[OOC][META] Writer dropout

[robkelk]

I've been talking the matter over with Labster in the Discord server.  We somewhat disagree with his Avatar-Character's ultimate fate in the story.  My preference is that his character step down as a building manager in the face of the backlash from his residents in trying to feed them propaganda.  Labster wants to send him off to work in Trump's administration.

Nominally, I'd be fine with Labster's idea, but it leaves the implication that Raj's character would show up from time to time.  I'm not sure if Raj would appreciate that (considering how we feel about Trump and how we would paint his actions while in-office), and aside, I'd rather that the character receive the Lyman treatment to avoid any potential issues - both on the Watsonian and Doylist ends of the spectrum.

Considering what comes up at the top of a DuckDuckGo search for Lyman, I don't like the sound of "the Lyman treatment"...

Put the SI on a bus ride. If the writer returns, then the bus can come back, and there will be no harm done to the SI (except that the character won't have any of the XP that the rest of the PCs have been getting - he'll have to work hard to catch up). If the writer never returns, we won't have to guess how he'd react in any particular situation.

As for how, maybe something along this line:

"If it was up to me, I wouldn't be here - you're good at creating wrath in other people, and I like that in a human. But one of my duties for Lord Phantomhive is to clean up the messes made by my co-workers, and Lord Phantomhive is displeased by the mess that he sees in what you are failing to mention in your regular reports."

"You're imagining things. How can somebody read something that isn't written down?"

"Please don't insult our employer's intelligence. He is an successful businessman who is quite capable of identifying trends in data - and the data you have been providing to him makes it quite clear that there is a major issue at this lodging."

"I'm doing what my contract says I have to do."

Sebastian shook his head in annoyance, "You should already know from your interactions with the other residence managers that that isn't enough. Every other manager is doing much more than the minimum. As much as I usually enjoy watching people spread the deadly sins around, needing to clean up after them gets tiresome after a while. Mr. Bostwick, to quote the politician you like so much from his TV show... you're fired."

If the writer comes back, the SI can get his job back.

As to the residence itself...  The characters from Firefly strike me as having too much story telling potential to leave to an NPC-Residence.  They remind me of the one line from Repo Man - "An ordinary man spends his life avoiding tense situations.  A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations."  And the crew of the Serenity definitely strike me as the type to get into stressful situations by their own volition.

Give Kaylee a wish - she'll want her engine room back, right? That lets the Serenity go explore the Solar System (no FTL drive), and be the ones who make first contact with various spaceborne displacees. Plenty of room for stories there! (Hmmmmm... maybe have them relocate to the Valley Forge once they discover it in orbit around Saturn.)

The NGE characters, on the other hand... not quite so much, as many of them would probably appreciate the opportunity to live a quiet life.  With the possible exception of Asuka - she's a bit of a Rip The Skirt kind of girl.

As for the NERV staff and the Children... The work they're from isn't Sailor Moon or A Certain... or Girls und Panzer, and it isn't actually set in Ottawa. Thus, I don't want them for Ottawa. Maybe Montreal - let Asuka and Rin get along like a house on fire. (Plenty of flames, plenty of spectacle, and somebody has to call the insurance company in the morning - the other sort of "get along like a house on fire" is boring.)