Aw thank you! That feels so weird and so cool to hear, that you got something out of something I wrote about a squillion years ago. :D I really loved writing it! I think the parts of the stories set in HQ were usually my favourite PPC writings, just because of that wacky earnest-yet-ridiculous aspect, with its meta-commentary on story tropes about secret societies and workplace politics and fandom and all. And just the worldbuilding! The silly, weird, wild, creative, cockeyed worldbuilding. :D

I've read a couple of published works since then that hit a similar note for me--the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde and more recently the Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. I'm sure they're not the only ones out there. (I'm not sure the delightfully batshit nature of something like PPC worldbuilding is possible without the dynamic we had where multiple people are essentially roleplaying and coming up with different bits of it--it was an experience as much as a corpus of fiction--but still.)

(Do you guys have the full text of the FicPsych story anywhere? Someone, I think Araeph, sent me the files ages ago after Geocities went down, so I do have it in case you don't and want it for archival purposes.)

I could swear I'd run into you, Neshomeh, on AO3 sometime in the last 84 years, but I also suspect that I didn't remember why your name felt so familiar--just that it did. :D Squee, I'm glad you liked the Garak/Bashir flashfic too!

I do remember that we ran into each other on LJ (and possibly more recently on DW?), though I have been absolutely terrible in the last few years about keeping up with my journal or friends' list, alas. Definitely remember you from the old Board, and you had a PPC-related website with a lot of green in the page design...? I know for a fact that I got my LJ because a couple PPCers had, back when LJ was cutting-edge social media, about six centuries ago. :D

The Leithian Script! What a work of art that was. I just dug around in my office and found the spiral-bound, inch-thick version P@L gave me in the summer of 2006. I checked and it only has the first two acts! I can't remember at this point if I knew whether she'd written more than that or not, but your link has four acts and I'm almost sure I've never read them all. So cool! Thank you.

I don't know what names or identities she wants linked, or even what all she's writing these days, but yeah, like you I'd be delighted if we ever got more of her writing. She's tremendously talented and her writing back in the day (both fiction and blogging) made just a huge impression on me. One of those things (like the queerness of the PPC and fic fandom as a whole) that in retrospect was genuinely lifechanging.

You used our one swear for the month. I won't be able to talk about 50 Shades of Gray for another 30 days...

You know what they say: think of the infidel, and she will appear!

And good to see you too. Apologies for the late reply ... on a short vacation and cell service is spotty.

I remember you a little, though when you joined I had become more of a lurker. And yes, my tumblr is mostly about ATLA, and I should revive it because as far as I know, the live action is still upcoming.

Good to see you too!

It's harder for me to keep track when people change their usernames, but I think I have a chat log from DawnFire way back when. Poor AIM, you have gone to a better place.

Glad I was able launch your PPC career, haha. And it's great to see so many familiar "faces"!

It's great to see you too. I have only been able to visit London again once since our PPC meet-up, and that was a 12-hour layover at Heathrow during which I snuck out to see the British Museum. Hope things are going well across the pond.

And yes, I did editing for several years before getting into the production side of things, but I now work for a small press in Boston. I blame the PPC for everything!

Congratulations on graduating!

Oh yeah, my boys are 13, 20, and 21 now. So hard to believe! They were 2, 9, and 10 when I first joined up. (pre vs post birthdays for the two sets of years).

And I'm late again. I still haven't watched the new season. A friend of mine dragged me into Witcher fandom last summer, and we've been writing away ever since.

How are you doing lately?

We're all pretty good. Can you believe my oldest can legally drink now? How have you been?

Ah, productivity - after a year of working from home, and whiling my evenings away on youtube, I'm not sure I know what that word means anymore!

I also remember those conversations (thanks to your prompting). I had some fairly ambitious plans at one point. Plans which may now be thwarted by the fact that I don't seem to have anything PPC related saved on my current computer.

So I guess now I have a new plan: Step 1) dig through cupboards to find old hard drives Step 2) dig through old hard drives to see what data I can pull from them Step 3) profit??? (I don't know; I might be missing some steps there)

But I have a plan. That's kind of productive, right?

-Irish

Thanks for letting me know this was going on; it's good to be back here (if it can be considered being 'back here' given that the board I was last on was a different board... but, whatever, that's just semantics).

I think I get where you're coming from with regards to being overwhelmed by the thought of social interaction - after all, it took me something like 4 days to work out how to say 'Hi, I'm here again' so, yeah, no worries :)

-Irish

I'm actually surprised by how little reading I've done this past year. When lockdown first started I assumed that be my go-to source of entertainment / staying sane, but I seem to have spent most of my time just watching stuff on youtube. It's kept me occupied, but it does feel like a bit of wasted opportunity.

Hope you've been doing alright too.

-Irish

Wow, that was ages ago - I barely remember writing it! Thanks again for your help with that.

I'm sure I have completely forgotten about a bunch of stuff. I do, however, recall one of your agents: Doktor Trollenfisch (did have to check the wiki to avoid creating a mini). The specifics escape me, but the fact that the name stuck in my head is probably an indication that I thought they were particularly fun and/or interesting :)

-Irish

I LOVE A MINI SNEK! AND A HAT!!!!!

Grabs sword cane and runs around with it before I am stopped

AHh yes the OCs of yore. I've worked out many a personal realiziation with them. What else is rp for???? Also it's so good to see you, and congratulations!!!!!! ^_^ (oh man but it's been a millino years since I busted out that face)

lol that implies I've studied hard to pass Sage certification, I am but a little creeture still.

SOMEONE ended up on stage, I forget who! I remember you planning on stealing the liquid nitrogen.

What’s a – oh, it’s a small snake with a hat, apparently from a word world I don’t know. But is it a spelling Mini?

HG

Not having to go to public places to get my weekly dose of literature is quite convenient these days.

I don’t remember whether Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series was ever mentioned on the Board. Detective Chief Magician Inspector Nightingale and his apprentice, PC (and PoC) Peter Grant, are the weird-stuff-department of the London Metropolitan Police. They investigate cases which should not happen in a world as we know it, involving ghosts, fae, river gods, unregistered practitioners of magic … (there are agreements dating back to the seventeenth century to keep all this hidden from the mundane public). I don’t feel compelled to do the deep analysis I did (and may still be doing) for Harry Potter, but these are probably books I’ll want to read more than once.

HG

I used to be a lot more active a few years ago, so that's probably why. I've been lurking on the board for a while and I occasionally resurface but I'm more active on the Discord.

Writing? Plotting?

There was certainly some back and forth involved. : )

Still writing?

Was exactly what it says on the tin. A week-long vacation of PPCers in one vacation rental. Me, FractalDawn, Araeph, Artell, Phobos, Neshomeh, along with other PPCers who lived in the DC area at the time.

The original-version Suedom is very much a backburner work in progress, but don't let that fool you into thinking we don't have stuff on the front burners as well. For a little while there, Saphie and I lived together in Alaska where we started working on a YA cosmic horror fantasy series set in a creepy small Alaska town, and I'm pretty sure that'll be the first original project that we end up finishing.

We did write three whole fanfiction novels (for Rise of the Guardians) that are so much better paced than Suedom (not hard to do) so we know we can churn out a book or three, but we both have our own projects at the forefront right now so its just always a matter of time and energy. Saphie's got her Evil Boarding School book, which is already SO funny and good. You guys have no idea how worth the wait it's going to be.

Meanwhile I'm applying 4th draft edits to my book, a dystopian future YA novel about kids racing dragons to escape a late-stage capitalist hellhole, with the intention of self-publishing by December of this year. In the extremely NOT ya genre, another friend and I drafted a really smutty gay romance novel over quarantine, because we really needed the endorphins, and I'd like to self-publish that one before the year's out too. So Original Version Suedom will happen, but there's a whole lot of other projects in the works as well.

I'm always so happy when people remember Suedom fondly. The process of writing it absolutely changed my life for the better. I just can't get cringey over it, when it let me connect with so many cool people.

It's just slow going. Juliet and I kind of have a sense of when that needs to be written and I definitely don't think it'll be our first cowritten thing. We have other stuff planned.

But we do have plans.

Right now I'm focusing most on a book I'm cowriting with my other bestie about a group of kids in the remedial class of a supervillain school, who all suck at supervillainy, having to become reluctant heroes to save the world from a massive apocalyptic threat.

The school is all about that Megamind style of villainy. "You're a villain alright but not a super one." "What's the difference?" "[flares cape] PRESENTATION!"

How are you? It's so nice to see so many familiar names.

I'm glad people look back on it with fondness. It definitely was like this positive experience because it let us interact with lots of cool people. I still remember that part of it fondly.

I wound up going to college and grad school for writing, so while I'm nostalgic about it, stylistically it's very much a curl up and die scenario for me, though Juliet has no shame lmfao.

It's very rough compared to things we've written recently, including other fanfic. We have this whole epic trilogy of Rise of the Guardian fanfics we're really proud of it, and still proud of years after writing them.

I'm still fond of that time in my life though.

I'll be ashamed of our fandom sins for the both of us so you can skip along light and free.

I'm glad you did though - it wouldn't be right seeing one of you without the other. ^_~

hS

I'm still so glad people liked it. I miss the way it let me interact with lots of cool people.

I'm so happy M'rrahr has a successor! There should always be a kitchen cat, I think.

I never managed to write a full story, just a kitchen interlude, and some DCPS things that are lost to LJ purges, so I am most impressed.

Almost missed this one.

You are not 30, that's not allowed. As per somewhere down-thread, we are all twenty-somethings forever. {; P

Also, I will never not love the old drawings for the sheer nostalgia factor. ^_^

~Neshomeh

offers a mini snek They come with hats!

Congrats on adulting! Here's your sword-cane, good for shaking at newbies.

And seriously, congrats on discovering yourself. I made the same journey the other way (I was once Techno-Dann), and I know there's a few other trans PPCers here or out in the great beyond.

I don't think your maths can be right though, because that would make me [Counts on fingers] NOPE.

hS

Losing AIM was so sad, because it was just like losing seeing people walk in the neighborhood, and simultaneously losing the ability to call someone from years ago if you want. And I was on it every day for years, seeing people like you too! Hello! It's good to see you! I suspect we have facebook friends in common!

All this talk about AIM is making me wonder if we need an oldbies discord. Like a phone rolodex. So we can continue to see each other in passing daily.

The answer to the ancient question must be revealed...

Take yourself back to a wilder time, a much more populated time, a time of cookie fights, and wild trolls, when at one time I think we nearly got the census up to 50? 75? higher? Are those numbers real, or did I misremember them?

I absolutely live in the ceiling for the high vantage point. The better to drop from, or glomp, or throw cookies. Somewhere Upwards, as it goes, is mostly the space amongst the rafters, reaching between the Board and the old bravenet chat, which was a malleable place at the time. There are untold trap doors to drop out of, and I nest up here in a sea of cushions and paperclips, like the bird I'm named after. Maybe I should have picked a crow?

(Don't ask me why I distributed paperclip-shaped items, specifically; that one I don't know.)

I'm glad you got the message!

I've been doing pretty well! Up to my elbows in bookbinding and yarn, these days. Hanging out with B. I think about you off and on, wonder how you're doing, and what you're up to!

glomp! I am sad to inform you, AIM has died. As has Yahoo. And ICQ. And MSN. It's been a rough last few years for messengers. Man, was I sad to loose my AIM contact list, and stop waving to my PPC buddies.

And I can help with what those kiddos look like, actually! Though I do not have a photo to share. Aimee and Mas were both delicate-featured blonde human kids, and Jai I believe... is a grunge-goth seven year-old. I'd judge myself, but nah. Even remembering who the character Remedy was, on the other hand, that took a gosh darn minute.

And hi! Yes! I am still doing yarn, and now books! And Blayzedude is still here, as always!

I mean, remembering some of the censuses, it could be a lot. laughs Though there's some of the further flung ones that I lost as we slowly left livejournal that I'd love to see again...

takes mini snek, offers paperclip cookie Why thank you!

It has been approximately forever! Let's see here. I got accepted to college, graduated college, got a job (software engineering), got a couple cool hobbies (rock climbing, aerial silks, snowboarding), got a shiny new gender, quit my job (because Amazon turned into a terrible place to work), got a cooler job (I'm working at Bungie now!), didn't catch the plague, and have written something like a half-million words of fiction in the process. It's been a ride!

In case you haven't seen it yet, the Lounge replacement of the decade is Discord, on which I am Delta#1353!

Nice to meet you though! And yes, my Gathering with hS and Kaitlyn was one of the highlights of my study abroad experience, so I feel you there! It was an excellent weekend altogether, and definitely falls under the header of self-care :P

Well, I should hope the lemming repellent works! It's my special formula!

If we ever have another UK Gathering you're welcome to come along. XD

hS

In the Redwall OFU, you got an allusion in the Christmas special, when alumni of OFUC had flashbacks to the jelly monster.

Miss Minnaloushe probably wishes she could enroll the creators of the 2019 movie, am I right?

And you got further than I did in an OFU; the creative partnership on OFUMREDURE fell apart after the fourth chapter--right when Nara's character replacement for Eedrah (using the alias "Tomás Matúsalez") showed up.

I think we're actually Facebook friends, but we've never talked that much. Or possibly really at all

I now have Allstar stuck in my head where it will remain until something else gets stuck :).

I have no idea if I ever actually talked to you before, but nevertheless, it's lovely to see you! Welcome back! Please help yourself to some Canon Cookies, too. There are plenty for everyone. {= D

~Neshomeh doesn't know what hS was talking about, either.

...and still have absolutely no idea why it was your fault. I think hS is on the verge of diving into archives to try to figure it out.

I mean you must have done something

Otherwise why would we say it

-Kaitlyn's arguments are unassailable

And I can prove it! Just look over there a minute.

[Legs it out the door]

Anyway hiiiiii! It's really good to see you too! I, er, didn't actually anticipate anyone on that thread actually seeing it. [Sheepish grin] Gods know what other time-bombs I've hidden in there. How've you been?

hS

...Yeah I told her. We are having A DAY, aren't we, Moons? A DAY is being had.

I am sure that whatever it is that is all your fault was totally JUSTIFIED and you cannot be held responsible because you were under A LOT OF PRESSURE, and it was all totally someone else's fault REALLY, and I will defend you until the DAY I DIE, and their Internet Lawyers will have NO LEG TO STAND ON I tell you.

Or /we've/ been good, I should say, because hS/Kaitlyn went official back in '08 and now we have two, like, tiny clones running around the house. Haven't started them on the PPC yet, but I have done a full oral retelling of the Silmarillion, so I'm getting the corruption in early.

I've also spent much of the intervening time as a chemist who only /occasionally/ sets things on fire, so the Pyro Department has been appropriately represented.

And how about you?! What's life like in Ekwyville when you can tear yourself away from fanfic? ^_~

hS