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i am indeed a member of the followers of the holy hometank, and in hindsight, I should've linked you guys to a fanwork that's actually terrible, like the "tragic" tale of Timothy

He hadn't noticed the young man arriving. It was so hard to keep track of things like this. "Hello," he said. Social butterfly? I'll have to ask about that later. "I'm Dilx." He held out a hand and smiled at Theo. "It's nice to meet you."

Farah said, following Richard towards the sweets. "Since it's all safe for me, last I heard, and I haven't had much of human feast food."

"Well, we'll see if he is," Richard. He then took a look at the buffet, before deciding to check the different sorts of cookies present. "Anything cathing your fancy?"

Marina looked at buffet. "Tells me if you see some coffee there."

... until his partner had bothered him into it. The sheer number of people in the room was frankly intimidating, so he stayed out of the thick of the gathering, pacing slowly around the edge of the room and fiddling with the edge of his cloak.

Once Sophie was out of sight and sufficiently distracted, he paused to pull his hair back again. It was at this point that he noticed another person hovering by himself. "Hello," he said. "I see you are not much of a social butterfly either. I'm Theo."

If you're not new, that sorry for not recognizing you. If you are, welcome to the PPC! We're glad to have you around.

What're your fandoms?

- Tomash

"I'm in Crossovers." Farah said. "And I don't know if my partner will be here - I told him I was going, but I wasn't sure if he was interested."

(( If you'd like Kk'kttak to show up as well, let me know. ))

- Tomash

The Digital Antiquarian is a blog that endeavors to catalog all of computer gaming history. One year at a time. Ambitious? Yes. Does it pull it off? probably not. But it does produce a lot of really good articles about various games and game companies that are really fascinating. You can go look through the Hall of Fame if you want some oldschool game recommendations, and you can also go through the table of contents and read whatever catches your fancy. But here are a few of my favorites. Oh, and expect a lot of Infocom. This guy comes from the IF fandom (speaking of which, the XYZZY award finalists were just announced, and there are a few of those you lot should really check out because they're great, but... well, not enough time).

https://www.filfre.net/2012/01/the-birth-of-infocom/
https://www.filfre.net/2013/02/dan-bunten-and-m-u-l-e/
https://www.filfre.net/2013/12/elite/
https://www.filfre.net/2014/08/apple-carmen-sandiego-and-the-rise-of-edutainment/
https://www.filfre.net/2015/03/microproses-simulation-industrial-complex-or-the-ballad-of-sid-and-wild-bill/
https://www.filfre.net/2015/10/the-lurking-horror/
https://www.filfre.net/2015/10/mit-and-gue-or-the-annotated-lurking-horror/
https://www.filfre.net/2015/07/a-new-force-in-games-part-1-fractal-dreamers/
https://www.filfre.net/2015/07/a-new-force-in-games-part-2-a-habitat-in-cyberspace/
https://www.filfre.net/2015/07/a-new-force-in-games-part-3-scumm/
https://www.filfre.net/2017/02/loom-or-how-brian-moriarty-proved-that-less-is-sometimes-more/
https://www.filfre.net/2017/03/monkey-island-or-how-ron-gilbert-made-an-adventure-game-that-didnt-suck/
https://www.filfre.net/2018/03/the-game-of-everything-part-1-making-civilization/

Take the rest of this thread to talk about whatever cool game or development you read about, retrogaming in general, interactive fiction, or... whatever you like. Don't let THE MAN tell you what you can and can't talk about! :-P

If you'll excuse the cringeworthy wordplay to start us off, I've been dying harder than a mook at Wade Wilson's mercy to see the Deadpool sequel, and I finally got my wish last weekend. The first movie is as of now my favorite in the X-Men film canon, and this is coming from somebody who's seen most if not all of the movies over the years and really enjoyed both Days of Future Past and Apocalypse. However, Deadpool topped them both by quite a margin by not only rerailing the Merc with a Mouth, but also using quite a bit of self-deprecation among other humor to blow a mile-wide hole in the fourth wall. So, was Deadpool 2 able to outdo the first film in terms of quality and humor? The spoilerific answer is under the spoiler block!

WHAT'S LEFT TO SAY? / THESE PRAYERS AIN'T WORKING ANYMORE / EVERY WORD SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES / WHAT'S LEFT TO DO WITH THESE BROKEN PIECES ON THE FLOOR? / I'M LOSING MY VOICE CALLING ON YOU / 'CAUSE I'VE BEEN SHAKING / I'VE BEEN BENDING BACKWARDS TILL I'M BROKE / WATCHING ALL THESE DREAMS GO UP IN SMOKE / LET BEAUTY COME OUT OF ASHES / LET BEAUTY COME OUT OF ASHES / AND WHEN I PRAY TO GOD ALL I ASK IS / CAN BEAUTY COME OUT OF ASHES? / CAN YOU USE THESE TEARS TO PUT OUT THE FIRES IN MY SOUL? / 'CAUSE I NEED YOU HERE, WOAH / 'CAUSE I'VE BEEN SHAKING / I'VE BEEN BENDING BACKWARDS TILL I'M BROKE / WATCHING ALL THESE DREAMS GO UP IN SMOKE / LET BEAUTY COME OUT OF ASHES / LET BEAUTY COME OUT OF ASHES / AND WHEN I PRAY TO GOD ALL I ASK IS / CAN BEAUTY COME OUT OF ASHES? / CAN BEAUTY COME OUT OF ASHES?

Deadpool 2 starts off... pretty badly, actually. There is definitely humor and a bit of a jab at the ending of Logan - the film literally opens with a music box shaped like the dead Wolverine, in fact - and we get to see the Merc turn himself to ludicrous gibs literally within minutes of the studio titles. Fine and dandy for an introductory sequence, right? But then we get to see why he blew himself up: someone shot Vanessa while he and his gang broke into Wade's apartment. That... that's not how I wanted to start us off. It was a disappointment to me especially since Vanessa actually gains powers in the comics and I'd have wanted to see that play out in a Deadpool sequel, rather than her getting fridged less than ten minutes in. For reasons I'll get to much later in this review, the impact actually wasn't as bad as Mako Mori getting fridged in Pacific Rim: Uprising - which was in its entirety a bitter disappointment for my taste; I seriously hope a third PR movie does get made after all that fixes what this one made such a huge mess of, but I digress. Having Vanessa's death solely be for the sake of Deadpool's development was an upset I worried would detract from the rest of the movie. I even saw it coming, actually - Wade's narration mentions that like other family movies, which he insists this film is an example of, it starts with "a vicious murder"... definitely not him, but with nobody else significant other than Vanessa and her bringing up an interest in having children early on, I just knew it would end badly for her. Again, I'll get back to her later, but her fate left a sour taste in my mouth and I seriously hoped what followed made up for it.

To my surprise - and to my surprise, to my pleasant surprise - Deadpool's quest to do something decent for once, while undermined a little by his love interest's demise, combined the standard dose of fourth-wall-breaking antics, that continent-wide streak of dark black comedy that only Deadpool could deliver, and an impressive degree of character development while still keeping Wade a demented, murderous flock-head who only endears us because of his deceptively sophisticated sense of humor. Even in-universe, a brief cameo by some of the other X-Men demonstrates that with the exception of Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and the newly introduced Yukio (who I would later find out also showed up in The Wolverine but in a different timeline and portrayed completely differently), nobody wants anything to do with him whenever he shows up at the mansion. And yet he still charmed us all in spite of all of that. I don't know how the heck he does it - perhaps it's his casual transition between talking with the characters and the audience, and vice versa, or maybe it's his self-deprecation and acknowledgement that he's a total a-hole, or maybe it's both at once. But he remains as quotable and memetic as ever in this movie while also learning valuable life lessons about caring for others, which makes him as strong a protagonist as the first time around while still making his character arc here more distinct and special.

By the same token, the film does a good job of making it seem like there's a main antagonist - the spotlight is put on Vanessa's murderer, Cable, that mutant-hating preacher who abused Russel/Firefist, Russel himself, and Juggernaut, in that order - but ultimately having the main conflict being Deadpool trying to do good for both the world and himself without vivisecting people the way he usually does. There's no major threat to Wade in this movie apart from his own inner struggles, including wanting to see Vanessa in the afterlife, wanting to protect Russel from Cable (who is himself slightly mistaken), and wanting to punish those who abused Russel while not inciting him to go down the dark path Cable was trying to prevent in the first place. Likewise, Russel himself wants vengeance against the preacher who tortured him, but if he kills him he'll start wanting to kill more people and cause the bad future that Cable didn't want, so it's down to Deadpool to get him to see sense. Deadpool's ever-present rival, Colossus, also comes to terms with the nobility of the Merc's intentions, and even gets to loosen up and try out his more vulgar approach to life for once. And even Cable himself, who seems like a villain in the second act of the movie, ultimately comes to understand that you don't have to kill people to prevent a dark future and acts accordingly to help Deadpool. The main theme of the movie is that reckless violence only begets reckless violence, and that breaking the cycle can be difficult - it takes a selfless act from Deadpool himself to do the trick in this case - but the act of caring for others, so complicated and yet so simple, is a more sustainable solution than selfishly acting on your own interests. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think the world could learn from Wade's example if only it took the time to listen.

I've rambled long enough about this movie without getting into the supporting characters as well as the blatant (and bitingly subversive) attempt at making it an X-Force pilot. The marketing played up the characters recruited by Deadpool to rescue Russel to the point where some of the trailers even included scenes featuring them that weren't in the final film (and may have even been made specifically to throw off the public). With one exception, not one of them even survives long enough to participate in said rescue - Bedlam gets hit by a bus, Shatterstar is shredded by helicopter rotors, Zeitgeist goes feet-first into a woodchipper... Even Peter the memetic ordinary guy dies trying to help that last one, though he and the aforementioned exception are also the only members of the group to make it out in the long term. Only Domino, thanks to her luck power, manages to not only stick the landing but be an awesome character from that point forward. Now, I know that weaponized luck ability sounds Suvian, and if written badly it is. But if a line from Domino when the gang gets to the orphanage where Russel was kept is any indication, she used to live there as a kid - and who knows if she was tortured like Russel was. Exploring the problems of her ability, both in her troubled past and in the present day, could be an interesting avenue to explore in her future appearances. It also doesn't hurt that Deadpool actually throws shade at her luck ability for not being photogenic, even though the Disaster Dominoes she causes allow her to get to Russel with ease. Come to think of it, a further way of deconstructing her luck could be having her eventually become aware of the collateral damage it could cause to others, and try to rectify this oversight before she ends up getting lucky at the cost of someone else's life (Maybe she already has and hasn't realized it? I can't tell). Ultimately, Domino is my second favorite character in this movie aside from the Merc himself, and I hope to see more of her in future X-Men installments.

So, where will the third Deadpool movie go now that Vanessa is dead? Well... Towards the end of the movie, Cable used the one remaining charge of his time-travel device to retroactively save Deadpool, by using the same skee-ball token he'd taken from Wade earlier as a pocket protector for its owner (previously he'd taken a bullet shot by Cable himself to save Russel and demonstrate his hidden altruism). In a mid-credits stinger, Negasonic and Yukio fix the device... and give it to Wade by mistake. Whereupon the Merc proceeds to abuse its power to undo the deaths of Vanessa and Peter (along with two old shames of Ryan Reynolds' that I won't spoil even here), meaning that surprise, Vanessa escapes the fridge after all! I honestly should've seen this coming, but unlike with the Time Stone in Avengers: Infinity War, Cable's device never was played up as a means of setting right what had gone wrong in Deadpool's history, so the stinger was a bit of a curveball for me at least. Still, it was a massive relief in hindsight that Vanessa's death was undone, since that means she'll have more room for development in the third Deadpool movie. I'd still want to see her develop superpowers of her own (I think she had shapeshifting in the comics) and ultimately end up fighting alongside her fiancee, and in fact that could be the exact conflict of the third movie if I were to guess - his coaching her through her new life and the complications that both of them being superheroes (well, super-anti-hero in Wade's case) would bring to their relationship. Fridging her in this movie was a mistake, even if it was temporary, but unlike with poor Mako Mori, there is at least a very good chance that the upcoming third film could more than make up for it, and I really hope Vanessa gets a much bigger spotlight in said third film than in this one, because gosh darn it, she needs and deserves it. On a slightly unrelated note, I'm also hopeful that Yukio gets more screentime, especially considering her lovable personality and relationship with Negasonic (major props to the producers for the same-sex pairing representation!), and as with Vanessa, I hope she gets a bigger role and becomes more pivotal to whatever shenanigans Deadpool gets involved with next time he hits the big screen.

As a re-railing of Wade's character, and as the first R-rated X-Men installment, the first Deadpool already did set a pretty high bar, especially since its production was super troubled and it was only after several shake-ups in 20th Century Fox as well as Reynolds supposedly leaking footage of the movie himself that it managed to see the light of day. So was Deadpool 2 a worthy successor? There were a few bumps in the road, sure, but they weren't as consequential as I feared they would, and it was otherwise a hilarious and awesome romp that matched the first film in terms of quality and, yes, even exceeded it, thanks in part to solid supporting characters (Cable and Domino especially) and a slightly less cookie-cutter plotline. It's not perfect by any means - but then again, I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as cinematic perfection, and nobody isn't allowed to gut movies they enjoy nor are they forbidden from providing their feedback on what could be done to make these movies better. But the Deadpool series has thus far been a winner in my book, and I rest my case in the wake of Deadpool 2. I look forward to the future cinematic fourth-wall-obliterating adventures of Merc with a Mouth... even if the rest of the X-Men probably wouldn't.

Grading Scheme:
- 96 - 100: A+
- 93 - 96: A
- 90 - 92.9: A-
- 87 - 89.9: B+
- 83 - 86.9: B
- 80 - 82.9: B-
- 77 - 79.9: C+
- 73 - 76.9: C
- 70 - 72.9: C-
- 67 - 69.9: D+
- 60 - 66.9: D
- Below 60: E

Grades:
- Writing: 10
- Characterization: 8
- Pacing: 8
- Creativity: 9
- Consistency: 8
- Cinematography: 10
- World Building: 9
- Music and Sound: 9
- Effects: 8
- Engagement: 10

Final Grade: 89 (B+)

Looking at the post now, it was a hastily put together post that was not fairly considering all sides of the story. It unfairly attacked you, without knowing why you had said what you had. If I had taken the time as I should of to stop and ask what actually happened instead of jumping to my own conclusions, I would never had made that post. I also feel that it crosses the spirit of the Constitution, even if it does not technically cross the Constitution as written.

Beyond this, it also fails to meet my own standards for my posts on this board, and while they may not be as right as the Constitution is, I do still try to abide by them.

So, in a long and convoluted way, yes, I do confirm that I want the post titled 'One small point' deleted.

Novastorme

I will redact it for you if you confirm you definitely want me to. However, this is not something commonly done, and I would ask that you consider deeply whether you really want it erased.

I'm sorry. Having read the post above in its entirety, I can only apologise for attacking you and\or the Nameless Admin. While I believe the spirit of certain parts of the post may yet be needed at some point in the future, the post in its entirety is uncalled for, and if it is possible, and you don't mind. I'd like to request that it is deleted.

If you want me to go all-out with the Suvian descriptions: I have jade green eyes and the pupil is ringed with gold.

That probably contributed to why that color combo is my favorite, come to think of it...

Also, my baby brother and I apparently have identical faces. My mom once took headshots of us and photoshopped them together, right down the middle. It was perfectly symmetrical.

It appears Twitch is going to do one of their marathon streams, this time for Classic Who, starting next week

Not necessarily inherently Suvian traits, but physical traits that 'Sues tend to have to make themselves more specialer, like funny birthmarks or naturally silver hair. It's generally a bad idea to give a fictional character more than one of these (or any at all, depending), but the thing is that they do sometimes happen in real life.

For example, I have a bright red birthmark over my right eye that was only visible when I was angry until I was about seven. At that point we thought I'd grown out of it but I recently discovered that if I'm angry enough it still can make an appearance.

I know a woman who has auburn hair with a natural streak of white in it. She looks just like Anna from Frozen. She dyes it, because she's tired of people asking her if she's trying to be Anna from Frozen.

I also know an entire family whose eyes appear to change with their mood. They mostly just cycle through shades of green and brown. (I don't think the color actually changes, but it sure looks like it does!) At least one of them has eyes that get so bloodshot when she's angry that they look like they turn red. She was usually my babysitter growing up, and believe you me, nothing makes you want to sit down and shut up like your babysitter's eyes turning red.

If I saw any of these traits randomly appear on a (human) fictional character, I'd be on the lookout for a 'Sue. But they're actually super interesting and unique on real people. Do you guys have any stories of weird but sort of cool physical features that you would never give your OCs?

I doubt my mum would want something like that on her kindle.

Specifically, the thread immediately above constitutes a claim that Zdimensia was not responsibile for the recent trolling which purported to be by her; thus, any comments addressed to her should be considered retracted.

It would be better in future if you asked why I chose to post as the Nameless Admin directly naming Zdimensia, rather jumping to the conclusion that it was a groundless accusation.

hS

Someone purporting to be Zdimensia (variously 'z', 'zd', 'f', and 'you know who') has over the last few hours repeatedly posted in such a way as to cause the front page of the Board to replace itself with a gif and the text 'This is for ruining my life. -zd'. These posts were deleted on sight by the Nameless Admin, along with one from the same source saying 'I'm never going to go away.' The Board has also been secured against such attempts; the last three or four had no effect.

palindromordnilap is now claiming to have been the one making those posts, and by implication the ones earlier this month which attempted the same thing.

It was a seriously NSFW gif of... something meaty being squeezed out of a certain nether orifice, with the message "F--k you guys for ruining my life."

It was signed "zd".

If you want screenshots, I believe Calliope has one.

No offence Ix, but right now I'm not sure if you're helping the process that I believe we need to go through in revelation of this. This is no longer just about Bram. It's now bigger than just one person...

In my original response, I stated that it was zdimensia who was primarily in the wrong; perhaps I should've made that clearer from the get-go, and I apologize for wording it as though I was friendly-firing at the rest of you as well for banning her, which was not intended at all. I do know that she was banned multiple times as well, but the problem is that I have yet to see her give up and leave us alone even WITH that in place. She's ban-evaded, harassed people in private, and now incited someone's own poor behavior which has led to HIS leaving the PPC as well.

What I'm most concerned about isn't that we banned her in the first place - a move which I whole-heartedly supported, mind - but that we're not doing enough to perma-lock her out of the community, since it seems as though she could still cause trouble even WITH these bans in place. I've seen other communities I know of simply ban or block toxic people, only for these people to attempt to bribe or even attack community members in private in direct response to it. Hell, a certain disaster over half a decade ago involving me and a DeviantArt group I was once a part of featured this exact thing, and it was only after I stopped being toxic of my own volition and after the group got taken down and remodeled under another URL (for multiple reasons, possibly including me) that the whole thing finally died down. Chances are we might be on the same impasse, but with someone with an even worse grudge against the community that kicked her out, as well as the potential to simply use different IPs each time she tries to come back.

I have no ill towards the PPC for how you guys handled this, and I still applaud you for handling it when you did. What we really need, however, is a reliable means of keeping those we've banned from trying to force their way back in, which factors in ban evasion, private harassment, and whatever else these people could and have attempted. Perhaps this community is working on exactly that - I'm not involved in community administration enough to know for sure, and some clarification on this would be helpful. But for me personally, it can't come soon enough, especially in the face of such an extreme case as this one.

[Per the direct request of the original poster, the text of this post has been redacted by the Nameless Admin.]

I don't know if you're trying to play Devil's Advocate or what, but zdimensia was banned with due process, not once, but twice. She was given multiple chances, long past what she should have been owed, to change her behavior and apologize.

What we're doing now, responding to her ban evasion, is nothing like the incident you're referring to.

So trying to guilt trip the entire community for zdimensia's actions is not cool.