I could try to help explain...

A new discovery concerning foodstuffs by Cassie Cameron-Young, Plat, Trojie, Cirichen on 2008-10-02 00:20:00 UTC Reply

Recently, during an RP, Cirichen discovered an amazing thing. Punctuation is edible! She found this out by taking a bite from an exclamation mark smebody dropped.

After an intensive taste-test trial conducted by Trojie, Plat and Cassie, we have discovered the basic flavours of each type of punctuation. The list is as follows:

! chocolate, with a hint of spices
” bacon and eggs
£ sauerkraut
$ buttered potatoes
% curry
^ bouillabaisse
& pistachios
* pizza
( nougat
_ pork sausages
- bagel
+ cheese
= chewing gum
{ fried fish
[ apple sauce
: beef stroganoff with rice
; bananas
@ choc chip biscuit
’ never ending gobstopper, many flavours
~ roast chicken
# broccoli
, caramel
. Cornish pasty
? borscht - an East European beetroot soup
/ enchiladas

Another thing we have discovered is that the font affects the flavour. For example, a % mark, which has the basic flavour of curry, tastes like korma in Arial font, whereas in Times New Roman it could taste of tikka masala.

Anyway. We hope that this information is of use to you all, particularly Agents who land up in a fic with a lot of unnecessary punctuation around and no rations with them. Enjoy!

*leaves a table full of assorted punctuation for everyone to try*

*noshes some % followed by a ;* by Mystia on 2008-10-13 15:31:00 UTC Reply

Mmm~ Guys, this is delicious! Cirichen, thank you for discovering it!

I sincerely hope that there is some way for edible punctuation to drop into HQ some way. Agent Mystia would definitely appreciate it.

--Mystia, hopeful
*licks lips* Did someone mention foodstuffs? by Ansela on 2008-10-02 19:23:00 UTC Reply

*grabs handfuls of ! ( [ ; @
I want the @@@@s! by Sedri on 2008-10-02 03:24:00 UTC Reply

*chews* Yummy! You guys are GREAT!

(Don't tell the students at HFA, though, or those lovely Punctuation Downpours we enjoy watching them suffer through might turn into an imitation of the Wonka Chocolate Factory.)

I wouldn't be surprised if... by The Trojanhorse on 2008-10-02 04:20:00 UTC Reply

...punctuation behaved differently in Word Worlds to other places. After all, in Word Worlds, punctuation is part of what they're made of. It would be like us eating, I dunno, photons, or something, and declaring them to be delicious. I think edible punctuation works here, but probably not in the continuua.

'here' as in HQ, or the Real World? by Sedri on 2008-10-02 06:17:00 UTC Reply

I mean, I'm not entirely clear, but I thought HQ functioned as a sort of Word World too... sort of.

But still, 'tis fun. *licks a !*

I think I meant on the Board ... by The Trojanhorse on 2008-10-02 06:20:00 UTC Reply

... but I'm a) not entirely clear on what I was thinking (because I never am) and b) open for discussion on the subject!

In defence of the 'punctuation is only edible on the Board' hypothesis; in the Real World, punctuation is a series of printed characters and therefore the idea of it being edible is *clearly* laughable :P, and as you say, HQ is a World World. The Board is a kind of weird inbetweeny place where ideas spring fully formed into ... things, I guess.

Anyone care to try and make my ramblings make sense?

I could try to help explain... by Cassie Cameron-Young on 2008-10-02 08:48:00 UTC Reply

I think the way I saw it was that, as Trojie said, in the Real World punctuation isn't edible (unless somebody made punctution shaped chocolate or something, but I digress), whereas in RP-land and the Board, it is edible, and has all those lovely flavours.

However!

In HQ, we have seen people collect extra punctuation from missions and bring it back. I know I've seen Agents take punctuation into fics, too. What I was proposing was that the unnecessary pieces could be used as a food supply for Agents, now that this new discovery has been made.

As for ideas springing fully formed into things, there are plenty of ideas that have become things in HQ as well as the Board when nobody really intended them to. Witness the Ypurs, for example, or the swearwords. I'm fairly sure that "Glaurung" wasn't intended to be used by Agents when it was thought up, but within months it became all the rage at HQ.

...

Anyone else like to present an opinion? I'm open to debate.

I think that makes sense by Sedri on 2008-10-02 22:49:00 UTC Reply

Doubly so because just because things manifest one way sometimes (ie, punctuation that we can hammer into place in a fic) doesn't mean it'll ALWAYS manifest that way - HQ doesn't like to be that predictable.

(And when I asked about Real World, I *was* making a joke. ;p )

oooo by Anity on 2008-10-02 02:08:00 UTC Reply

Shiny. I'll remember this.
Yum! by Lily Winterwood on 2008-10-02 01:17:00 UTC Reply

*hogs all the punctuation*
Cirichen, I am in your debt. Yummmmm!

I think one of the punctuations should have the flavor of rare lamb with very little mint sauce.