Subject: Welcome, fellow English-mangler!
Author:
Posted on: 2017-07-04 12:11:00 UTC
As a welcome, accept this block of ConCrit- stronger than concrete, now with twice the feedback!
How's that fanfiction writing going for you? :D
Hi! I go by Feenie/Feeni3, pronouns are she/her/hers, I'm 20 years old, and I write fanfiction. Very slowly. I hope I'm doing this right, I've never used a forum system like this before.
I found PPC while browsing the internet, looking for more stuff like Mystery Science Theater 3000 either in terms of riffing bad material or, and I stumbled upon a mission and enjoyed it thoroughly. I am going to go and read the original series once I have the time and energy, of course.
The only question I have off the top of my head, while I'm typing this out, is how do you decide what your agent/agents' canon is? Like do they need to be from badfics you wrote when you were younger, or something else? I am interested in making two of my long-time characters into agents, but I'm also hesitant because they're near and dear to my heart and am...afraid of exposing them to badfic.
Also, feel free to ask me for clarification on anything I say if I come off as unclear. I fully realize sometimes I just...mangle the english language when speaking.
Ey there! I'm Twistey, and I write both fanfic and (tons and tons of) original worlds. We'll get to my newbie gift for you at the bottom of this post.
That's pretty cool that you're already familiar with MST stuff - it's gotten somewhat obscure in these times. Given how you enjoy the missions and whatnot, you seem to be a good addition.
About the agents, no, they don't need to be from badfic you wrote! Sometimes we recruit background characters from badfic other people wrote, sometimes we even recruit Sues or borderline Sues (but only when a long list of conditions are met), many agents come from World One (aka IRL), and there are even some that come from goodfic! And about your characters becoming agents, you (the writer) choose which badfics your agents spork, so you can avoid NSFW or violent missions, or whatever you're uneasy about. Also, most of the time, PPC technology and training will protect the agents from being dead or worse, so they'll be safe in most cases. If you're interested, we can every so often exchange tips from olderbies about creating agents as we go through the process - I myself am also currently converting a few of my beloved characters and finally making my first agents. Lovely coincidence, eh?
And finally, about the newbie gift, I have several souvenirs and replicas from the iD Software fandom for you to pick from. Here's the list:
- Bunch of blue bricks found exclusively in castles from Wolfenstein 3D
- Bunch of used syringes from Wolfenstein 3D (may contain residue from the zombifying chemical, who knows)
- Replica Spear of Destiny, also from Wolfenstein 3D
- Replica "Call Apogee Say Aardwolf" sign from Wolfenstein 3D
- A very flat flamethrower
- A Supercharge item from Doom (it's a health item.)
- An Armor Bonus item from Doom
- Replica of Commander Keen's homemade spaceship
- And any powerup from the first Quake game.
Sorry if this overwhelms you. Hope to hear the reply!
-Twistey
I started getting into MST stuff after finishing MST3K's first revival season, and I wound up here while looking for MST-esque content.
Thank you! I have several ideas in mind, some new characters altogether and some reusing of older characters. I definitely appreciate any tips thrown my way.
Welp, as we speak I am MSTing Starkit's Prophecy, even though it's probably already been sporked. I just wanted to.
Also, can you tell me a bit about your characters that you want to make into agents? I want to see how well they'd fit. Mine are humans with some degree of elemental abilities, but I think I've set up some good limits for their powers and given them better new backstories.
-Twistey
Alrighty!
Soleil is basically a human bartender from the world of Transistor. Short of it is she wound up in PPC thanks to a plothole and winds up at Rudi's. There, she meets my second character and winds up joining the PPC. She doesn't have any powers as per Transistor canon, just her Selections (they're like college majors, but for life): Mixology and Bartending.
Personality-wise, she starts out even-tempered and somewhat spoiled. When Cloudbank (Transistor's setting) can give you anything you want, you tend to not understand that weather is actually not as controlled as you thought it was and buildings don't change on a whim. Eventually she will develop into a more hot-tempered character, being compulsive and justice-hungry compared to her partner.
Nocturne is a human singer from...I'm not entirely sure yet. Tentatively, it's the world of Xenosaga, but I'm tempted to change it to something else. She's been at PPC for 8 months longer than Soleil, and discovered her wandering around Rudi's. Nocturne figured she could get away by just explaining the PPC to her and sending her off to wherever she needed to go, but then Hyacinth said "Nah, you two are sticking together." And thus, Nocturne reluctantly considers herself Soleil's mentor.
Personality-wise, she starts out cold and snarky. She puts on a facade to make herself appear nice and sweet to those around her...but she finds it hard to be nice to people. As time passes, she softens up and starts to try to befriend people, and especially grows attached to Soleil. What doesn't change is her having to hold back Soleil whenever she gets particularly incensed at a fic, either pre- or post-character development.
...that got super long, I'm sorry.
For Soleil: Is this Transistor the game, or some other Transistor I don't know about? I'm pretty interested. I like how her personality develops in a way that might actually be considered negative - that's an interesting twist on character development. I also like how you pointed out how someone from Cloudbank would react to being in a (mostly) World One-like setting.
For Nocturne: That's an interesting pairing. I also like the character development there as well. Asking oldbies: Can a character who is an agent have joined the PPC in a time before they were actually put in, or do they have to be in the same timeframe as when their W1 writers put them in?
For both: Remember that you shouldn't try to force character development to happen too fast. Usually a lot of us start with one character concept, and then the things that happen to the agents while on missions and in interludes are the spur for character development. It's like a role-play: If you expect your character to do X Y and Z, you may end up railroading stuff and forcing it in. Let the missions and badfics take the wheel so it feels natural.
-Twistey
Soleil: Yep, from the game! Transistor is super fun, and I want to explore a character coming from this setting.
Both: Good points. Mind instantly jumped to what I want them to be post-development, realize I probably shouldn't do that, whoops.
(Oh wait! What department are your two in?)
Aside from the two who aren't going to be agents but function similarly (the "Fanfiction's Hired Mercenaries" that I came up with while I was still worried about my parents somehow finding out I'm on here), here are some short descriptions of my pending characters.
This quartet consists of the three Callahan siblings (Erika, Amber, and Connor, from oldest to youngest) and their good friend Miriam Almstedt. Amber and Miriam are partners in the Department of Geographical Aberrations, Erika is currently partnerless in the Department of Angst, and Connor is in the Department of Mary Sue Experiments and Research, which is a non-action department. The three girls in the group all have some sort of powers (although Erika and Miriam both got theirs accidentally), which they use to their advantage while on missions. The four of them have a pretty close bond, and always look out for one another. There is a bit of a personality contrast between the girly-girl Miriam and the tomboyish Amber, which leads to a couple arguments every now and then, but overall, they work well together. Erika is rather sarcastic and uses that as a strategy to give angsty characters a reality check, and Connor, lacking powers, dedicates himself to STEM disciplines and academics. Let me know if I said enough about them or if you have any questions!
-Twistey
Your characters sound awesome. I have a bunch of incomplete OCs sitting around somewhere gathering dust. Unfortunately, I don't think any character I create, or have, would cut it as agents.
Out of curiosity, what powers do you characters have?
Miriam can turn into a fox and control gravity to some extent (only one object at a time, though), Erika can temporarily turn into a ghost of some sort (but it takes a lot of concentration to make it activate when she wants it to, and it turns on automatically whenever she is overcome with strong emotion), and Amber is essentially an Earthbender with a little less versatility (I decided that there were a few of those uses that she doesn't need.) That's why I put Miriam and Amber together in DOGA - they'd be a great help to the department because of their powers. I keep track of what powers my characters have and what uses they can use them for using links to the Superpower Wiki, so that I know exactly what they can and cannot do.
-Twistey
Superpower Wiki: http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Superpower_Wiki
I did not know there was a superpower wiki.
Anyways, your characters seem a lot more agent-like than anything I could make, with some pretty cool powers to boot.
Yeah... they used to be a lot more overpowered, since I made them for an RP group called Mistclan (and other stuff in the same verse), and Amber's name was Sakura but called herself Mountaineer, and Amber/Sakura/Mountaineer also had a magical pet wolf and a giant magical pet wolf and an alternate form made of stone (not my fault, they were gifts from other Mistclan kids) and Miriam was pretty much a humanization of FN@F's Mangle, and Connor and Erika looked a lot different than they do now. Luckily, however, it was easy to strip them down and revamp them into agent-quality characters, since they were agent-quality in essence, they just had too many extra frills and a bunch of bad details. Details can make or break a character, but the core parts of them are what makes them salvageable. Hooray for getting really deep into character creation as I am wont to do! :P
-Twistey
You, child, missed a few of our older discussions. This is around medium-size.
Have one of my own shed feathers and a complimentary kit of Spikes!
Always nice to see a new face and a fellow Pokémon (Mystery Dungeon) fan. Here's a link to a cool NPR story: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/07/03/533676536/test-your-fake-news-judgement-play-this-game
In response to your question, they can be whatever works. A lot of people, myself included, make at least one of their agents a version of themselves. Recruiting inoffensive characters from badfic is also a viable option once you have your agent pair established; that's how about 6/8 of SkarmorySilver's characters showed up here. :P
If your characters are afraid, you probably shouldn’t expose them to badfic. Or perhaps it might be fun to write and read about them having to deal with it anyway. But then you need a good backstory about how they got into the PPC and why they don’t just run away.
One of the agents I’ve been talking about for years is a player character I once created in World of Warcraft. Since "protect and heal the world and all its natural inhabitants" is what I believe WoW druids do, and this may easily be transformed into "protect and heal all word worlds and their natural inhabitants – intruders beware", she is predestined to be an assassin in the DMS (and there is space for character development, because she will need to learn that not all OC’s are bad). I actually made the decision the other way round: realizing that I already had a prospective agent at hand, I hesitantly started to think about whether I might like to write PPC stories.
My other agent is a blatant self-insert. Thus, his home canon is what we call "World One", the AU version of real life where it is actually possible to be sucked into a computer, be trapped in that tiny corner of the internet where the PPC exists, and meet a fictional character you created.
About your newbie gift – I might just pretend that it is the advice you got. But since I have no further use for it after getting out, have this Pokeball.
HG
As a welcome, accept this block of ConCrit- stronger than concrete, now with twice the feedback!
How's that fanfiction writing going for you? :D
Admittedly pretty slowly due to lots of things going on in life. I'm job-hunting, preparing to move out for spring semester of college if all goes well, and taking care of a puppy at home. I have tons of ideas, though I need to finish the fics I started first.
Writing is fun and good, but I have a problem with starting and not finishing because I get distracted with near everything.
Please have some black-hole chocolates. Hope you're here to stick around for a long time.
For your newbie gift, take this Royal Ice Cream Container! It will give you any flavor you desire, and can double as an indestructible shield in a pinch.
As for how I decided it... weeeell... I mostly just went through a long period of revising and toying agent concepts that eventually lead me to my current pair. I can't really point at one spot and say, "Here, I decided here," except that I thought at one point, "Hey, what if I had a silly guy from a serious canon and a serious guy from a silly canon?", and I think it was at that point that Michael's home universe (which is the Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians series, by the way) was decided on for me, but I wouldn't be willing to swear by it.
Hey there! For your newbie gift, have a replica of the elder wand. Although, it has no function except for shooting harmless, but pretty, sparks.
'ello, 'ello, 'ello! Nice to meet ya!~
Here, have some pudding. Useful in dealing with pesky Glossarycks.
Welcome to the PPC, we're glad to have you here!
As your newbie gift from me, have two cents, so you can put them in during discussions.
Out of curiosity, what mission did you read first (if you remember) and what spin-offs have you started going through?
- Tomash
I read the For Your Eyes Only mission by Laburnum, I believe? And then the Forbidden Fruit mission by PitViperOfDoom. I need to read the original series, I can't decide what to read first.
The original series is good to have read, seeing as it's, you know, the original.
As to spin-offs, if you want to read some good stuff without massive archive panic, I highly recommend "everything Neshomeh or Phobos ever wrote" (Supernumary & Ilraen; Derik & Earwig/Gali; etc.) and "everything Scapegrace ever wrote" (The Notary & Wobbles; Doktor Trollenfisch & Gabrielle).
If you have more time on your hands, I'm just going to second this set of recommendations Iximaz wrote up, but also add Iximaz's work (The Aviator & Zeb; Ix & Charlotte; etc., but be warned, there's a lot of it).
- Tomash
Ooh, thank you! I'm excited to read these!
I know my handle is the Triumvirate, but the namey-name I use is Calliope (often shortened to Cal). So don't worry about calling me some shortened version of that long probably-Latin word!
For your Newbie Gift from me, have a full set of roleplaying dice! We have a massive group of tabletop gamers here (so many, you seriously have no idea, it's insane), so with these, maybe you can join in! Feel free to decide the pattern and texture and whatnot on your own.
I appreciate the dice! I've been meaning to get into tabletop, thank you~
Did you have any particular tabletops in mind? I've been thinking, after I finish up my current campaign (in which Granz is the only player), of starting up a Call of Cthulhu campaign in the PPC. We also have, at this point, two Mutants and Masterminds campaigns, a Pokemon Trainers United campaign, and a Warhammer40K Dark Heresy campaign at present. And those are just what I know of.
I'm pretty open to whatever, the only one I'm super familiar with is DnD because of stuff like The Adventure Zone and Critical Role. Those two have kinda got me interested in tabletop in general.
Which version of D&D would you want to play most, if you had the chance? The only one I'm familiar with, really, is 4E, but that group is transitioning to 5E because it's a massively overinflated group and combat takes f o r e v e r as a result.
That's it, I'm calling dibs on this newbie. There are many like her, but she is now mine.
I think it's only one M&M game at this point. Mine is pretty much dead. :P Although, now that you mention it, there may, in the future, eventually be a D&D campaigns springing into existence, since Alleb mentioned considering running one relatively far in the future, although who knows if it'll happen, and if it does, how long in the future it will actually be. There's also an Adeptus Evangelion game that is currently on pause before the episode has actually begun, due to one of our players actually having a life. Unlike me.
Have an object of indeterminate size and color.
It's very nice to have newbies show up. Normally I just lurk on the Board, so you probably won't see me here often. As for a gift, take this wand of magic missile!
I do hope you choose to stay for a while!
Thank you very much!
Have a pile of multi-coloured pens.
Hey there, and welcome aBoard! Take this plate of SPaGhetti—it's made fresh just for you.
As to your question: Everyone has a different way of deciding things! My first agents were self-inserts of myself and my then-writing partner. Later agents were badfic recruits, or simply fell through plotholes from various continua where they had just existed quietly in the background before. Original characters are totally okay—just so long as they don't glitter. ;)
I have a question for you in return! What are some of your fandoms?
Why thank you!
Ahh, okay! Thank you for clarifying that!
I have a lot of them, I tend to hop around whenever I find something particularly interesting, but the ones I'd consider to be main ones are Yokai Watch, Pokemon, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Star vs the Forces of Evil, Steven Universe, and Gravity FAlls.
When you say Pokémon, do you mean the games, anime, manga, or a combination of them? I have a Luxray agent from a Nuzlocke run I did, so I'm definitely a games fan.
Also, I love Steven Universe! Tried getting into Star because I heard the two were similar, but it just seemed too... weird. I dunno. About where would you say the show gets really good? (Because it took my college roommate showing me later episodes of SU before I decided to give it a second chance, I thought I'd do the same for Star.)
Mostly the games. Used to love the anime when I was younger, not as much, and I intend to read the manga one day. Sun and Moon is definitely my favorite game thus far, though I have a soft spot for the Mystery Dungeon spinoffs. And that's cool!
I'd say it starts getting good and serious around Mewnipendence Day, where it starts exploring the relationship between Mewnans and Monsters. In my opinion, it really gets good around Season 2 when character development kicks in for Star's mom Moon and Ludo. It does have the drawback SU has in that if you miss one plot-critical episode, you might be lost later in the series, though.
I hope you stick around, because we need more PMD fans here!
And thanks for the tip! I'll give the show another attempt tonight and I'll try to watch a few after your suggestion, just to be sure.
I'll do my best to stick around! :D
And you're welcome! Glad to help!