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HoloDeck FAQ
By Bean, Author
I get lots of questions about the HoloDeck series. Since I'm a nice person, I'm going to set up this FAQ sort of thingie. Some of them have been asked to death, and some of them haven't. Whatever works. Got a question? Read the answer here. Is it not here? Go nuts, mail me.
By the way, I'll go ahead and use a sort of short hand:
HD - HoloDeck (the series, not the machine)
HD1 - First HoloDeck: The First Series
HD2 - Second HoloDeck - Before The Beginning
HD3 - Third HoloDeck - Through My Own Sensors
HDpt (and then a number) - Refers to a specific part of HoloDeck 1 or 3.
HD2 has no parts or runs. For example, HD1pt3 would refer to the third story
of the first HoloDeck.
C1 - Creatures 1
C2 - Creatures 2
C3 - Creatures 3
What is this story?
There really is no main hero to the story, but this is the basic idea. Katherine Riggs is a scientific genius in the eighth grade with her own "lab" (really her garage) where she builds lots of scientific things. One of those things is Blip, her uber-loyal robot and best friend. Katherine's best human friend is Susan Theresa, a poetry writing sarcastic sort of girl. For no obvious reason, Susan's cousin Eric Larson hangs around with her often. Eric isn't very bright, and he and Katherine often fight with each other. (They have nicknames for each other, suggesting they knew each other before the story began.)
Jenna is the first norn in the story. The first thing she does is die. Katherine and Blip, out of scientific curiosity, bring her back after altering her genes to make some really cool additions like giving her the ability to feel and care for children (something that wasn't in C1 ... I know, I know, C2 and C3 have limited systems of this). Jenna fell in love with a norn named Jack, but Katherine exported Jack and they weren't really able to further their relationship for a while. While Jenna has lots of adventures in Albia involving drunken norns, her enemy Jan, and her mother Ivy, Katherine and Blip are busy inventing the HoloDeck, a machine to ferry norns to Albia. Around the creation of the HoloDeck and Jenna's last moments in Albia are where HD2 ends.
HD1 begins with the completion of the HoloDeck. It's a black disc sort of thing that looks like a C1 teleporter. Katherine and Blip bring Jenna to Earth to test it That makes Jenna the first norn on Earth. Jenna has a baby norn, Karr. (Karr would be the first norn born on Earth.) Karr eventually meets Kass, and they have a child, Lydia. Over the cource of HD1, they wind up in an asylum, inside of Albia, on a farm, at Disney (twice), and at school. Hilarity ensues. I won't spoil it for you, but HD1 ends with something important going away.
HD3 begins with Katherine, Susan and Blip begging me to write another story. They make me angry, so I agree -- with vengence! The actual narrative starts with a mystery. Milo Riggs, Katherine's younger cousin, finds Katherine in her back yard, digging a hole to nowhere and being very chilly and uninviting. The norns have been shoved off to Albia and no one knows where Blip is. With Lydia's help, Milo finds an important clue to unwraveling just what's going on.
The rest of the story is Blip's reaccounting of the events between Jenna's death and the present time. And that's about where we are now. What, you want me to tell you what happens?
Hold on. HD2 comes BEFORE HD1? I'm confused!
HD2's subtitle is "Before the Beginning," suggesting it's a prequal instead of a sequal. If you must know, the chronological order is this: HD2, HD1, HD3.
Hey! Karr's name is the same as that guy from Grenorn! Ain't that nuts?
Not really.
Karr was born around the same time Grenorn stopped for the first time. I emailed Alyssa and asked if, since the series was such a staple in the community, I could pay proper respects by naming the first norn born on Earth after her hero. She said it was fine, so I did. Later, the series started again, and I felt really silly. But it stands to reason that there's two Karrs (of all the names to repeat, it has to be the most obscure). One is a renowned hero who was shunned for his horrible abnormality but slowly regained respect through a series of triumphs and adventures. The other rode a dog once.
Cool beans! Any of the other characters have stories behind their names?
Actually, all of them are named after someone, becides Jenna (and possibly Katherine). I'll give you a few freebees, but I'll let you figure out most of them yourself, unless there's just an overwhelming demand for more.
Susan - after a character in the American soap opera Days of our Lives
Milo - from the movie Milo and Otis. I never saw the movie, but
I loved the name Milo.
Kass - after Mama Cass, from the 60s singing group Mamas and the Papas. Spelled
wrong, I know, but I needed a K name.
Jasper - after the antagonist in 101 Dalmations. (The animated cartoon,
not that lame movie)
How fast do norns/grendels/ettins age on Earth? Is it the same as on Albia?
Not really. It's slower, a lot slower.
The easiest way to explain this is to look at Karr's life, since he was born on Earth and spent most of his life there. He does seem to age faster than Katherine or Susan (being born AFTER them and becoming an adult BEFORE them and all), but slower than he would on Albia. (It took at least a week or two for Karr to become an adult.) By the time a year has passed, it's assumed he's around four or five hours old.
[The real answer is that they age however fast the story dictates they age. Lydia, Ben and Boggles have been kids forever, if you'll notice. I guess you can call this the "Bart Simpson" syndrome. Of cource, Katherine, Susan and Eric have been thirteen for around three years, so just go ahead and assume all linear time is shot to Hell and back.]
Are Katherine and Blip in love/Will Katherine and Blip ever have sex?
No!
This is the most common question, easily. The truth of the matter is that it's literally impossible. I know in the narrative that the pronouns 'he,' 'him' and 'his' are used to refer to Blip, but he really, truly has no gender. Katherine just assumes he's a guy for some reason. Anyway, since Blip has no gender, he [it] can't have a sexuality, and he can't fall for girls/guys. He also gets very confused by human emotion, and if he did have those sorts of thoughts, he might not recognise them and get scared by them or dismiss them.
[The real reason Blip is often called a guy -- balance. I needed a guy character in the begining, because three of the other four were girls. Jenna had to be female for anything to work, Katherine needed to be female because I wanted her to sort of break a steriotype, and if Susan wasn't female then I'd be answering the question, "Do {Susan} and Katherine love each other?" Besides, it feels more natural for Blip to be male, since his character seems similar to that of a little boy. Ask yourself: would HoloDeck feel right if Blip was Blipina?]
And as for Katherine falling in love with Blip? Come on, man, do you have a crush on your scanner? Call a friend up right now and ask her/him, "Dude, I found this hot laptop at CompUSA the other day! We're going for dinner and drinks tonight, and if I'm lucky, I'll get to plug my printer cable into her SCSI port, ifyouknowhatImean!" and see if they're your friend any longer. Go ahead, ask your parents: "Isn't my sterio system cute? I'd like to set him up with my friend, but she's all weirded out from that laptop thing earlier." Point in case, Katherine probably can't love Blip like that. I realize her relationship is more personal with him than, say, you and your printer, but ... just no, okay?
And the sex thing? Yuck, you perverts. (Really, honestly, this comes up. I swear.) Come on, get your minds out of the gutter. How would they go about it, anyway? This always leads to the question, "Can't Katherine make an attatchement?", except people usually put it to me less tact. This has happened more than once, honest.
Long answer: Because Blip's hover mechanism is his main way of getting around, he can't be too heavy. Any sort of attachment, like an arm, vacuum nozel, or that would weigh him down and would either make his hovering impossible or signifigantly harder. So it's scientifically impossible.
Short answer: No! No no no no no no!
Are you Katherine?
This one is also common. I. am. not. Katherine. I tried to bust this one up with the opening of HD3 (how am I going to visit myself?), but in case you're still not convinced, here's a handy chart.
| Katherine | Bean |
| Has a really neat lab in her dad's garage | There's no room for a lab in her dad's garage, that's where he keeps his boat. Which, by the way, saw water maybe once. I think it would be afraid of a rainstorm. |
| Invents all kinds of cool stuff in that lab that makes a difference in the Creatures community or other communities. | Made an Ettin once, for C1. People complained because it was ugly. |
| A scientific genius of immeserable genius | Does really well -- in orchestra and jazz band classes |
| Has a small robot buddy that follows her around and provides insight and companionship. | Talks to her pet rabbit on occasion. |
| Doesn't write fanfic | Writes fanfic. Coincedentally, writes fanfic about some girl who's starting to look better than her in every way ... I need a hug. |
| Breeds norns | Breeds coote widdwe baby waby nugglily wuggily cuddilitious ettins |
| Died once (well, not technically, but stay with me) | Had outpatient surgery on her eyelids a long, long time ago. |
If I suggest something, will you throw it in?
Yeah, actually, I probably will, unless it's something totally off the wall and impossible. (One helpful soul wanted Kass to have an affair while she was drunk, and then say, "I did not have sexual relations with that norn!" As funny as this may have been, it's a little OOC for Kass, and might not have made sense to the folks in England, Holland and the other places I've heard this story reaches.) I mean, yeah, go ahead and suggest. The whole opening run of HD3 came from some guy asking me, "Why doesn't Lydia have a little brother?"
I also like to hear what people think will happen next. It's fun for me, and who knows, I might put something like what you thought up in. So go ahead, mail me, tell me what you think.
Careful there, genius! The next part contains STORY SPOILERS!! Read at your own risk!
How do Katherine and Blip know that the HoloDeck kills pregnant norns?
If you look at the story, you'll notice that we never really see how the HoloDeck was programmed or put together or tested, we're just told that it was. My own personal theory is that when Blip was programming it, he stumbled on some sort of bug (he could recognise it, he's a machine) that would possibly kill pregnant norns. And then maybe he couldn't fix it. Or something to that effect. Yeah, that's the ticket.
[The real reason is that it was in the first HoloDeck for some reason and I'm trying to keep some continuity. Ha, I love how there's always a reason that makes sence in the story and one that makes sence outside of the story.]
What happened to Lydia at the end of HD1pt18?
Obviously, she lived. But you knew that.
The whole story goes something like this: Katherine and Blip discover that Lydia's passed out and about to die, and they try to help her with injections and such. When her heart stops, Katherine brings her to Earth to try something, but doesn't do so hot. Blip, who if you'll recall just had his battery enlarged, gives her a jolt. This brings Lydia back, and Katherine is able to save her. Blip, however, is nearly drained and has to sit and recharge for a long while.
That's all good and stuff. Why don't you WRITE that, though?
I dunno. I have other things to write, and it's at the very bottom of my list. Maybe someday, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it.
Was the Grendel King really going to kill Prince Ungle/Boggles? That was his only son!
He said he was, and we should probably believe that. I mean, Boggles did have an execution and everything, even if it was fake.
The thing you gotta understand is that the Grendel King is supposed to be one bad dude. That's the impression people were supposed to get from his desire to kill Boggles, but hey.
What was the deal behind Katherine's "death"? Did she really die? And what parts of her were left behind?
The idea is that her whole body was left behind in the splicer room. The Grendel King's body disappeared, like creature bodies do when they get spliced.
Katherine's body probably didn't disappear because the game still counted her as "the hand". (Remember? When she pointed to creatures, the little devil/angel icon would appear.) You can kind of infer, then, that she didn't really die because you can't kill the hand. This makes Susan's magic trick less impressive. Or not. I don't know, it's all up to interpretation.
Why did Jenna have to die?
Think about how Jenna was toward the end. She couldn't walk on her own, she had to have a stick. She was getting pretty senile. Her joints hurt all the time. If Jenna had lived any longer, she wouldn't have been Jenna. She would have just been a shell of her former self who couldn't take care of herself or remember anything.
Truth is, Jenna died because if she had lived any longer, she probably would have been miserable. It was her time, she needed a rest.
"A dying man needs to die like a sleepy man needs to sleep," or something. It makes sense, doesn't it?