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(I have the office to myself for at least an hour this morning, whee!)

I like this theory, and I totally want to see that sequel.

As for under-aged-ness, if I'm not completely off-base, girls used to be considered women as soon as they got their menses (and could therefore start having babies), and 11 is a pretty common age for that to happen. While that seems terribly young to a modern eye, we're talking about a time when people lived to about 35 on average, IIRC. Being considered of age at about one-quarter to one-third of your expected life span isn't that outrageous.

Of course, as the average life span has increased, the age of maturity has been pushed back accordingly.

~Neshomeh

They weren't around in 2015. But Time Shenanigans are archetypical of the PPC, so sure, they're totally there.

If you want ideas for what terrible things can happen to them... Nah. Not giving them. I wanna see what you come up with.

I do have a job for Alex Dives. Haven't actually started writing that story yet, but it is a major plot point in the series. He'd be perfect for that.

As for the rest, we'll see what we can do.

-Phobos

Technically speaking, agents Ix, Lorson, and Farilan weren't in the PPC before mid-2015, there's that detail for you—but if for whatever reason you need more characters, feel free to ruin them. I'll probably be sitting quite gleefully to the sidelines with popcorn.

Hello, all. As many of you know, I have put out the call a couple of times over the years for people to loan me their characters for Catastrophe Theory. Well, I'm back to writing it again, and I find I am running out of characters. Not really sure what happened to all of them, yet, but I'm sure we'll find out.

So, if you want to see me do some terrible things to your characters (just ask the Hippie Sequoia, if you don't believe me), sign them up today! (Technically, they needed to be part of the PPC before mid-2015 for this to work, but I won't tell if you don't.)


Some context, for those who need it.

Catastrophe Theory is an apocalyptic future timeline. Nothing good happens to anyone there. This is the future that happens if the Sues win. You can find the main story at the link below, and supplementary stories linked at the bottom of that one.

Catastrophe Theory:The End Is Nigh - Warnings for violence, blood, and gore.

-Phobos

Historically speaking, I mean.

...

Does Disney just have a thing for underage princesses? I mean, thinking about it, Elsa waits a while after her parents' death to take the throne; if that means she wasn't yet of the age of majority, then Anna is still under it; I'd guess she's a good two years younger than her sister.

Good flippin' grief.

(PS: As second in line to the throne, Marian is also a rightful Disney Princess.)

hS

Ad the issue of Eleanor being eleven shouldn't be a problem. After all, Disney's Snow White was only fourteen when she ran off with her prince to get married!

*cough*

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly what a day.

No, there's not a live-action film you don't know about... I'm talking about the classic children's movie with the talking foxes and hissing snake. Oh yes.

Not too long ago, I realised that it was possible to pin Robin Hood down to a very specific point in time. The film ends with King Richard's return, but that's the thing - Richard the Lionheart only visited England twice: once when he was crowned in 1189, and once after being ransomed out of captivity in 1194. He may have also popped back over the Channel during his wars in France in late '94, but after that he never returned.

Since the setting of Robin Hood is very clearly one where Richard has been away for some time, we can pin the film rather precisely to spring 1194. Richard was freed from captivity in February, and we know he was back out to the wars before the year was out. This fits with the visuals, too - the trees of Sherwood are green, but there's no sign of summer fruits or autumn fall.

1194 was also the height of Prince John's power under Richard - because his brother was in prison! In fact, while the brothers' mother was working to collect enough gold to ransom her elder son, John actually offered his captors money to keep Richard in prison. It certainly explains why he didn't want to hear about him, doesn't it?

Now that we've got that settled, here's the thing that really puzzled me: Maid Marian. Normally, she is a noble lady who knew Robin in his childhood, but this film takes things a step further:

Klucky: Believe me, someday soon, your uncle, King Richard, will have an outlaw for an in-law.

Wait, what?! Marian is Richard's niece? That puts her in a tiny category of historical figures: she has to be either the child of one of Richard's siblings, or one of his wife's.

We can narrow that down further by eliminating Queen Berengaria's family entirely: the queen was from Navarre, down between Spain and France, and didn't even visit England until after Richard's death. Since we know Marian knew Robin when she was younger (and since she doesn't have a Spanish accent), we have to assume that she's of the Royal Family of England.

So who could she be? Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine had eight children in total, but the list can be whittled down very easily:

-William, Count of Poitiers, died age 3. She can't be his daughter.
-Henry the Young King died in 1183, childless, at age 28.
-Matilda, Duchess of Saxony, died in 1189, around the time of Richard's ascension. She had five children who survived to adulthood, but four of them were boys, and the fifth (another Matilda) was married off by Richard in 1189.
-Obviously she can't be Richard's daughter, not that he had any.
-Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, died in 1186, but left behind three children. We'll come back to these.
-Eleanor, Queen of Castile, had a whole host of children... with her husband, the king of Castille. Most of them died young, and the daughters who didn't ended up married to Spanish and French kings.
-Joan, Queen of Sicily, had one daughter (also called Joan), but she wasn't actually born until 1198. No.
-John... well, she could be Bad Prince John's daughter, but I feel like that would probably have come up in the film? Maybe?

Okay, so let's go back to Geoffrey. As stated, he had three children, though one (another Matilda) died before 1189. The youngest child was a son, Arthur, Duke of Brittany, but the eldest was a daughter... Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany.

Eleanor is very nearly a perfect fit for Marian.
-Her father died when she was two, leaving her to be raised by her uncle Richard.
-John hated her. She actually had a better claim to the throne of England than he did; in fact on Richard's death she was legitimately second in line, after her 12 year old younger brother. John ended up imprisoning her in 1202 for the rest of her life, a further 39 years. (They left that bit out...!)
-She was out of the country for a time prior to Richard's return, but came back before he did. Specifically, she was sent to Austria to marry Duke Leopold's son, but turned back when the duke died. This would definitely fit with the plot of the film, which has Robin going on about how much she's grown.
-She never (historically) married, despite being described by Wikipedia as 'the most marriagable princess' due to her status. Richard tried to marry her off in 1195, and again in 1198, but it never worked - perhaps because of her secret former-outlaw husband?
-Her name literally has 'Maid' in it.

There are only two real problems with this theory, both of them easily solvable.
-Her name is wrong. Conveniently, in most versions of the Robin Hood tale, Marian spends some time in a convent - and in most convents, the nuns change their names. The most common new name, in fact, is some variant on Mary... say, for instance, Marian?
-Er... Eleanor was about 11 in 1194 (Wikipedia gives her birthdate as 1182-84). That makes Robin Hood super skeevy. And yet... she was being proffered for arranged marriages by 1190, and actually sent to formalise them by 1193. Clearly King Richard had no problem marrying her off at such a young age.

Which does leave the question: if she was such a valuable commodity, why would Richard marry Marian/Eleanor off to some minor outlaw nobleman? The answer, surely, is plain: Arthur of Brittany was a little boy, and Marian was the only other person who could stand in the way of John's claim to the throne. She was still a child... but Robin wasn't, and he had just proven that he could stand up to John. He may not have been the successor Richard wanted, but he was a darn sight better than the alternative.

(I now want to see a sequel about Prince Consort Robin's fight to secure his wife's throne against Bad King John... I can't be the only one, right? :D)

hS, oo-de-lally

Chapter 6

The moment with the song at the start of this chapter is really sweet. I like the fact that the agents clearly show their affection for the various canons, without descending into fangirling of the sort shown by even Jay and Acacia. It fits their characters nicely.

I also like how Nikki's feelings for Sergio come across, particularly in her conversation with Homura. It helps that she's right in what she says, of course.

... and then the plot - the real plot, the one about 'what in the worlds is going on with Sergio' - kicks into high gear. In true traditional fashion, I have little to say about this part, because I'm too busy reading it. ^_^ I absolutely love the way you framed the middle of this chapter, though. And the ending... gulp!

Favourite line:

[Time wasn’t supposed to elapse in your world afterward in relation to the PPC’s standard time. Or something. Multidimensional physics are kinda confusing.]

“… I’m still trying to understand that I’m a fictional character whose life is written by someone else, actually,” Homura admitted.

“Well, as of now, nobody is writing us,” Nikki reassured her.

“You sure, Nikki?” Sergio asked. “Maybe that 14 year-old idiot who wrote me back in 2006 is still at it.”

This sort of thing perfectly bottles all four characters and their relations to each other. It's brilliant.

hS

I don't think you can go wrong with the ones of the Atlus games.

The musics from the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games are always suited to the scenes they're played in, going from epic to dramatic to sad to fluff to epic godslaying... Rock was never so awesome before. And acid jazz for Persona 5. All of it coming mainly from composer Shoji Meguro (guesss it's no cance they decided to create dancing game spin-offs of Persona 3, 4 and 5.

And to name an individual track, Magus' Battle Theme from Chrono Trigger is juuust what the doctor ordered.

(This review is offered as part of my new standing pledge, in response to this post of yours. Aura was actually written by Kaitlyn - I've passed your comments on - but I'll take it anyway. :))

I'm going to jump right in and say it: I love the framing of a story by way of clock maintenance. It does a good job of keeping the writing contained, while also telling us a little about Peregrin. Metaphorically, it also casts Peregrin as a 'clockwork' figure himself: his stream of consciousness comes over as even more structured and logic-focussed than it perhaps already would. The repeated "Yes... yes." in his final thought takes on overtones of a tick... tick... tick. It's good use of the frame to enhance the narrative.

hS

This is exactly what it says on the tin: a standing pledge to reciprocate reviews. If you leave a comment on one of my stories - whether on the Board as it's posted, on FF.net (for the few that are up there), on the Board at another time, or on the Wiki (assuming I see it) - I will reciprocate by reading and reviewing something you've written (assuming I can find something). I'll leave that review in the dedicated comment spot, if it has one, or on your Wiki talk page otherwise; I'll also put it on the Board if that's where you reviewed me.

I'm applying this slightly retroactively, so Thoth and Tomash, you can expect something when I get a chance.

hS

(... which is a brilliantly nonspecific answer; everything is a combination of lots of factors.)

Thinking back to the old days on FF.net, there was a lot of subtle emphasis on reviews:

-On the category page and on the story itself, you had the number of previous reviews front and centre, with a link to let you read them. They weren't just for the author - they were for other readers, too.

-You had a big empty text box at the bottom of the page, inviting you to write in it.

-Chapter length limits meant you saw a lot of those text boxes. You'd probably split a big, modern mission over three or four chapters, whereas on GDocs or a website, it's all one huge column of words.

-"Please R&R!" "Reviews are very welcome." "If I get five reviews of this chapter, I'll continue!" "If you review my story, I'll review yours!" These things come across as shallow attention-seeking, and we love to mock them... but they also work.

We don't have that. Even your user page is hidden away behind a link; it's not there, in your face. And the lack of ability to review elsewhere (and the fact that we've drifted away from being a community of fanfic writers and readers) means people have lost the... the cultural imperative to do so.

... hmm. This gives me an idea.

hS, splitting off for a new post

And how is your mother Mnemosyne, my dear? Still smarting from forgetting (see what I did there?) to keep Zeus from my side? Of course, she was his aunt, so it was never going to last, was it?

And yes, Zeus is my brother, but have you seen what my other options were? The Titans were all either jerks or married, their kids were even worse (well, Eos was lovely, but she had a thing for militant types), the older generations were a complete shambles, and Prometheus' little mud-creatures were simply mucky. It wasn't until Hephaestus made the lovely Pandora (the first use of bone china in creature creation, and didn't it just show!) that they were worth paying the slightest attention to.

I suppose there was always Scaphrodite, she wasn't technically a relative, but, um, no. Not my type.

And... well, Zeus is Zeus. If you had a choice between the King of the Gods and, like, anyone else, which one would you marry?

((Herasoron is so petty, you guys. XD ~hS))

... every single Greek myth ever wasn't about the ancient practice of sacrificing your king all the time? Huh, who'd'a thunk it? ^_~

Yeah, he's weird, and his prose is kind of terse and dull. But it's the only complete telling of the Greek myths I've got to hand, so.

hS

The entire playlist should be on YouTube, I highly recommend listening to it (though be warned, it WILL get stuck in your head). Let's start with the first song at least: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VhinPd5RRJw

But before you do here's an introduction to the musical: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6sziLDcwSRQ

(I also recommend watching more of this person's videos, she mainly reviews bad musicals. It's quite entertaining.)

Enjoy!

At least, in the early ones. Smells like spice and hot air.

Except Dune is way, way darker with drugs and instead of the Force the main character (a kid with a four-lettered stereotypically English name) is getting battered with every possible future right into his skull.

Knuckle Sandwich is an upcoming indie game, which is a sort of RPG kinda thing in the stylings of the Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga games and Earthbound. I, in general, recommend it a lot. Play the demo! It's really funny and fun and also gets really really dark.

But, anyways, one of the central parts of the game, as according to its dev, is the soundtrack - indeed, from what I can tell, of the five or six people working on it, everyone but the lead dev is a musician.

My particular favourite songs from the demo are Back Alley Beat and Ninety Eight. The music uses a lot of kind of sampling of human voices and so on, and, in general, fits the kind of quirky, goofy tone the game goes for.

Also, I'll just recommend Nelward, one of the game's musicians, as a whole. He's what drew me to it. It's kinda hard to describe his music, except as, well, sort of goofy electronic whatever such? Love that guy, anyway.

And I certainly haven't read them in the proper order. But I still really loved this interlude! It was really sweet, and it's always nice to see something go right for agents. They usually have to put up with so much garbage. And this seemed like a very nice, satisfying conclusion to the hints of romance that appeared in the stories I read. Even though I didn't see everything about these two, this was still a good read.

Borderlands 2, Just Cause 3, The Witcher 3, and Darkest Dungeon.

It should really go without saying, but I heavily, heavily recommend Life is Strange (though it deals with sensitive topics like suicide, rape, and murder, so just a heads-up if you're triggered by that). It's an excellent choice-based story driven game with puzzle elements to it, and I cannot stress enough how much the ending will make you cry. It's excellent.

So, Steam is having a summer sale that'll be lasting until July 5.

I haven't actually bought anything yet, but I'm thinking of picking up Caves of Qud and Frozen Synapse, mainly.

So yeah, a thread - what've you bought, what do you recommend, what's definitely not worth it, and so on.

- Tomash

Have I made it quite clear enough that I like these two yet? I like these two.

I kinda just skimmed this piece because jeez is it 10:40 already? But yeah. I like Gall and Derik, and they have a good thing going.

...And you mentioned my agent in response to Ix's comment. Allow me to quietly sink into the floor for a moment, as is semi-customary when my work is mentioned. :-P

Y'know, when the banter is just banter and not actual fighting...

Actually, in all seriousness, the more I play with the ship, the more I see how it can be nearly stable. Not totally stable, cuz look who we're dealing with, but considering Gall settling down a bit as she gets older and Derik getting more of a grip with help from his bro Thoth? There will certainly be bumps in the road, but the ship won't totally derail and fall out of the sky because of them.

... I think I have lost track of what kind of vehicle this actually is.

In any case, I'm having a lot of fun using these prompts to set it up. Much easier than trying to do it in missions alone. I'm glad you enjoyed this one. Thanks!

~Neshomeh

Fun fact: Quake wasn't supposed to have a soundtrack at all, originally. But Trent Reznor convinced the team to add it. He also did a lot of the other sound effects as well: IIRC, those grunts and screams and stuff? That's Trent.