Subject: Fixed! Happy New Year to you too! (nm)
Author:
Posted on: 2019-01-01 16:23:00 UTC
-
New Years Gift Exchange 2019 + New Mission! by
on 2018-12-31 22:55:00 UTC
Reply
Since last year's NYGE didn't pan out so well, you know what this means... It's time to start a new one! So without further ado, here be the rules:
ADMISSION AND SETUP:
1. You need to have Permission and at least two agents to enter this event. You don't have to have the teams participate in their entirety, either - any one of your agents can opt out based on whatever's most convenient for you.
2. All Boarders and agents will be going in basically blind - meaning that nobody will know who sent what until all the gifts have been opened! Hence, in order to enter, send me an e-mail (my address is clickable) with your attending agents and which gift each will bring. This may be either a "souvenir" from a mission you've published previously, or just something they happen to have that they want to give away. As soon as you've sent the e-mail, reply to this post with the word "Sent" and no message content, so everyone will know who's participating.
3. For the sake of organization, I will take just four or five other Boarders for this year's event, so the first five Boarders to submit applications will be the ones attending.
4. Anyone with Permission can host this event. One of their agents must serve as an in-universe host for this event, but all agents are required to participate as players, including the host. I will confirm who the host will be if and when anyone steps forward - otherwise, Falchion will be the host this year. (My other participating agents will be my DIC and DMS-VG teams, but no other agents of mine will be participating, for some very spoilery reasons.)
EVENT RULES:
5. Once everything's been set up, the Boarder volunteering the event host will set up an introductory post on the T-Board for this event. The most important rule: NOBODY MUST KNOW WHAT THE GIFTS ARE UNTIL THEY'VE OPENED THEM. All of the gifts will be wrapped and put in a big pile at the start of the game.
6. Once I've tallied the full list, I'll provide a list of the players, and a list of the gifts, but not a list of who sent what. The starting player will then be selected at random. Then when that player opens a gift, the agent who submitted it must speak up and confirm that they were the one who did so. Then that agent is the next to play! Thus, in general, the person who will play during each turn is the one who volunteered the gift revealed during the previous turn.
7. For each turn, the agent currently in play can either choose a gift from the pile (I'll provide the full list of gifts on the Posting Board) or, if others before them have already chosen gifts, they can "steal" a gift from the previous owner. A gift can be stolen up to twice; after that, it is locked to the agent it's ended up with, and cannot be stolen again. Note also that if a gift is stolen from any agent, THEY CANNOT STEAL IT BACK.
8. The game ends once everyone has received a gift. Since the first agent cannot steal, he/she will be given the choice to steal after everyone else has played.
Once again, if anyone wishes to participate, just send me an e-mail with the agents planned to be involved and the gifts they'll bring. Let's hope it works out for real this coming year!
In the meantime, after over two years of not being able to write a single mission, I decided to finally get off my tail this past week and put one under Lilac's belt. So here's a healthy dose of "Tunnel Vision", wherein she is led by Falchion and Sarah into a Team Fortress 2/The Incredibles crossover and ends up facing an existential nightmare. Enjoy, guys!
(BTW, this mission doesn't count towards the countdown to Operation: [REDACTED], because it's an immediate follow-up to the aftermath of said operation - though without spoilers pertaining to it, don't worry.)
Now, onto 2019! -
Re: mission by
on 2019-01-03 13:30:00 UTC
Reply
I think you did a good job in this mission of laying out the tension between Lilac and the more veteran agents. The question of Lilac’s identity is constantly on all their minds, but rather than having the characters talk about it bluntly, you let it simmer in the background. It bubbles out into the dialogue occasionally, but mostly, you communicate it through speech tone and facial expression. That said, I’m not totally on-board with the conclusion to the conflict. Right in the opening scene, you establish that while Lilac believes herself to be a Violet Parr, she already recognizes that doesn’t necessarily make her the same as the one in the movie:
"'I know it sounds weird, coming from someone who diverged from Vi a long time ago, but I at least have the decency to take her character seriously,' said the newbie."
[Sarah] still couldn’t believe that the new girl had yet to accept that she was not, in fact, an alternate-universe Violet in all but name.
This at least shows that, even if Lilac is choosing to believe herself the canon Violet, she also recognizes that alternate universe versions of a character can exist, and she even refers to Violet as a separate character. So at the end of the story, I don’t understand Lilac’s surprise when the Violet in the fic turns out to be the real one. It seems to me she was already aware of the possibility of other Violets being real, so potentially, this wouldn’t even change her beliefs. Is there some aspect to her character or history I’m not understanding?
I liked that you had your agents discuss the fact that Team Fortress isn’t a very rigid canon, and that they weren’t judging the badfic on that angle. I like to communicate in the mission when things aren’t charge-worthy, or are only ambiguously so, so it’s good to see other PPCers do the same! I also loved the gag behind the disguises. Very clever!
Some typos:
"'Team Fortress 2,' Sarah explained. 'It’s like, this darkly comedic team-based first-person shooter. That’s where the Spy is from, and I think he’s a lot older than, say, Tony Rydinger, for example…'
'I’m not so concerned about that.' Sarah punched her palm. 'Isn’t Vi only fourteen?!'"
Sarah is talking to herself.
"'Besides, I’ve been wondering…'
'Of what, exactly?' asked Falchion, earning him a slightly annoyed look from his adopted sister."
I’m not familiar with "wonder of" being used as a verb phrase. I think you can drop the "of" here and retain the same meaning. It sounds a bit awkward to me this way.
"The agents stepped out of the portal and back into the base, abandoning a plate of cold bacon that had been sitting there in the kitchen. Said bacon was gone in a matter of minutes, courtesy of Falchion."
For me, abandoning food means not eating it. Unless you meant they’re abandoning an empty plate that formerly contained bacon? But "a plate of cold bacon" reads to me as a plate still containing bacon, so I’m a little confused about the meaning here.
"The agents hid in the very darkest corner of the room as her gaze fell upon them the men before her, and then focused on Violet herself."
Extra word.
"There was this one time, for example, when she and the canon Stratogale had laid eyes, and the poor agent had gone into a minor existential meltdown, not that she’d let her companions know it."
I know this phrase as "laid eyes on each other." I’ve never seen "laid eyes" used in that shortened form before. If that’s longer than you wanted in that sentence, you could also potentially use "met eyes."
"'Maybe it’s ‘cuz she’s too young for the job?' asked Sarah.
The agents were silent for a few moments.
'Or maybe,' she mumbled, 'that is NOT the real me.'"
I’m pretty sure that "she" is supposed to be Lilac, but as these sentences stand, it sounds like it’s Sarah speaking more.
"'. . . by order of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum, you are hereby charged with being a character replacement on account of willingly agreeing to being conscripted to the BLU team, knowing full-well that they can’t care less about the lives of others, and are willing to take them if it means getting paid.'"
That "them" is out of place in this sentence; there wasn’t really a plural noun before it for "them" to serve as a pronoun for. Were you maybe wanting to say "take those terms" or some-such?
—doctorlit in a busy week -
Thank you for your feedback! by
on 2019-01-03 14:22:00 UTC
Reply
I'm glad a lot of my strengths showed through with this mission, and while I was worried that the discussions of whether Lilac is the real Violet or not would overtake the story itself, I'm glad you feel they fit in well enough! You can thank 1visible for the idea of the paper masks; the previous draft involved the agents basically cosplaying as some of the mercs, but their suggestion was even funnier and made SO much more sense. xD
That sentence you bought up as an issue was actually an artifact from a previous version of the story I had planned, where Lilac acknowledged herself to be different from Violet and, as such, was more upset at the way Violet was being treated on principle rather than projecting herself onto the canon character like in this version. When I go back over this mission to fix the typos you discussed (thanks btw!), I'm probably going to change it to:
"'I know it sounds weird, coming from me, but I at least have the decency to take my character seriously, even if I'm no longer wearing my old suit,' said the newbie."
Or something like that. And I'll probably look over the rest of it and adjust her dialogue accordingly so Lilac believes herself to be the real Violet, which actually WAS a part of her creative history. Let's just say that V-Wrex wasn't my only attempt at writing Vi over the years, which isn't surprising considering that I crushed on her when I was like ELEVEN or so, to the point where I had a version of her as an imaginary friend.
...Hmm. Now I'm seriously tempted to send poor Lilac into a Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends badfic someday... -
The email isn't showing up as clickable. (nm) by
on 2019-01-01 14:01:00 UTC
Reply
-
oops i'm a dumb ^^; by
on 2019-01-01 16:23:00 UTC
Reply
Should be for this message. Have at it! :D
-
Sent. (nm) by
on 2019-01-02 16:13:00 UTC
Reply
-
A Good Way to Round Out the Year! by
on 2019-01-01 01:52:00 UTC
Reply
Aka I didn't catch any odd SPaG mistakes, everyone's voices were distinct, and I felt that Lilac's dramatic arc was executed with proper taste. ^^
The best bits were the recurring arrows - or rather, the scene dividers and then the decisive arrow! - and the hugging-the-shield scene at the end.
Here's to the new year, and new missions!I'm still wondering just what on earth Ri2 is doing, mind, but that's neither here nor there. -
Thank you~! by
on 2019-01-01 02:35:00 UTC
Reply
This is one of the rare occasions when someone's said that I haven't made SPaG errors, so it's nice to see my writing's improved over the years! I've been practicing. ;)
That last bit with Lilac hugging her shield was my favorite part of this mission to write; it was in fact one of the first things I typed for it, since to me it really sells Lilac's acceptance that she's not the same as canon!Vi. Also, the arrow was in fact not connected to the scene dividers, being instead based on a literal take on a choice of words in the fic itself. It would've been interesting to weaponize the dividers at one point lol, but I couldn't find any room. Oh well, maybe in a future mission...
Hopefully 2019 will give me more opportunities to write more missions! God knows I could use a ton of those lately... X'D -
IÂ’m so sorry I have to say this by
on 2019-01-01 13:06:00 UTC
Reply
In both cases where you wrote "bought", I think you actually meant "brought", and in the final notes, "spoke" should probably be "spork".
I’ve gone invisible for longer than ever, but I’m still lurking, and I still can’t not notice these things.
Happy New Year.
HG -
Fixed! Happy New Year to you too! (nm) by
on 2019-01-01 16:23:00 UTC
Reply