Nucleation / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Nucleation.

Akumeoy 07 May 2014 07:07

Welcome to the second tale in the Cavalcade!

For future reference:

1. DeadeyeAlligator ("DA"), Mind-thriller ("MT"), Gabriel. Mentioned: Vanessa Graff ("Flanagan", of SCP-2357 fame), SearchNabokov (abbreviation unknown, likely "SN").
2. N/A
3. Arguably, whatever group DA, MT, and Graff run. If new GoIs are acceptable.
4. None.

Every reference I made here.

DeadeyeAlligator's moniker combines her affinity for reptiles with the Magic: the Gathering card Deadeye Navigator. The starry snake tattoo is a reference to the realm of Nyx, from the recent Theros block. The "Not lizard ghost in acid box" refers to both SCP-682 and Daniel Manitou. Her relation to 682, if any, is undefined.

Mind-thriller's moniker is a reference to Dune. "I'll take the revolution to another dimension. Pay close attention." is a reference to the song Out of Space by The Prodigy.

SearchNabokov explicitly refers to Russian author Vladimir Nabokov, but it's phonetically similar to Srqnabotf, reinforced by the "corny joaks" bit. "Funny mems" is a reference to Ruiz Duchamp Filthy Criminal Documentation File. SearchNabokov's relation to SCP-1846, if any, is also undefined.

And because it came up in chat, xe/xyr/xyrself and so forth is a set of gender-neutral pronouns.

EDIT: And if any future Cavalcaders are interested in using any of these characters and want my input for whatever reason, I'm down for discussion.

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if your reading this your gay

Last edited on 07 May 2014 13:59 by Akumeoy Show more

TwistedGears 07 May 2014 08:37

And the Cavalcade marches on! I'm up next on the rotation and the tale is finished, so expect to see some fun with Prometheus Labs in a few days.

As for the tale- I knew Graff sounded familiar, good to see her story doesn't end with 2357. Should be interesting to see where this goes.

(As a side note, why did this get tagged with chaos-insurgency? They're only mentioned- and if that's the reason, why not serpents-hand?)

Accelerando 07 May 2014 08:44

Was thinking of the wrong group when tagging, don't mind me

If there's going to be some Prometheus lab happenings, I might as well have that added as well.

Aelanna 07 May 2014 13:44

I'm not really seeing any explicit references to groups of interest in this tale, unless the characters are all working for the Serpent's Hand in some way.

Akumeoy 07 May 2014 13:45

They are not working for the Serpent's Hand. One used to, but is no longer doing so.

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if your reading this your gay

RJB_R 07 May 2014 11:46

This was a lot better than the last one. The dialogue was really good, and it seemed like a very cool slice of this world. Which I suppose is what this project is all about.

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Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!

(account deleted) 07 May 2014 19:31

I have absolutely no idea what's going on, the only connection to the previous tale is Seattle for some reason, the footnotes make no fucking sense whatsoever (and if you have to explain stuff like that in a note in the thread, I don't think it should be in your article), and your use of gender-neutral pronouns is both an odd stylistic choice and employed inconsistently.

I understand that the intent of this is to be "worldbuilding", whatever the hell that actually is, but really this whole exercise strikes me as something that will eventually evolve into an incomprehensible, in-jokey self-referential mess. This installment isn't really convincing me otherwise.

Bryx 07 May 2014 20:12

As I understand the idea behind Cavalcade, there's no need to reference the previous tale at all. The only thing any story will need to have in common with any other is the use of a couple of previous characters, and that rule doesn't come into effect until the end of Tale 5. Combined with the fact that there's nothing explicitly stating that these tales need to go in chronological order, any plot will evolve by consensus, with writers choosing whether or not they want to continue a story, start their own, or use characters for a one-off story completely outside of any previous narrative thread.

Last edited on 07 May 2014 20:17 by Bryx Show more

TL333s 07 May 2014 22:27

I'm starting to wonder if this setup is really going to pan out. It might be too radical a concept for the average reader. I'm at least used to seeing a follow-up tale, going, "Wait, what's going on?" and then getting a nice "Oh, yeah" as familiar character names, places, etc. show up.

thedeadlymoose 08 Jun 2014 05:39

I have mixed feelings about this.

It's not super easy to follow and feels like a rough draft. There's almost no way to tell what on earth is going on, and I have absolutely no idea what's going on having read this, nor do I know what the point of this is.

On the other hand, I found the characters charming, there's good dialogue, I like the presence of a non-binary-gendered character, and there are a number of good details.

On balance, I'm upvoting, but only just. To be totally honest, a downvote would be equally justifiable. But it left me liking it, basically, so…

As a side note:

and your use of gender-neutral pronouns is […] an odd stylistic choice

Using gender-neutral pronouns may indeed throw a reader off, but it's not doing anything more than reflecting reality, where those people exist (same as using a gay character would at one point have thrown people off). It's definitely odd, but it's not a stylistic choice. It's not an issue of style whatsoever.

Last edited on 08 Jun 2014 05:39 by thedeadlymoose Show more

Litfried 12 Jun 2014 12:33

I really enjoyed this: trying to catch references, figuring out what the hell was going on, hints at the descriptions of the characters, and the non-default-gender-pronouns person. The writing style is impeccable, the plot intriguing, and best of all, the characters are feel very real and fully-fleshed despite their short appearances.

Love it.