, try and learn to draw on positive emotion and amplify it with magic. Training takes time, and trying to think happy thoughts in a fight takes a certain kind or habit of mind. Or they could make a deal with a different power. And there's plenty of powers out there who would present themselves as the kinder, happier, light side alternative... but you've got to wonder. If by their fruits will you know them, really, which side is what? Or are there even sides?
Plus, how did they get to be Powers in the first place, and is it possible to upgrade? If it's a question of different orders of creation then attempting to make yourself a god is going to go hella wrong, but if it is in fact possible, is it a great power / responsibility gig? Like, if you can become god level, or even if you can see how to get there from here, do you have a responsibility to do it so you can use it to help others? Bodhisattva. Or is it always just a dead end of temptation?
Universe ruleset questions with a whole lot of different settings.
Also ways to make religious differences way interesting to play through. Especially in a three sided relationship, you can play more settings. And if only one belief set is correct, that's less fun, but if nobody is entirely sure because they all seem to work even if mutually exclusive, that's like a great big ongoing argument with cool FX.
Okay, it's Cleaner Day and I have other stuff to do, I should go do it.
... also, the electrician was here to fix the radiator, but it was simplest fix ever: it worked for him. *doh* I've spent all winter trying to turn that thing down! It didn't go down! Now he twiddles it a few times and tada, full range of motion achieved. He recommends using a penny for leverage if it happens again. *sigh* Okays, well, that's good that it was a quick fix. I just feel foolish.
Onwards.
So the dream plot was that he'd got epically beat up and he was freaked out about not being able to protect us, so he was going to go do another deal to get even more upgraded. Because he'd already done that once, to get the combat skills and some extra resilience and possibly a working hand. But the problem was he was doing deals with demons and sucking up the dark power to make himself more violent, and the payment was... nasty... but he was pretty convinced he was headed for hell anyway so he didn't think he could screw up his soul worse, after everything he'd done.
So I haven't watched much Leverage but that seems like a very Eliot compatible plot? Like, he doesn't like himself much, thinks he went really wrong, keeps doing it anyway. It's just the magical/literal manifestation of that, to make it about demon parts.
Me in the dream was AI made flesh, because dad was a programmer and wanted a kid. Pinocchio again. ... I'm actually really tempted to make that a trans story. I don't think I've seen that before? Like, parental unit really wanted a son so they carved one and brought it to life and then free will happened and tada actually a daughter. That's more interesting. But almost all the ones about making a woman are about making a sexbot or falling in love with a sculpture, which is actually really creepy. Like really wanting a child to be a child and grow up and all that, that's about wanting a son, but really wanting a woman you have created? The only time that's about children that I've read is when it's Wonder Woman. Which is among the reasons I epically dislike the retcon on her origin story. Some people actually do want a daughter so much they'd pray her to life.
So there's the usual how do you human plots, for new AI pinocchio girl... is there a girl version of the names? And also being quite literal and only telling the truth is a classic for both pinocchio and classic faerie lore. And if you can do magic it tends to be a good idea, because words change the world. DDuane just did a hilarious post on that one, using Sherlock Watson as an exemplar, about how mage swears can go poorly. Cursing, original issue.
But also? I want her to be studying up consciously on human behaviour. AI training isn't a big feature of most TV, but when it happens it's kind of assumed to be like teaching a child. And yeah, but also no, because there's a lot of assumptions about wiring and development that plain don't apply without a shared biology and biochemistry. So what she needs is someone consciously human. And if you talk to people trying to be good people they might tell about religion or how to trust the Lord or how to be mindful and avoid suffering, which has some useful rulesets, but it's still a little fuzzy on how people work, other than 'poorly'. So you really want someone who knows how to work people. AI learning humanity from a con artist. Cause they know all the levers.
Also also I don't like it when AI only worry about how to human. Why not explore how to AI? Different, diversity, just as good.
Some of this AI stuff do resemble what I recall of Parker, but again with the magic/literal.
AI relationship with Hardison? She'd be the most vulnerable to his skills, but he'd also have the most potential to understand her. With Eliot? Him and his cooking are very physical, how to human on the biological level. Too simples to split them up mind and body, not correct.
Hardison stays human-human, especially if stays black. No othering the black guy. No making them blown up cyborgs or zombies or otherwise enslaved. No making them any of the assorted Scary Things. Because already with just existing while black the stories cast them as scary enough, and it's creepy and wrong, and doesn't need extra FX on it. Making him the tech genius works plenty fine in an urban fantasy AU.
He'd want to know how magic works though, especially if it's like the programming language of the universe.
How magic works makes such huge differences to the universe, but is seldom systematically explored in TV.
There's really three sorts: internal power, external power, and making deals.
Like, if you're using your own bodily resources or like a personal store of mana, that's a very independent sort of magic, but logically limited. Unless you're the Chosen One, with more power than everyone else. That's annoying though. Keeping it linked to physical fatigue gives a range without making one person off the charts. Better.
But it do leave you wondering how some of the spectacular stuff gets done. Like, if what you're doing is like throwing a baseball around but with your mind, it feels reasonable for that to be done on your personal power supply, but what if you're throwing a bus?
So then there's external power, where what you're doing is using a little of your own resources to tap an external source. Like plugging in to the mains. The Force flows through you, and through everything, so it can do pretty much everything because of already being what does it, but only some people consciously manipulate it. If there's no drawback to use though then there is wondering why people aren't generally omnipotent.
If the external power source can be Dark or Light, if drawing power in anger fuels your anger and drawing power from love fuels love, then you've got an amplifying factor with no personality. Good for making literal / manifest, not so great for plot generation. Does tend to lead to spirals, one way or another.
I very much dislike when anger or the dark side is shown as any kind of more powerful than the light. Love can be plenty fierce and urgent too.
If there are already beings who staked a claim to the power and don't want to let it go? That's when you've got to make deals. And TV magic is awful at this one, it uses Names as set dressing, invokes powers at random and cares little for how they would react. But it has the most possibilities. Sure, it makes everyone Clerics of one side or another, or gives them power with a Pact limitation depending on how you look at it, but there's so much more flavour to that than the standard fireball merchant.
It can also leave you in debt up to your eyeballs to beings with agendas possibly very divergent from your own. All the plots, right there. All.
So if you've got a character, Eliot or otherwise, who has been drawing on demon power and dark deals, but wants to get back to the light, they could do it several ways. They could just let go of the power, but then they'd be vulnerable and quite likely wouldn't like it much. They could retrain in a very different tradition, try and learn to draw on positive emotion and amplify it with magic. Training takes time, and trying to think happy thoughts in a fight takes a certain kind or habit of mind. Or they could make a deal with a different power. And there's plenty of powers out there who would present themselves as the kinder, happier, light side alternative... but you've got to wonder. If by their fruits will you know them, really, which side is what? Or are there even sides?
Plus, how did they get to be Powers in the first place, and is it possible to upgrade? If it's a question of different orders of creation then attempting to make yourself a god is going to go hella wrong, but if it is in fact possible, is it a great power / responsibility gig? Like, if you can become god level, or even if you can see how to get there from here, do you have a responsibility to do it so you can use it to help others? Bodhisattva. Or is it always just a dead end of temptation?
Universe ruleset questions with a whole lot of different settings.
Also ways to make religious differences way interesting to play through. Especially in a three sided relationship, you can play more settings. And if only one belief set is correct, that's less fun, but if nobody is entirely sure because they all seem to work even if mutually exclusive, that's like a great big ongoing argument with cool FX.
Okay, it's Cleaner Day and I have other stuff to do, I should go do it.
... also, the electrician was here to fix the radiator, but it was simplest fix ever: it worked for him. *doh* I've spent all winter trying to turn that thing down! It didn't go down! Now he twiddles it a few times and tada, full range of motion achieved. He recommends using a penny for leverage if it happens again. *sigh* Okays, well, that's good that it was a quick fix. I just feel foolish.
Onwards.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-21 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-21 12:29 pm (UTC)doing the same thing with demon parts, Eliot here.
So there's the two cyborg / AI tales, starting human and starting other, meeting in the middle.
both are all about the importance of love so that should work pretty good in a romance.