Alas, it seems to have fallen off the Board forever. The march of time moves on, it seems.

However, thanks to hS and his Board Archive, I can give you a recreation of my request.

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Please Note: Neshomeh will not be responding to this post, so someone else should.

I solemnly swear I am up to no... wait... wrong oath. Let me try that again.

I comma square bracket recruit's name square bracket comma do solemnly swear to wipe out the UnCanon wherever I encounter it comma to kill any and all Mary Sues I encounter bracket unless they can be recruited bracket comma and to protect the Plot Continuum at all times semicolon also not to stampede comma drool over comma or otherwise attack Lust Objects comma and not to moan about Upstairs too much if I value my life full stop this I swear by square bracket recruit's deity of choice bracket preferrably Eru bracket square bracket full stop.

\*Name: Barid
\*Species: Jungle Troll (Darkspear Tribe)
Preferred continuum: Warcraft
Preferred department: All-Purpose Department, Warcraft Division
I like to: (check all that apply)
X kill 'Sues
X light fires
_ use gadgets
X administer first aid
_ fix things
_ provide psychological help
X yell
X assassinate
_ stop homicidal partners
X destroy fuzzy animal companions
_ wash bloodstains
_ be on medication
_ knit
X find new ways to kill 'Sues
X travel to new places
X Other (Please specify):
Collect shrunken heads
Practice Voodoo
Dance


\*Name: Eamon Brightbeard
\*Species: Dwarf (Ironforge)
Preferred continuum: Warcraft
Preferred department: All-Purpose Department, Warcraft Division
I like to: (check all that apply)
X kill 'Sues
_ light fires
X use gadgets
X administer first aid
X fix things
X provide psychological help
X yell
_ assassinate
X stop homicidal partners
_ destroy fuzzy animal companions
X wash bloodstains
_ be on medication
_ knit
_ find new ways to kill 'Sues
X travel to new places
X Other (Please specify):
Study history
Polish his armor
Avoid Luxury (he has taken a vow of chastity)

Barid and Eamon are both from Azeroth, a planet in the Warcraft continuum. They were recruited after having dispatched a Sue that wandered through their battle to the death on her way to seduce the Warchief, Thrall. The agents who had been tracking the Sue showed up shortly thereafter to find the Troll Priest and Dwarf Paladin dazed and covered in glitter. Barid and Eamon were transported to Medical to recover from their near-Sue experience.

Upon their release from Medical, the two were recruited into the Warcraft Division of the All-Purpose Department due to the fact that the Division is highly understaffed. They now share a Response Center and visit their home continuum frequently on missions, and the occasional food run for Barid (due to the clearly racist policy of not feeding Trolls).


Oh look, a writing sample.

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Not the kind of thing that would likely pass under the new system. There's little information about the characters, the writing sample is a non-PPC related story, etc. However, the important thing about my request is that it shows I understood the spirit of the community.

-Phobos, who was still Barid when he made this request in 2010

Raven Firedragon and I came up with the idea for a new department - the Department of Geographical Aberrations. We wrote up a description, and posted it to the Board asking if it was good and we could write it. GreyLadyBast said 'sure', and away we went!

Yeah, I... don't recommend trying that nowadays.

---

"Why not? Why not?"

"Because if you do/The Big Bad Mouse will come after you."

No, seriously. The reason we don't do it that way any more is pretty much twofold:

1/ We like the idea of a single, unified PPC canon these days. Back then? Not so much. You could pretty much write anything you wanted, and no-one cared. These days, we PGs want to know that you know your way around.

2/ Back in the day, the Permission Givers knew who everyone was. You were probably on either Cam or Bast's LJ; there was a good chance you'd chatted with Thalia on AIM; everyone was a fanwriter, and you'd probably been reviewed by at least one of them. If Miss Cam saw Lacksidacksical asking to write a spinoff (all that capital-P Permission business came later), she'd go 'oh, yes, Lacksi, wrote that fic about Legolas getting trapped in the Glittering Caves, and isn't she the one who knows all that trivia about medieval weapons?'.

Nowadays? It's partly our fault as PGs, it's partly the way the internet has changed, it's partly the makeup of the community, it's partly the slowdown of the Board, it's all sorts of things... but I haven't a clue who you are. I mean, I vaguely recognise your name, which puts you at least at Level Two, but... that's pretty much it.

Yes, I can check (and if I was handling a Permission request you can bet I would), but I don't know. And that makes the old way of things... pretty darn hard.

(Also: when we started asking for writing samples, they were almost universally your other fanfic, which was probably in one of maybe five fandoms. Then more and more people didn't have recent fanfic, and those who did usually had it in Obscure Fandom #97001, so the practice of writing a PPC sample came in. The current prompts are just a way to quantify that. Just a random thought.)

hS

I posted descriptions of both my agents and linked to the control and random prompts, as well as the badfic I wanted to kill. (Have you read the article on the subject yet?)

Coming up with my agents was fairly tricky, though.

Third time was the charm, although hS was actually pretty reluctant to give me Permission. He wasn't too sure about my writing style.

I think it paid off, though. I've discovered four new minis (well, five if you count my cowrite with SkarmorySilver, still in progress I swear), I've ventured into quite a few new continua, I'm trying to show that there are good parts of the job (please see RC 211 mission 3, the moment with Valon and Yuu), and I even managed to set up the appearance of one of the biggest and baddest dragons in history.

I'm not a great writer by any stretch of the imagination; for instance, it's pretty clear that Gabby still doesn't have a personality. I'm getting there, though, and the best part of working with the PPC is that we support each other. Advice is exchanged, lessons are taught and learned, and we all improve each other's writing.

I didn't ask for permission until roughly two years after I joined the community. This wasn't about the PGs knowing me well enough, but about me knowing I was ready.

My case is also different in that I used a non-PPC story for my writing sample.

And it was Neshomeh who wore the hat. :)

It was right before the current Permission system was put in place; the PGs were still using the old system of 'give us a description of your agents and write a short story of them'. We didn't get no stinkin' prompts like you whippersnappers and we got on just fine! *brandishes cane*

Joking aside, I remember spotting a typo in my request right after posting it and panicking because ZOMG TYPO I'M RUIIIINED. ^^; hS seemed to like it alright, though, so it was fine. :P

Wait, right, moral. *clears throat* While you should definitely present the best request you can, don't panic if you have a few minor slip-ups. It happens to the best of us.

As for if you've been around long enough... *scratches head* Well, I definitely recognize your name (it's rather distinctive!), but if anyone asked me what you were like, Iunno what I'd say. Might have to let someone else make the call on that. It's not so much 'have you been here long enough?', more like 'have you been a part of the community?' Someone who lurks for years and only shows up occasionally to post once before vanishing is less likely to get Permission than someone who posts more frequently, I would think.

I chickened out and still haven't asked.

I have a feeling that's not what you're after, though.

Here, look after ratbrianbasher. ;-)
Also, that timing thing gets me, too. I've written my samples and everything, but I don't know whether my presence in the community is appreciable enough yet.

May I pleeeeeease have permission, oh wise and handsome PGs? Pretty please with a cherry on top, sprinkles optional?