The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

But close enough. :P Cool!

Your birthday's May 15th?

Yeah, I'm surprised that hasn't come up before.

- Tomash

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
MAY ALL YOUR WISHES COME TRUE
HOPE NOBODY MAKES YOU BLUE
AND YOUR CAKE DOESN'T EXPLODE IN GOO!

*blows noisemakers*

Also, you're a year and month older than me? I've known you for how long and this never came up before?

I'm now officially 22, and, to more-or-less mark the occasion, I'm about to finish the requirements for my undergrad degree (I just need to rerun some experiments in the honors thesis I successfully defended Friday, and then I'll have done everything).

So, yay me, from the looks of things!

- Tomash

'Cause I got one:

"My Little Pony: What's Wrong With the World?" by AlexWarlorn
https://www.deviantart.com/art/My-Little-Pony-What-s-Wrong-With-The-World-446111406
A different take on the episode "Magical Mystery Cure" that adds more details on the altered histories of the Mane Six that still keeps them in line with their respective elements. The reveal is also interesting, but I won't spoil it here.

I also recommend the "Pony POV Series" by the same author... but be warned it's pretty long.

Re. DOGA, the short answer is that a DOGA-sporkable fic has bad geography in it. The more of it and the worse it is, the better. It also has to be bad generally, of course.

The good answer is, here is an index of DOGA spin-offs (mostly hS's work). Read them and see what's worked before, and you'll have a much better idea of what will work now, plus how the department works in general.

Re. attempted murder... it's attempted murder. It doesn't matter what department they're in. What matters is whether it's comedic attempted murder or dramatic attempted murder (not recommended in this setting, please). We've got options ranging from the silly (e.g. literal chill pills) to the serious (being arrested, possibly remanded to the authorities in their home continuum or closest equivalent). But be cautious: if you try to write comedic attempted murder and it's not funny, then it may end up being trivialized attempted murder, which will not go over well at all.

~Neshomeh

*offers Punctuation Pie in return*

All of this stuff, people coming together to discuss nerdy things and write fic based on them and comment on them, all of it is what makes this Board the place I love. ^_^

Basically, I just love everybody right now. All of you.

Here, have some fresh-baked Canon Cookies, just cuz. <3

~Neshomeh

Maybe loving the world around me WAS my test, in a way. I spent a lot of time wishing for something amazing to happen to me, because I figured real life was dull and/or full of uncomfortable things I didn't want to deal with, like politics and religion and everybody else discovering their sexuality while I wasn't. I wanted to be a Planeteer, but I didn't want to, say, run a recycling drive at my school. (I still don't, because gah, responsibility and managing people to their faces, eek.) I wanted something to just come along and happen like magic.

Well, guess what, Kid Nesh: magic doesn't work like that. It's a HUGE responsibility. And you DO have to step up. The Powers might give you the tools for the job, but they won't do it for you.

And if somebody were to come along and offer to make it that easy... Would I have said no then? I don't know. I kinda don't think so.

~Neshomeh

I suspect what went wrong there is that none of us really knew what "Cartesian Coordinates" meant and nobody spoke up right away, which we should have. Since I wasn't directing that module, I just sort of figured I'd work it out based on what happened, and then if I needed to know later, I would. But I didn't, til you guys started hashing it out. >.>

But now we know! {= D

OH, and for the record, I was wrong about the trident-looking symbol. It's actually the Greek letter psi: Ψ . (I knew it reminded me of something). And the curly one is pretty similar to a lowercase phi: φ . And and, the hoop thing is koppa and makes me feel clever for thinking it was like a Q, because it basically is: Ϙ .



~Neshomeh

Since you've got me thinking about this, from what I can tell, the main thing with spell-casting is that you need to express what you want done (in the Speech) somehow and intend that you'd like the magic to happen.

So, for example, with the Manual-summoning spell, Nita has basically memorized the whole thing, so when she says the shorthand her brain knows what she's going for and the full spell gets expressed (in some sense) via her memory, and actually saying the shorthand marks the enacture.

So, with this completely speculative, rather general theory of what you need to do to fire off a spell, it might be the case that there's circumstances under which very carefully and intentionally drawing a diagram is sufficient (probably because you're also thinking through the spell while doing this). For one thing, that could be how certain species of octopus (the ones that can turn basically arbitrary colors) cast.

- Tomash

((AN: and to keep this answer separate, thank you! =P Seemed like an obvious thing to address.))

Bugs were far from the first beings Marisa had heard 'talk' - though most of those incidents really could be attributed to her imagination. While she preferred 'talking' to trees instead of rocks, she also preferred talking to cars over talking to flowers, for reasons that were likely utterly arbitrary. Her ability and willingness to talk to people, however, had not been compromised. It'd be a few more years yet before Marisa could be seen in any way as reticent.

Summer had arrived with much heat and little fanfare, and since she still didn't exactly like talking to bugs, she used that as an excuse to stay inside when her family wasn't going on walks or errands. Her Program's stories had increased in complexity - but then, her ability to understand them had increased similarly, a gift that she was too grateful to express her thanks for in words.

Not that she was feeling grateful at her computer right now, though; her monitor had frozen again. She'd been on fanfictiondotnet, as usual, and all of a sudden things had stopped working. At the same time, she knew she had to be quiet; her luck in not making her dad mad at her could only last for so long, but she didn't want it to end early!

"Come on! /Why won't you work already?/" Marisa hissed, slamming the mouse as silently as she could manage.

/Intrusion detected,/ came an equally silent response. Marisa went very still, her eyes widened, and all she could think was 'Oh no. I've broken it!

/I-I'm sorry!/ Marisa whispered, gently sweeping her hand across the keyboard as if that could help.

/Can, can I stop it?/ For several heart-stopping moments she thought her computer - or possibly her life - was ruined.

Fortunately, her worries were unfounded.

/Intrusion attempt... quarantined./ If a computer could sound smug, this one did. Marisa quickly blinked back tears and tried to focus on what was happening and not her own emotions.

/Wait, really?/ she asked. Then she squinted.

/Are you... on my computer?/ Her dad was computer-savvy, and her AR-provided readings helped ensure she knew about hackers, what could hurt a computer, and that security was utterly important. Had someone else compromised it, only to defend her?

But that triggered a memory, and Marisa sighed in relief; the agreement had said the AR program came with virus protection!

/Correct/ her Program replied (whether it was to her thoughts accidentally voiced aloud, or her actual question, wasn't immediately obvious), the monitor unfreezing and the program opening itself up - if it hadn't been accompanied by use of the Speech, this wouldn't have reassured Marisa in the least.

/Th-thank you!/ Marisa managed to answer. Looking all around her frantically, worried that someone would burst in at that very moment and say she'd been tricked, or lied to, or worse, then leaned forward to add:

/I'm sorry for hitting you, by the way. I was frustrated, but I shouldn't have hurt you!/ Even if it wasn't her computer talking, exactly, she still felt that it needed to be said.

Oddly enough, the voice... laughed?

/Do not worry, wizard; you have not hurt me. And the one who did, as you put it, hurt this unit, is having difficulties with that right now./

Marisa struggled to sort through what to react to first - wizard? Difficulties? What?

/Is- can you, can we, find who made that virus? They shouldn't be doing that to people./ As confused as she felt, the second half of that sentence came out as an expression of utmost confidence.

/As a matter of fact, yes./ A text program opened, and more words in that magical - yes that was it, and Marisa could feel a grin dawn on her as she realized it. This is magic! I've found magic AND AI! - language typed themselves out at an impossibly smooth-yet-fast rate.

While still worried beyond belief that something would interrupt this moment, for now Marisa focused on the fact that she had been given an opportunity to right a wrong - and, perhaps, prevent many others from being committed.

She got busy reading.

((AN: No, it's not her Ordeal just yet - just her first spell as a self-realized wizard. Also, no one really talks about wizardry being a sort of AI, depending on its method of delivery; Marisa's going to latch on to that real tight.))

I don't know these characters and I don't understand that punchline.

It's a testament to the strength of your writing that I feel like I know them better now, and that despite feeling like I didn't get it, I still enjoyed it. So good job?

Part of it is that a few of us had at least seen the game before. This allowed us some common context.

Although I've never seen anyone use Cartesian Coordinates for the maze, for some reason...

...seeing as I haven't read the books since I was a kid, I don't think I'd be able to write a believable Ordeal. ^^;

It's not the volcano that's to blame- it's that Julia signed a very incomplete name. The spell itself would have worked, mostly, if it had been complete- but it had a fatal flaw in the signature.

I'm assuming the volcano-rocketry caused something of an earthquake which disturbed everything?

- Tomash

Having watched some videos of people playing this game, I expected confusion, panic, and lots of explosions. Turns out the first stages of the game aren't that hard! Sure, we had some moments of frustration when we came up against different communication styles and bomb modules we weren't expecting, but we learned from those moments and did better the next time. All in all, I think we did pretty well! It definitely helps to keep in mind that the real win isn't disarming the bomb, it's disarming your temper. ^_~

My brain got tired of all that concentration and rapid logicking after about an hour and I ended up taking a nap (hence why this post is happening now and not, uh, two hours ago), but it was a lot of fun, and I'd love to do it again sometime.

Besides me and Thoth, we had Calliope and Herr Wozzeck (pronounced WOT-zek; TIL) playing. Thoth, thanks for setting it up; Cal and Herr, thanks for playing!

~Neshomeh

... Senior Wizard Jacob (really he was an Advisory, but he'd been temporarily bumped to Senior due to an incident in trans-Jovian space drawing away a bunch of the local Seniors) was taking a somewhat frantic phone call from the local Area Senior.

"No, ma'am, I have been keeping an eye on things... yes, ma'am, I know about her."

He flicked a hand at the toaster, and it obediently started up as a couple of slices of bread hopped in. "Well, because she's on Ordeal, just about. I may be new at this, but I know we're not supposed to interfere... no, obviously the Oath overrides that, but only in really severe cases..."

Glancing at the clock, Jacob grimaced and pointed at the toaster. Covering the phone with his other hand, he muttered in the Speech, "Faster, please," then turned his attention back to the call.

"I get that it looks, er, extreme, but is anything really inanimate, when you get down to it? And we all do some pretty ridiculous stuff on our Ordeals, right? ... no, ma'am, I'm sure. Absolutely."

The toaster popped, and with a mutter Jacob opened a tiny claudication to grab the toast with. "Ow, hot... okay, ma'am, I'll keep an eye on her, and I'll pass her details onto the local Advisory... really? Well, it takes all sorts. Sorry, I really do have to go..."

Hanging up, Jacob sighed, then summoned his Manual from the next room. "All right, Siobhan," he murmured, flicking to the expanded contacts list for his temporary region. "Let's see what you get up to next..."

~

Because I will never pass up an opportunity to comment in-character. ^_^

(Can you give an approx year for this, by the way? I want to know just how precocious Advisory Jacob is here - and possibly what the Seniors are off doing!)

hS

Out of curiosity, how obvious is it why the spell failed? I'm wondering how well that is coming across.

And yes, building a giant engine is so very me. I would do this, and then it wouldn't work, and then I'd be... Right where Julia is now, actually. Good luck to her!

Also:

1) You're still doing a good job with the descriptions.

2) Building a giant rocket engine is so you.

- Tomash

Since this post somehow reminded me of them, I'd like to recommend these three fics, especially if you want something that's rather powerful emotionally.

- Tomash

Thanks for the praise! It's... The story kinda has me, at this point? I'm just writing as fast as I can, trying to keep up. I didn't know what my Ordeal would be either, until hS's mention of the Aberfan Disaster started the gears turning.

I dunno, I bet you'd do better than you think! Julia/I walked into her Ordeal not knowing how to write her own name in any depth and having never actually stopped to listen to anything- these seem like much bigger problems than loving the world around you.

I've heard of that author. He's the brother of MrTyeDye, one of the 2 best Loud House fanfic writers ever (the other being Weavillain).