The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

((And thank you! Stay tuned for a new front-pager, then...))

Ah, how excited I was when I saw a Plortesque setting - but for science fiction, rather than fantasy! Ah, the wide vistas that were opened up before me which were all then immediately closed when everyone forgot about them!

But it's back baby, and better than ever. Or, er, untouched, I suppose, until we do stuff in it.

Anyhow, I might try writing something in it, especially considering my uni workload is kind of winding down a touch, now. Here's hoping it gets more love now than it did last time, ay?

... a calque on 'taking a record of', ie, gathering charges.

Proposal:

We are dedicated to promoting good writing and also criticizing and making fun of bad writing. We usually do this by writing stories where our characters travel into bad fanfics, observe and comment on their flaws (such as eye-bleeding character defamation, eye-sporking slash, eye watering Suvians, and other things that may cause ocular damage), and then kill, exorcise, or otherwise spork the fic into oblivion.

While I'm here: I'm moderately uncomfortable with linking to an extra-Wiki image in the sentence 'Some people tend to call anything they don't like a Sue'. Can we do something with that?

hS

I've always thought the Ring of Air was associated with protection and concealment: Rivendell is impossibly well-hidden, which could be the power of Vilya at work, but I think Elrond also says it's protected by the ring.

Which makes me think... we're used to thinking of the Three as basically an attempt by Celebrimbor to passively preserve everything, much like Galadriel does Lorien. But actually, if they were all used together, the Three would be an amazing offensive weapon.

-You use Vilya for stealth, and to help shield your armies from attack.
-You use Narya to rally the troops, boosting their morale to incredible levels.
-You use Nenya to control the battlefield. Just based on the Fellowship's visit to Lorien, you could use it to confuse time for your enemies, forcing their united front to straggle in over a couple of weeks.

Which, if you feel like being a Sauron apologist, offers a whole new explanation for his own actions: he knew full well that the Three would eventually be used against him (Noldor are incredibly racist against Melkorites; he had to basically dress up as one of them to get a friendly greeting), so he forged the One not primarily to control the other rings, but to spy on the Three. It's an intelligence effort, really.

... and then he declared war, massacred everyone, and used Celebrimbor's corpse as a battle flag, because Sauron ain't actually the good guy. But still!

hS

Unfortunately, I don’t quite understand the answer to the first FAQ: What do you do?

... our characters travel into bad fanfics and sort them out by getting writing of certain descriptions, and then what? This may just be my lack of understanding of this alien language, but is it really sufficient to get the writing? I can’t determine whether there are words missing and what they should be. (Also, occular should be "ocular"; I didn’t change this yet because I intend to do all edits in one go.)

HG, going back to (proof)read the rest of it.

Both the Jewels and the Ring are macguffins of the 'everyone wants to get hold of it' variety. They both serve other purposes to the story (the Ring lets Frodo and Sam sneak around and also acts as a beacon of sorts for Sauron, the Silmaril lets Carcharoth break into Doriath), but their primary role is to be a prize.

From an in-universe perspective, though, that's a secondary effect, and the two couldn't be more different. The Ring is a creation of power and control - its wielder can use it to basically take over the world. The Jewels, on the other hand, are important because they're the last uncorrupted drop of light. They 'want' to be preserved, whereas the Ring 'wants' to be used.

hS

(Darn, no Marisanual fanfic after all. ;))

And of course the Lone Power lives in cyberspace. I don't know how we could ever have doubted it.

(If you create a new thread to continue this on the front page - which you should! - I have other YW stuff to put up in the thread, so don't worry about it being a misuse of space or anything.)

hS

On the Discord today, Grundle brought up the idea of "a Plortesque region set in the Periphery with each of us owning a star system". Thoth suggest the SpacePPC as a name. Larfen casually reminded us that there was a space plort that did exist, but everyone forgot about, that Delta made. Delta brought a link over from the original document (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1acIdovoI4LU3axC0lg05IR2A9a8Zrczjz9aF2m-20/edit?usp=drivesdk) and I wanted to bring it back to life. I personally am going to start writing a new story, and encourage others to do the same.

If this gathers enough attention, I would make a 3d model of parts of the station in Unreal Engine 4, or some other engine. If I'm not feeling up to it, maybe Minecraft instead. But I would definitely do it.

(This is really, really cool and thank you, Delta, for bringing this to me.)


- Maxewell

I was mostly thinking of the fact that the primary power of both is to make people want them.

I wrote a good chunk of this, so I'm not going to do a ton of commenting. In parts I wrote, there are some minor issues with clunky phrasing (which I've just begun to try and sort, although some help would probably be nice if anyone wants to join in), but other than that I'd say at least the sentiments are the right ones. This is an FAQ that might encourage people to work harder at their craft, try and join the board, or at least see us a a more-or-less positive force. Rather than have them run screaming for the hills.

Excellent work, everyone who's contributed so far. :)

It looks like 'Aren't you flaming with your missions?' is still empty. I'll try and take a look and see what I can fiddle with.

hS

I just filled in the last empty sections, so it looks like we have a complete new draft now! That means it's time for everyone to take a look and see what's needed next. What's missing? What could be better? What (if anything) should just go away?

Please contribute your thoughts, and feel free to edit the article directly, if you are so inclined.

~Neshomeh

Hey there, I'm Snowblaze. I'm quite new here as I only joined a few days ago.
For your gift, have some Bleeprin. You'll need it...

Hello, and welcome aBoard! For your newbie gift, take this plate of freshly-made SPaGhetti!

If you haven't yet read them, may I point you towards the Original Series and the Constitution? They're pretty much the only required reading around these parts.

Please have a bag of black-hole chocolates, and let me recommend you a quick visit and reading of both the Wiki and the Original Series. And welcome aboard.

Hello there.

Have a pile of multi coloured pens

Hello! I'm Ren. I wandered into the discord server and was redirected here.
My fandoms are Dragon Age, Star Wars, and Assassin's Creed.

Scroll through any particular website where people can post their own writing, like the Pit, or wattpad, or whatever tickles your fancy. Law dictates that there will always be badfic wherever you look. It's a sad law, but it is true.

Broadly, the Silmarils and the One Ring (and all the Great Rings) are artifacts imbued with power.

The Rings, unlike the Silmarils, actually do stuff. Not big flashy stuff, because that's not how magic in Middle-earth works, but stuff nonetheless. Narya the Ring of Fire granted powers of inspiration; Nenya the Ring of Water, of preservation; and Vilya the Ring of Air... I'm not sure. It's supposed to be the greatest of the three, and considering the association with air and Manwë, possibly foresight, which we know Elrond had?

The One Ring specifically is imbued with the power and the active malice of Sauron, and almost certainly has a non-sapient will. It's described as wanting to be found, seeking a way back to its master, drawing the Nazgûl to it, etc., and it certainly makes its bearer want to use it. Those who hold the One Ring are tempted by visions of their greatest ambitions, all the things they could achieve with its power. But power, as we know, corrupts.

It can only grant power according to the bearer's ability to wield it, though, so it's less dangerous in the hands of a hobbit than it would be in the hands of an elf or an istar. And hobbitish ambitions aren't that grand, either, so they're less easy to tempt.

(How'd I do, hS?)

~Neshomeh

7+ PM Eastern.

I'm available from about 7+ PM for weekdays, although that might be variable by an hour, and my weekends are pretty free.

Mrs. Riley let the tension hang in the air for a few moments - but before her parents could exclaim anything along the lines of 'What have you been doing?!' at Marisa she said,

"Er, not quite. It does have to do with those comfort zones I mentioned, though. Tell me; have you looked up anything similar to those fanfictions in the Manual itself?"

Marisa rapidly shook her head.

"No! It never occurred to me." Realizing she was fighting an uphill battle, she repeated herself in the Speech; since taking the Oath, she had not once considered 'paging' through her computer - or her AR Program, rather - for those kinds of results. She'd always considered that sort of thing to be something one just thought about - NSFW stories were for other people to write, and she hadn't read any - so far as she was aware - involving primarily humans.

Candice's expression looked a little less tense now. "Ever written any?"

In fact, it was almost teasing. Marisa made a face.

"No!"

Mrs. Riley held up a hand. "I don't think you have anything to worry about, Debbie, Mike. At least not for a few more years." Sam abruptly burst out laughing, only to be shushed by their mom.

Marisa bit her lip - a habit she'd no doubt have to break. "So, if it wasn't because of that, or because I got upset today, and I'm still a wizard... does that mean things will be okay?"

Candice's smile was encouraging. "Yes, Marisa; I can say that much. I'm no visionary, mind you!" That last part, while Marisa didn't get all of why it should be funny, made her smile anyway - even her parents looked a little less stressed.

"But-" Marisa piped up, looking over at her dad. "I am sorry about the computer. What are we going to do?" Fortunately, her ex-speech therapist had something to say about that, too.

"I think you'll find that the Powers - and the One - look out for those who try to reduce entropy. And those who learn from their mistakes." Then she winked. "That, and I did chip in to get them a discount!"

Marisa didn't know if that was a joke, but she did end up laughing - and, as if a weight had been lifted, so did the rest of her family.

Things looked a little bit brighter...

---

That night, however, as Marisa lay dreaming, things did not look nearly so pleasant, or accomplish-able.

"No, wait! Don't go-!"

"You're my only friend-"

"You- you'll do whatever I tell you, right? As long as I believe in what I'm doing..." /Yes./ "That - that sounds dangerous." /It is how we are./

"How dare you-!"

Marisa burst awake - or thought she did. It should have been dark, she should have been in bed - even if she thought she had dealt with the stress well, she had still cried herself to sleep - but instead it was bright, impossibly bright all around-

There was no ground. There was no noise, either; the first big sign she hadn't found herself in Timeheart, like some wizards did on occasion. She tried to move, only to find herself paralyzed. Even without ground, it felt like electricity was passing close by her hands-

Where am I? Is this a dream? To her surprise, something answered.

"Only if you want it to be - or it can be all that and more."

Marisa thought she could hear It laughing.

"After all, isn't this where you have always wanted to be?"

Suddenly she could move again - and as she carefully knelt up and gazed around, breathing heavily, she found herself only with one growing suspicion:

"Am- am I online?"

Even in an abstract form, she could tell the Lone Power was grinning.

"Yes, quite. How's about that 'cyberspace fantasy', little wizard?"