She dropped in... must have been late 2003, early 2004 to say hi.

I also spoke to her on MSN Messenger in 2004, after I posted "The Daughter of Jay and Acacia" on the Board. Someone had told her about it, and she messaged me to say she and Acacia both found it funny (and were okay with it existing). I think we talked a few times after that, though not at any length.

As you can imagine, I was extremely starstruck and probably borderline incoherent.

Kaitlyn, our still-occasionally-resident Ancientest of Ancientbies, tells me she remembers Jay (as Otik) still being an active poster when she joined - but doesn't remember Acacia posting much.

(From what I can tell, HarpWire was Jay's FFn account, with Acacia a co-author specifically for the PPC; so I'm not sure Acacia was ever as involved with the community.)

hS

Ah, there's the [BEEP]! And with a lot fewer "E"s than we tend to give it nowadays. Pretty clear why this got changed: agents can easily sleep through a flashing light, but a loud noise is much harder to ignore for any non-deaf agents!

I didn't recall "Joan" getting mentioned here. She must not have gone on to do any PPC writing herself, and therefore didn't get the canonization treatment Architeuthis did. Still . . . I like to think there's a veteran spy named Joan somewhere in Intelligence . . .

The disguise generator gag is great, and they really commit to it throughput the mission, not only using it as an excuse to dress up as Ringwraiths for the assassination, but keeping track of the fact that the agents were mostly limited to verbal communication, and any motions that the hoods could communicate, once the cloaks were recovered.

They really were kind of mean to Makes-Things back then, huh? Partly because they were presenting Jay and Acacia as wacky, unhinged assassins, but yeah . . . I'm glad Makes-Things grew to be less timid over the years.

The funniest line for sure is in the ending notes: "We no longer have a famine of suggestions . . ." Partly because it's fantastic word choice, and partly because we never would again.

—doctorlit+35

We've got our first [BEEEP]! Hilariously, it's supposed to only be for urgent messages, so I guess the Flowers have just been slamming the panic button ever since.

I admire the fact that they were willing to shake up the format with the disguises so quickly. I would've expected several different actual disguises before they broke the generator, but this is mission 3!

We also see the first appearance of Makes-Things - a cowed young man, for all we've kind of kicked that characterisation to the side since - and the invisible yarn. I love the invisible yarn. ^_^

And the mission really crystalizes that the agents don't take on Suvians head to head. Why bother? Just be sneaky, it's easier. (Though admittedly Acacia does apparently solo the entire Fellowship, and implies she could have killed them if she'd been allowed. Maybe she was just boasting.)

hS

I'm really looking forward to finding out when (if???) the [BEEEEP] shows up. I almost want to skip ahead! ... almost.

On the same score, I have a feeling Architeuthis actually worked it into her backstory herself. Didn't her first mission start with "and then they sent back a recruitment form"? Again... I'll find out soon enough.

I don't think Jay and Acacia ate the Suvian. There's mention of "a few orcs... enjoying a surprise dinner". That said... isn't "water" on the PPC substance menu, meaning just Suvian blood? I... hmm, it looks like the Substance List first appears too late for the preliminary PPC+20 list (it's attested from November 2003), but yes, it lists two different Suvian-based products. You can be allergic to glitter (lowercase g), but no other issues are noted.

hS