So I just posted that idea I was telling you about, that idea I said sort of relates to how drastic the adjustment to panopticon technology would be but which I did not have time to share last night... A dream I had, about some guy (psychopath!) existing outside of time and space thanks to some kind of magic technology that allowed him not only to monitor everything but also pop in at any time at any place he wishes. He could be watching you right now. And so anyway.
zero sum fortune telling-
I'm not sure if it has anything to do with Finn's powers, but man I gotta poop. Hold on.
Whew; I'm back. As I was saying-- I'm not sure if it has anything to do with Finn's powers, the way he can wend his way against fate if he's flexible enough, but the whole idea of Finn being the "mole" (what's his motivation for that? seems like it would fit into his supermotivation, doesn't it) and he doesn't realize he's the mole-- how does that work?
How's this, then- it's not brain bleach, it's more of, a specific type of fortune telling where knowledge of the future (such as, knowledge needed to construct an incredibly complex gambit) can erase knowledge of the past. I'm not sure if, like, your memories of that time period are replaced with random memories of the future, or what, but. Yeah.
Still working out details... when am I not...
Andrew Hussey derails me
Time traveler gambit, where he creates a paradox and then saves time by totally erasing himself from it while still existing-- that's probably going to be incredibly complex, like, MS Paint Adventures-level, a puzzle from that-- my head officially exploded after Problem Sleuth, so I'm not sure if there are any hijinks as wacky in Homestuck as the time in Problem Sleuth with the growth/shrink portals and the electric fan with the extension cord that stretched across the entire universe and it all managed to make sense in the end and, dang, fun fact, the fake parallel universe they're somehow "trapped" in in Problem Sleuth is actually several orders of magnitude larger than the actual known universe, which is also true of MSPA: statistically speaking, the universe isn't big enough for even Problem Sleuth's levels of batcrap insanity, and Homestuck is, I'm going to say 8 times larger than that, at this point, though I'm afraid that looking up the actual figure will open up a portal in mathematics and reality itself will collapse. My goodness. I stopped reading Homestuck back when the dude was still y'know stuck at home, I'm glad I got out in time... mmm.
But, yeah-- in the future, in the book with the crazy complicated time travel schema that's probably going to take a couple of Primer-style "what the heck just happened back there" graphs to explain, all ending with the universe resetting because looking into the face of Smith erases you from having existed in the first place (but time travel)-- I'm going to need to plan ahead, because seriously, it sounds so complex that there may be plot points we need to set up in book one, for it to work.
Howard Tayler also derails me
How do we introduce the time travel elements in the first place? No, it can't just be "a normal part of the magic here;" it has to be special, otherwise people would be popping in and out and dancing along the edge of paradox all the time. It must needs be unique, for all the conditions to be met.
The webcomic Schlock Mercenary is one of the "harder" s/fs out there, spite the fact that there exists a couple fictional technologies, such as frikkin' teleportation. Howard Tayler develops the science very carefully, though, and through neat extrapolation of what effects the existence of such technology would have on the universe, there is, immediately after the introduction of the "terraport," a galaxy-wide war realistically fought over the control of it. And later on, again through tidy extrapolation of the effects of the technology, frikkin' time travel.
Which of course works out neatly for me, and would explain a lot. Of course in the Schlock Mercenary time travel arch paradoxen are studiously avoided to the greatest extent possible, since "science" has "rules" and all that-- but it doesn't need to be so here, and would be better for us to have that complexity where you can still survive being erased from having ever existed in the first place. I think I can rip off shamelessly enough. A-hem.
Because it's totally different, that's why. Similar cause naturally leads to similar effect, which cause being "specific method of BAMF-ing" and which effect being "time travel precisely once." If can you time travel past that and create a paradox (which Schlock doesn't do) then you've got every right to do so, as specious as it sounds. The math's already been done; this is how it works. Once again, this is just the "overthinking/deconstructing everything and then needing to follow up on the natural consequences" thing that caused such a snare with the idea of an omniscient intelligence agency.
complexities
There is a whole lot of complex gambitry going on here. Dag. Not to mention random (or pseudorandom) elements introduced by Murphy's law taking effect and supernatural creatures coming after Finn to jump him (or, er, his bones.) Maybe that'll make it simpler; I don't know. Gonna require a lot of plotting. A lot of crafting. I'm not sure if Iv'e got craft enough to pull it off. ...
What is the difference between writers and idea thinkers? How far is it to "actual writing?" What's the difference between the idea and the plot? I've got a basic plot, rudimentary as it may be-- but is that a finished work on its own? It's not much between the plot point and the execution, and well shucks that's the actual thing. If I'm making any sense.
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