Subject: Last posted December 2012.
Author:
Posted on: 2014-05-01 11:44:00 UTC
But prior to that, was on hiatus from August '10 to October '12, so. I also don't know if they're in the IRC.
Wow, turns out this is exactly the sort of situation I was just talking about with character pages on the Wiki...
hS
First up, the second chapter of The Ispace Wars is up (and the first chapter now includes a summary of OFUDisc, for those who haven't read it).
Second, this was actually posted a few years back, but I'm only now getting it properly filed: a pair of Assassins take on a Mary-Sue in promise ring.
Third up, we have this:
Ephemerals
We all know there are defunct departments in the PPC - but for a lot of them, we don't know much about them. This is a look at some of them - two which already existed, and three concocted for this story.
The departments mentioned here are, well, defunct - they no longer exist. But they did exist, and are available for backstories. All agents who aren't otherwise accounted for are designated Free-to-Use, as well, though what they're up to these days I have no idea.
I've also used the opportunity to resolve a few outstanding issues. The Department of Godplayers now has a shutdown date (and a reason), way back in 2003. The Department of Floaters also has a launch date - and prior references to it are implicitly retconned by 'floaters' being a nickname for the Department of Multiple Offences. However, this opens up a pair of possible conflicts:
-Sebak is claimed to be 'from Godplayers' in 2008. Since his other stories don't mention this, I'm assuming this is in the same way that J&A are 'from the PPC' nowadays - not current, but what he's best known for.
-More seriously, Tomato's Agent April Halloway claims to have joined the Floaters three years before the Reorganisation - or a full seven years before it was formed. My preferred explanation here would be that she means the DMO. However, if Tomato objects, I can tweak the story so that the Floaters existed as a minor department before the Great Consolidation.
With that out of the way... a graph!
A plot of unique IP visitors (black) and posts (blue) per day on the PPC Board, since March of last year. Strangely, we're in the middle of a plummet in both right now - which also happened this time last year - and, according to another graph, the year before (in terms of post counts). So... apparently something happens between ~March and May that either causes people to leave en masse, or causes people to stop coming to join us. Is it American exam season or something?
hS
It was cool to see how some of the more odd and specialised Departments operate. My favourite bit of 'Ephemerals' is the Wallflower not realising what it was letting itself in for. (That WMD piece seemed really familiar, has it appeared elsewhere before?).
Oh, and I meant to mention this last time, but forgot - I like the artwork you've done for The Ispace Wars. A few of those symbols look like stuff I definitely didn't see on the board about a year ago :)
There should be a scene break where the story transitions into the Cafeteria (i.e., somewhere around the line "But you still know people, right?") As it is, I do not know which scene the aforementioned line falls into, and also, I only figure out that the scene has changed from the RC t the Cafeteria when the next paragraph tells me that I'm in the cafteria—as it was, I was left wondering where "Estelnar" came in.
Catching up chronologically is not always the best idea. Well, at least I got some characterization for my future agents out of it.
HG
That one's a tech error, actually - it was in there, but FF.n strips HRs out and I forgot to put it back in. You had the position exactly right, if it helps. ;)
hS
I had seen the Wrecked Music Department piece before. I'm not really a fan of the concept, since it doesn't seem like the PPC ever would have bothered doing something like this. (Also, this one mission we see seems more like Plagiarism's purview.)
I like that the DCH finally gets some screen time, and that you used the opportunity to show how Mylissa went insane, as mentioned in her one other appearance. Still, it's a little hard to imagine how a mission would go for any duck other than Mylissa, since they all seem to reinforce the same type of humor they would ostensibly be fighting against.
The DRS, I actually really like conceptually, because it would be an opportunity to do . . . shall we say, "toned down" romance fics, without all the icky stuff? I might try looking for a mission that would work in this style for my floaters. I am curious to know why this department had a flower as an agent; it would be the only Flower still going on active duty in the worlds after the Organisation expanded, yeah?
Godplayers is the one department I feel probably could have remained as its own department, but there's not much we can do about so few people having written in it. I'm glad it lived on as a division.
Willful Ignorance is my favorite of the ones presented by you here. (It is "willful," right? Or is "wilful" an accepted spelling in English English?) I love the technology you made here, and if you don't object, I would love to give it a spin with my floaters someday. There's a huge amount of potential, both to let the first person'd agent show off what they know about canon, and almost "write" things back to the way they should be in their mind, but also have the tech go haywire and create further complications.
All in all, some excellent and imaginative ideas here!
The WMD 'mission' is technically a training mission - 'Ice Ice Baby' is a, uh, 'canonical' song, so they couldn't kill it anyway. If it were, though, it would fall halfway between Plagiarism and Despatch - they have to find the stolen part and put it back. But yeah, it was basically an experiment by the Flowers that didn't pan out. The agents were pulled to go spend time in Floaters instead, and music gets to look after itself. ;)
The DCH's attitude is essentially the same as that of the original Slashers, Sean and Lux: if you spend your time doing something, then encountering it in a fic won't overwhelm you. At least, I assume that's what S&L are going for... no, actually, I don't. I know full well what their motivation was.
Part of what I was trying for with these concepts was 'believable as a PPC department'; WMD predates 'Ephemerals', but DRS and DUI were designed to be workable. So I'm glad you liked it! As to why the Wallflower was working there - that's for it to know, and anyone who wants to write it to find out. I've certainly got no idea. (Though I think there are hints of a few other Flower Agents... forget where, though)
Godplayers probably could have stayed, but either we bumped it off, or it got bumped off to make room for ESAS. Certainly most of its agents ended up in ESAS, and I suspect still get together in Rudi's for 'Godplayer Gatherings'.
Wilful is a valid spelling, and one I prefer (for no real reason). All their tech is free-to-use, so go wild; just be aware that they shut down because it didn't work, so there was no incentive for anyone to keep working on it.
My biggest regret in this story is that I wasn't able to work Kayleigh into either the DRS or the DCH; her timeline just didn't fit. It was very tempting, though.
hS
That mission really got out of hand fast! :P
Your comment there fits in pretty well with a short story I was going to write anyway, mind if I borrow it?
Both high school and colleges start summer vacation around the end of May, so the month leading up to it is study time. I'm lucky enough that I don't have much problem memorizing things, so I only have to worry about my math final.
Also, I really liked the short about the shut-down departments. I don't know why, but I found the image of the Floating Hyacinth bobbing in the Fountain of Bleepka absolutely hysterical. I'd love to offer concrit, but I can't think of anything you need to improve on. ;)
The Hyacinth wasn't going to be in the story at first, but then I realised it should absolutely do... well, what it did. I'm glad it worked!
hS
Either one makes teachers realize that they need to have a whole lot more paperwork filed then they have currently, so assign students all of the homework and give quizzes to prepare for the big test at the end.
Speaking of appearances on the Board: I'm not going to have many soon. I know that recently I've just about fallen off of the face of the Board, but something is coming up. Starting May 10th, I will be working at Denali National Park as an interpretive naturalist. Or, in simple terms, I'm going to be a tour guide at Denali. They are providing housing for me (at the Denali Princess Lodge! For only $15 a day!) and they do actually expect my off time to be spent preparing for presentations or being outdoors doing outdoorsy... things. Which means, not so much time online checking posts and writing PPC stories. If I have opportunity, I will try and take a look every now and then, but on the whole, I have to leave the community for a while.
This means that I have three things for the PPC that I want to try and get out before I go: the review for Rambling Band, the next part of that crossover I'm working on, and those Alaska questions I was asked forever ago and never answered. I'll post the answers on the Board, and give opportunity for others to ask more if they want before I go. And hey, if you have any Alaska questions at any point, feel free to leave them on my Wiki page. I'll be sure to get to them as soon as I can.
Now, I'm not leaving immediately, I do have until the 10th, but I suppose, for now, this is goodbye.
This is finals week for students at my university. We don't all have them the same week, but this is about when they happen.
But prior to that, was on hiatus from August '10 to October '12, so. I also don't know if they're in the IRC.
Wow, turns out this is exactly the sort of situation I was just talking about with character pages on the Wiki...
hS
And yeah, pretty much word for word. Clearly Legal at work - Coincidences Division?