Subject: You can be proud
Author:
Posted on: 2015-06-05 20:36:00 UTC
I never read or listened to Phantom of the Opera, or if I did unconsciously, it wouldn’t have been an English version, so I certainly couldn’t catch anything, but the charging sequence still rang the right bells or pushed the right buttons or whatever. It’s a work of art, it is.
HG
That's right, we've got three—count 'em, three—plugs to share! First up, Neshomeh is releasing an interlude and a mission for RC 1110:
Interlude 2: "Morning After"
In which everything looks different than it did the night before.
Rating: PG/K+ - One candid question about certain nighttime activities.
Beta: Phobos.
Mission 4: "Never Let Go"
In which the agents face the Music of the Night.
Continuum: The Phantom of the Opera
Rating: PG-13/T - Math is important. If you don't do it, you get implied statutory rape and preteen pregnancy.
Betas: Phobos and SeaTurtle with domirossi as additional French language consultant.
Next, Phobos has a new story in his Catastrophe Theory alternate timeline. If you're not familiar with this setting, you'll want to go read "Catastrophe Theory: The End Is Nigh!" first, since it's the main story and the new one takes place in the middle of it. Here it is:
"Catastrophe Theory: Fine and Dandy"
Diligent research unearths a record from the past.
Rating: PG/K+ - Strange attitudes toward cities.
Betas: Neshomeh, Desdendelle, and PoorCynic.
Enjoy, everyone!
~Neshomeh & Phobos
I couldn't help but snort at the horrible medicine in that Phantom of the Opera fic.
Getting shot in the chest is survivable even without medical care, but only if you're very lucky. Let's say your Sue was shot with a low-velocity bullet (considering the era, this could happen) that hit at an angle, bounced off her ribs, and got stuck somewhere not too vital, say maybe between the muscle and the bone. It could happen. But such a comparatively minor injury would have our Sue fainting mostly from the surprise of being shot (that's the only explanation for her instant loss of consciousness; anything but a shot to the heart or a major artery would have left her conscious for thirty seconds or more). The second the Phantom started stupidly probing around in the wound to try to find the bullet, she would wake from her faint and start screaming bloody murder. Without proper antiseptic technique, the injury would get infected. Back then, even comparatively minor surgery like this had a low success rate. Our Sue would have been likely to die of infection even if she had gotten a survivably minor chest wound.
Her second set of symptoms is an easy diagnosis, but I seriously doubt the writer knew what they were describing. Feeling cold, faint, and weak, with a relatively sudden onset, is what happens when you have low blood sugar. She should also have been sweating and sick to her stomach, but one assumes that those aren't glamorous enough symptoms. In any case, the treatment that the Phantom administers is utterly stupid. There's no need to give any kind of vaguely described injection. Someone with low blood sugar can be treated in the short term by giving them something sugary to drink; if you go to the ER with low blood sugar, they give you orange juice. You could give them a glucose IV, I suppose, but that's a bigger volume than you could get into a single syringe. In the long term of course they figure out why your blood sugar was so low to begin with.
Both incidents show a total lack of respect for medicine and a total lack of research... But it's a suefic. I should've expected that.
I quite liked all three of these stories. First off, Gall and Derick. Both the interlude and the following mission have rapidly made them one of my favorite agent pairs. They have a very good banter already down. I also liked the information gap: with Gall as the headstrong newbie and Derick as her exasperated teacher, it allows for a convenient way to explain different canonical aspects without seeming too forced. The summation of Phantom's plot was a good example.
I really dug the end of the mission, where the canon gets into the heads of the agents. That was a nice touch and made the climax suitably climactic. I also liked that killing the Sue pretty much undid the damage. The only complaints I had were in regard to a couple of lines, like "Gall summed it up in her usual succinct manner." That one in particular felt a little too on the nose. Otherwise, it was very good.
I also enjoyed the "Catastrophe Theory" story, although I believe that I said as much when I betaed it. It was interesting seeing some of the steps that led the PPC to such a dark path. I enjoy that kind of piecemeal world-building, particularly for post-apocalyptic-esque settings (which I would argue that version of the PPC kinda is).
Good stuff all around. I look forward to future stories.
PC
This rocked, especially the mission, though I think everyone else has hit all of the major points as to why. :P
Hope you're doing well!
(Are Kudos Bars still a thing? I have no idea.)
Er, well, people have commented on the ending of the mission, but that's about it except for hS' post. And I'm sure Phobos would like to hear more specifically about his piece, too. {= )
But thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed them. ^_^
~Neshomeh
Ahem.
Anyways, your ways of manifesting the in-text links were really cool and well thought-out.
And Phobos' piece was a fun read - all of that hindsight (but no real 20/20. Poor Henry. XD)! I'm going to be stalking that storyline in the future, I can tell.
I never read or listened to Phantom of the Opera, or if I did unconsciously, it wouldn’t have been an English version, so I certainly couldn’t catch anything, but the charging sequence still rang the right bells or pushed the right buttons or whatever. It’s a work of art, it is.
HG
I'm glad to hear it worked. ^_^
... What's this, no nitpicks? I was looking forward to finding out what my betas and I missed. Surely there's something?
~Neshomeh
... because I was occupied representing Wechi at the Baronial Council, but I didn’t see anything that looked wrong to me.
HG
And also on the lookout for the Apocalypse. If you couldn't find anything wrong, the end-times must be at hand! ^_~
(But naw, seriously, you're not obligated to catch everything every time. You are allowed to focus on other things.)
~Neshomeh
Rubbing her eyes, Agent Penny (DMS, Guild Assassin, OFUDisc graduate-of-sorts) shoved open the door to her response centre. It hadn't been as hard to find as usual, she reflected. Maybe I'm getting used to this place again at l-
A large, black, spike-covered creature was crouched in the middle of the floor, seemingly playing with some small object. Penny stopped dead in the doorway, and the beast tilted its head quizzically, blinking its slit-pupilled eyes.
"Why... is there a dragon in my RC?"
<<Ah, Penny...>>
A swirl of pinkish light appeared, accompanying the voice that felt more like an ancestral memory. Penny grimaced.
"Vemi, you remember that I'm over you now, right? I've got a... well, anyway, you don't have to keep following me around."
<<Firstly, I have no idea what you're on about.>> Fëamintë's light shimmered in what might almost have been a silent laugh. <<And secondly, I wasn't following you. I was halfway across Eä checking up on a pet project of mine.>>
"What, and then suddenly you were in my response centre?" Penny paused, then glowered at the dragon. "Is that yours, then?"
The dragon made a soft rumbling noise - the sort that might imply its patience was wearing thin. Fëamintë wavered slightly in the air.
<<Because I'd play with one of Melkor's servants, wouldn't I? Don't answer that.>> The Maia hesitated a moment. <<No, I'm here because you->>
"Well someone must have put it here," Penny grumbled. "Dragons don't just turn up, you know."
<<I'm sure, but if you keep annoying it, you'll->>
"I suppose I should call the mini adoption centre? Or maybe an OFU; where do you think it's from?"
The dragon now looked extremely affronted. It rose up onto its front legs, peering down at Penny as if at a particularly irritating bug. Penny ignored it.
"I don't suppose it matters really, they can sort it out. I'll talk to the Administrator, he can-"
<<PENNY!>>
Penny blinked at her former partner. "You don't have to shout. What?"
<<Look at the door.>>
Penny leant back and frowned at the numberplate. "1100. What about it?"
Incorporeal Maiar can't sigh, so what Penny heard from Fëamintë couldn't have been one. <<Look again.>>
"11...10?"
<<Yes.>>
"Ah." Penny looked back at the severely ticked off dragon. "I should probably start running at this point, yes?"
<<Probably.>>
Only, Fellrazer's blue, not black, and he doesn't have front legs—he uses his wings, like a bat. See Monstrous Nightmare on the HtTYD Wiki. {= )
Any thoughts on the stories themselves?
~Neshomeh
Dratted tetrapods, always catching me out... can you just pretend I've made those edits? ^^
The stories, in the order I read them:
-Catastrophe Theory: Whatever Whatever was particularly interesting to me, given that Cap'n Dandy is my creation and I'm the one who's most used him! He doesn't come across the same way I've always written him, but that's okay - public persona versus private diary, etc. It was a fun look into his blossom, and I liked the framing story as well.
-The Morning After Is I Think The Title was... well, it was a good story. My main issue is that Derik first appeared in the PPC riiiight about when I dropped out of action for a few years, so neither of the characters are people I'm particularly invested in. But as a story in its own right, it was good.
-The Mission Had A Title, I'm Sure was fun, but also not so fun. ^^ I loved Derik's reactions to the Phantomyness, including (of course) the finale. But... at times it felt a bit too MST-y. There were definitely sections in there where I felt I was reading this:
'Badfic badfic badfic'
Agents shout at badfic!
'Badfic badfic badfic'
Agents shout at badfic!
And yes, I know, that's what a PPC mission is all about... I'unno. I won't say 'I've never been a fan of', because it's a lie, but at the moment I'm not a fan of agents shouting at the badfic what's wrong with it. Shouting at each other, yes. Explaining what's wrong with aggressive logic, yes. But not shouting.
It's possible I've spent too much time around noisy children recently. If you do not make Erik in character I will not be your best friend any more!
Overall: I enjoyed them (and please don't read the above as saying I didn't!). And the... D'Erik sequence was very, very good. I think it was worth the extra month!
hS
Yeah, there were a few sections of the mission where I stuck in some comments and left it at that 'cuz I wanted to show the quote but wasn't quite sure how to expound on the nonsense, and the author's note was outright MST'd. I hoped there were enough sections of actual stuff happening to balance those out, which I take to be the case since you enjoyed it generally. And yay, very glad to hear the hard work paid off for the ending. ^_^
BTW, you made me start working on a recolored version of a Monstrous Nightmare to go on Gall's wiki page. I do not have time for this, but now that I've started I'll have to finish. I hope you're happy. {; P
~Neshomeh
There was only one thing I felt was missing from proceedings. See, quite a few of the videos linked had ads on them? So I thought it might have been an amusing throwaway gag to have the Sue and the Phantom try to sell each other, say, cheap laptops or car insurance for thirty seconds before one of the musical numbers. =]
Therefore, I missed out on that little detail. Can't say I'm sorry, either, though that WOULD have been funny. 'Course, unless they play the same ads every time, it might not always make sense.
Glad you liked it. ^_^
~Neshomeh
((I dislike the concept of adblocks; we live in a capitalist society, wherein this is someone's income we're talking about, in whole or in part, and adblock users are just like "sod off, your desire to eat is secondary to my desire not to give up thirty seconds of my time". Also I watch a lot of review content and plan to make some myself one of these days, so yeah, maybe I've not got a totally objective viewpoint on the matter. =] ))
For instance, I watch videos on Channel Awesome witb ads. I also read my webcomics with ads.
I DON'T turn it off places like, say, here, where the ads interfere with the content and may even be harmful, because that's bad business. I'd love to support this service, since I use it so much, but not at the cost of getting a virus and losing my hard drive or something. I also don't turn it off for any random person who puts someone else's music on YouTube, because why should they profit off that? I've paid to see PotO on stage twice and bought other merchandise, and if I like someone's music, I'll buy their CD; that's how I support the actual artists. Kindly don't judge my ethics before you know what they are. {= )
~Neshomeh
All of this is really good, but the bit at the end of "Never Let Go" is absolutely brilliant. I'm a huge sucker for that sort of identity issues. I've got plans for something similar with my agents, and I hope that when I get there I do half as good a job as you did.
You mean the very last line, or were you thinking of something else?
Heh, I can just imagine your Aaron Hunter having a Fun Time if he gets dropped into AoT. It's bad enough having two sets of memories to start with.
~Neshomeh
Releasing missions together like an old married- wait.
*runs off to read, will give reviews later*