Bowers.

New mission, and much rejoicing! Also, Adoptables page? by SkarmorySilver on 2015-04-23 17:12:00 UTC Reply

Why the "much rejoicing", you ask? I'd tell you, but it'll spoil the fun. Let's just say that I haven't put Falchion's team to use in a good long while, and this was something I've been meaning to do for a very long time. What is it, you may ask? Well, find out for yourselves in...

"Don't Fear the Reaper"

And just so I don't bump off threads from the front page, and in light of a certain event from this latest mission, I've been meaning to ask a little something. We have SO many characters recruited from missions and such, so I was thinking... Would it be worth making an Adoptables page on the Wiki so people who browse it can claim them? Some of the characters I've seen agents pick up seem to be too good to go to waste, and if anyone wants to see more of them, they could pick up these characters and write them for themselves.

IDK, this idea may be a side-effect of me recruiting a lot of characters, but I think it could work out pretty well if we can manage it right. Your thoughts, guys?

WhereÂ’s my neuralyzer? by Hieronymus Graubart on 2015-04-26 10:36:00 UTC Reply

“They die naturally,” said Rashida, taking out your neuralyzer.
Give it back, Rashida!

FLA— Wait, there is still something to do.

Continuity errors?

Falchion wrested the everything note from his [Dark’s] hands, and backed off just as Ripper shoved the nozzle of his Tau Cannon into Dark’s crotch.
...
Falchion stepped out a second later, and Aiko followed suit, holding the colorful hare.
Where did Falchion step out from? Wasn’t he already there, wresting the everything note from Dark’s hands? And where was Blud in this scene? Maybe you actually meant:
"Blud stepped out a second later, and Aiko followed suit, holding the colorful hare."

[Then the agents charged everybody, Blud said his line, the fireball arrived and Dark] prepared to spring at Ripper [...] Before the Stu could lunge for the everything note, however, Falchion threw his knife at him...
What now? Did Dark lunge at Ripper, or at Falchion, who should have the everything note at this time?

Before Dark could grab his everything note, Ripper had snatched it from him.
How? Didn’t Falchion still have the everything note?

FLASH!

Did I just encounter a troll? Nah, can’t be.

HG

*gives back your neuralyzer* by SkarmorySilver on 2015-04-26 18:29:00 UTC Reply

To be fair, TV Tropes DOES label it as a troll fic. I can't be sure of that either, though, since I get the sense that the content would've needed to be even more inflammatory if that was the case. Either way, well, Dark is dead now, so I can't possibly care less. XD

You could always add them to the NPC page... by eatpraylove on 2015-04-24 04:07:00 UTC Reply

Under the "adoptable NPCs" section. (Also, I love your description of what's-his-name's bathrobe. Now I want one with my initial on it. XD)

Time for my traditional (short) list of nitpicks!
"“Original the Character, Donut Steel~!”"
Hilarious, but that "the" doesn't belong. (Also, a couple lines later, you refer to him as "the Skarmory agent." A simple "he" will suffice.)

"'...I recorded what happened for all posterity. ..."
Either record something for posterity or for all eternity, but don't do both. (And yes, I'm aware that technically "all eternity" is redundant, too. :P)

(also, wow, stealing the main character's invincible egomaniac killer alter-ego. Like that's not basically an arrest warrant/stupid.)

More tomorrow.

As promised. by eatpraylove on 2015-04-24 13:58:00 UTC Reply

"...a massive stage-like structure made of fresh conifer branches, referred to by World One naturalists as a bower."
Just call it a massive bower made of fresh conifer branches. We all know what you mean. (Did Velociraptor build bowers? Somehow that doesn't strike me as predator behavior.)

I love the idea of Defect Notes, but if they work like the actual Death Note...that's kind of overpowered, wouldn't you say?

Also, awww, Aiko has a pet now. ^_^ Goodness knows she needs something fluffy after that...thing. I'm guessing the hare is primarily pink and green? (Sue colors?)

Bowers. by Huinesoron on 2015-04-24 14:20:00 UTC Reply

Short answer: who knows?

Long answer: Who knows? Bowers don't fossilise, and don't require particular evolutionary traits. Velociraptor was basically a murderchicken, so it was birdlike enough to have possibly built one. I don't know that being a predator would impact that either way - does hunting animals somehow make you less liable to construction work than hunting fruit?

On the other hand: bowerbirds are, according to Wikipedia, pretty unique. They're isolated to one geographical area. It is not a common trait among modern dinosaurs - so it's unlikely it was among Mesozoic dinosaurs, either.

On the third hand: I seem to recall that All Your Yesterdays, the free, online sequel to the stunning paleoart book All Yesterdays, includes a picture called 'bower tyrants', presumably of bower-building tyrannosaurs. So there's that. ^_^ (AYY is the third entry on the page; AY itself is the second, and you can google up a lot of pictures from it. I know nothing about Cryptozoologicon.)

hS

All errors fixed. by SkarmorySilver on 2015-04-25 04:25:00 UTC Reply

Yeah, the bower was a speculative thing. I always figured it would be less sophisticated than a specific pattern of objects, though. I think the "bower" would be more akin to a hunter's trophy wall than an interior designer's exhibition like what a modern bowerbird would make. The more prey remains are on display, the more successful the owner is at hunting, and therefore the more fit he is for breeding.

If only I had a stable income, All Yesterdays would be really high on the list of books I'd buy. From what I've heard, it's an amazing collection of speculative palaeo-art, and the restorations of modern animals using the outdated trends of dinosaur media are also hilariously disturbing.

P.S. Ripper's a Deinonychus, by the way. Just FYI. XD

That thing was just full of "What..." by Edhelistar on 2015-04-23 18:13:00 UTC Reply

Also, radioactive burgers! XD

And this is only the first third of the actual fic... by SkarmorySilver on 2015-04-23 18:27:00 UTC Reply

It was the Dark Yagami I was dealing with, after all. XD

Shame I didn't get to the part with L deciding to sneak into a building by jumping through a window, though. That would've been hilarious to see. XDDDDD

You know, I would love to adopt Aiko... by Edhelistar on 2015-04-24 00:18:00 UTC Reply

...buuuuuut, I already have a character with that name, and I already have too much female characters. XD
THAT'S what I was missing! by Voyd on 2015-04-23 18:28:00 UTC Reply

I was kinda wondering when I would see that. I haven't read the fic myself, but it's the quote for the trope With Catlike Tread. If memory serves, that line went something like this:

"i will have to use stealth said L and he jumped in the broken window screaming"

There is one, sorta. by Neshomeh on 2015-04-23 17:57:00 UTC Reply

http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Non-PlayerCharacter#AdoptableNPCs

Thing is, on the whole, I think people prefer to come up with their own characters. They only seem to get adopted if they come from a fandom/species/group someone really loves, and then only if someone has the time to write them.

This is why I try not to recruit unless I have specific plans of my own. Most bit characters can just assimilate with canon, and if they can't, chances are good that they ought to be executed.

~Neshomeh

^That. by Huinesoron on 2015-04-23 18:43:00 UTC Reply

I've recruited... maybe two characters in missions? One was that guy with no hands in Celebrian, at the specific request of whoever took him on (forgive the lack of names; headache). The other was ~~fake!Arwen~~ Hypatia, in Agent Huinesoron's last mission; with her, I had specific things in mind to do with her (mostly involving picking on Agent Kaitlyn ^_^).

But randomly recruiting characters is something I don't bother with. I don't have a problem with it - I just don't feel like doing it.

(And part of the reason is that, yeah, most people don't want to adopt them.)

hS