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Through the haze of abject agony, you hear a voice: On your feet, Guardsman! There are heretics to slay!
You open your eyes to see a figure clad in Sorotias power armor so shiny you can see your face (or, at least your re-breather and goggles) in it, who helps you to your feet. This Battle Sister, who carries herself with the intense, manic, energy common to those who fight for the Ecclesiarchy, turns looks you in the eyes and asks: "Where's the rest of your squad? I thought you were under orders to patrol in groups."

My personal favorites are Wizard's Holiday (cool aliens) High Wizardry (ditto, and also all the computer stuff). But that's just me.

- Tomash

My Manual would likely be in my own house, hidden in the study in amongst the really, really old books that my hoarder antiques dealer grandad collected before his untimely death. They are absolutely everywhere, and the overwhelming majority have a sort of forest-green binding and cream pages that feel like they have a magic all of their own.

Now, a PPC Manual, well... there's no actual rule talking about how big a Manual has to be, right? Or what form it has to take. We already know that a lot of agents started out answering want-ads in the classified sections of their local newspaper. Why couldn't a Manual take that kind of form, with an intriguingly bananas front page headline (my favourite one, and this is real, is "ALIEN OYSTERS INVADE") to draw in and ensnare some curious soul who might make for a willing/vaguely competent agent. Just my two cents. =]

I didn't really want to comment on the BDSM aspect in my initial post, partly to keep it work safe, but mostly because I didn't want to misrepresent something I'm not familiar with.

You know, I didn't really make the "shoulder angel/devil" connection with Anastasia's subconscious and inner goddess . . . friends. It gets a bit blurry, with the subconscious/angel sometimes being cruel to Ana, and the inner goddess/devil being less "bad" and more just . . . uh . . . constantly "thirsty"? If that's PG enough for the Board?

—doctorlit himself has a spirit of second-guessing self doubt and an inner day planner, himself

I mean, you never know. Obviously it's part of his characterization, but past that--who knows? I mean, I do, being the author, but mystery is the name of the game here. Whether there's actually something to be mysterious about or not.

(Mystery aside, I'm not done writing Jacques, so... we'll see! I do unfortunately write rather slowly when it comes to finishing things and getting them out, so his next thing might take a while. I am working on things, though.)

Actually, speaking of getting things out: I'm pretty sure you're one of the betas for something I was working on, uh, last winter (the Abaddon-T'Zar interlude. I can relink you if needed). While I have your attention, could I ask you to take another look at it sometime this week? I need to go through it, which might or might not happen today like I want it to, but after that I think it might be close to ready to post.

~Z

It's amazing to hear that we did those things well, because I know exactly what you mean about both talking heads and Cowrite Disease--and I've actually been making a conscious effort to avoid them recently, especially the latter, so... basically, fantastic :D (And no, you most definitely don't speak from experience...not at all... :) What can I say, I was reading early Dafydd missions a month or two ago out of curiosity and because I suddenly wasn't sure I *had* read more than half of them. More likely it had just been a long time, but who knows?)

Anyway. Like Ix said, the fic wasn't too big on setting descriptions, but there are probably a good handful of places where we could add a bit more of "the agents landed in the next scene, made faces at each other, and ducked hurriedly behind a tree." I've already found one while going in to see about GMA's feedback, actually. If we can find some more spots that we both like, that can go ahead. There definitely is a bit of it in there already, though.

What else...ah, yes. I'm glad the section in the middle stood out to you; like I wrote to GMA, it's nice to hear you did specific things right. Especially if it's an entire section!

But yes. Thanks for the concrit (autocorrect wants that to be 'concert'; do you sing or play an instrument, by any chance?) and the comments! They're all appreciated.

~Z, somehow on a roll with responses. On to Tomash! And GLORY!

Re: the critique, you have a point. I originally wrote in the description because I thought they really weren't going to get there in time to see that part of the scene; when we ended up putting in that they did, I didn't think to remove it. Good news is it looks like it can be cut out without changing a thing...which is probably as good a sign as any that it should go! I'll wait for Ix to wake up and have a spare moment, but I've marked it in the doc. Thanks for bringing it up!

Also, glad you liked the parts you mentioned :) It's always nice to hear you did specific things right.

~Z

At a dusty second-hand bookshop, where my family stopped to rest during an interstate car trip, and said we could pick two books. I expect I would've picked up two other books, started walking towards the till, and then noticed the Manual and swapped one of the books, on a complete whim...

^The true story of the day I found a copy of SYWTBAW, which led me to fanfic, which led me to the PPC, which led me to meet hS and marry him, which led to basically my entire life. But I'm still bloomin' miffed that the Oath never took for me.

-Kaitlyn, on Errantry

I'd get my wizardry manual at Twice-Sold Tales, a used bookstore near my college. And then when I sat down to give it a read-through, I'd end up reading more than I intended, getting interested, and becoming a wizard because Twice-Sold Tales has bookstore cats, and one of them would definitely sit on my lap, start purring, and not get off until it was too late.

My PPC manual, I'd probably find in the little personal library I've collected over time.

If Min Ra were recruited to the PPC via a manual, she would probably have snuck into her dad's office and found it among the many scrolls/books/papers lying around. It would have stood out to her because most of the other papers were adult stuff, and it would have been tucked away in some corner, so she would have figured that he wouldn't miss it and stolen it for her own use.

Effie Raptor wouldn't really have a manual, as she was recruited directly by Min Ra.

Freefall (first strip, most recent strip) is a rather engaging comic featuring, among other characters, a rather lazy squid with a very different view on morality compared to humans, a robot that picks up heavy things and puts them down elsewhere, and a genetically engineered sapient wolf engineer. Together, they nominally crew a spaceship and get up to shenanigans ... and then the plot happens. And the deep philosophical questions about AIs.

(and it's about 3k three-panel strips, so the "how much will I need to read to catch up" factor isn't too bad.)

- Tomash, emerging from an archive binge

No, wait, what am I doing? You have no power over me! You... have... no... gah, feet, why you no listen? Help! Someone gorgeous, save me! Preferably someone my swarthy good looks and I actually have a chance with!

(( So that's c), basically. {= ) ))

I admit that I've only read the first one...yes I know, I just never got around to it... I have a bad procrastination habit...

Though, to be more accurate, my high school's library might have been better.

And it'd be a book, of course! =P

I can think of a few places the Powers might have given it to me. It might have been in the school library that I spent so many days in because [Rude Language Regarding Pollen]. But I think it probably would have actually been my iPod itself. It's how I got the book, and if I were to take the Oath, it probably would have been via me repeating after the narrator and waiting to see what happened.

Your soul has fallen to the vilest affliction ever put forth by the dark gods, a corruption that has destroyed better men than you: DANCE FEVER! You dance for so long, and with such vigor, that your whole body is consumed by pain. It is a good pain. As you think this, you crumple to the floor... What do you do now?:

a) Succumb to sensation and cede your soul to the seduction of Slaanesh.
b) Be rescued by a handsome space marine.
c) Be rescued by a beautiful battle sister.
d) MENTAL BATTLE!
e) Check your inventory.

1) The complete misrepresentation of BDSM

BDSM for you who aren't familiar with the term, stands for Bondage-Dominance-Sadism-Masochism and consists of two people, a Dom (or a Domme) and a Sub, who are both willing cause and receive pain respectively. And it's not about the pain itself, it's about causing pleasure, with pain being the means of achieving it. A dominant who gets off on controlling and punishing, and a submissive who gets off on helplessness and punishment. AND by doing so they realize they're also pleasuring their partner, so if a matching couple of a sadist and masochist dabbles into BDSM, it's super win-win!

And here's the problem: Anastasia is NOT a masochist! She is not into that lifestyle and it's clear what she likes is Grey and his playboy millionaire Iron-Man, Batman, Green Arrow persona. A regular, "vanilla" sex as I think she calls it, but not the whole playroom aspect. E.L. James masqueraded a story about a broken, toxic relationship, about a controlling, abussive a-hole, and a tabula rasa woman who actually has to be introduced into every single aspect of intimacy... Yeah, James decided it's "just a love story".

2) What the heck even, E.L. James?!

a) The amount of control Grey tries to exert over Ana. Even after he clearly agreed to keep the dom-sub thing in the bedroom, he basically overrules her every decision about what she eats, what she wears, where she goes, and when she sleeps!
b) Ana's "Inner Goddess & Subconscious" as was already mentioned... Yes, I get what was meant to happen here: the classical "shoulder angel v. shoulder devil" trope. However... that's. not. what. sub-con-scious. means (!). I don't think E.L. James knows the meaning of words she uses!

Decided not to use the site mechanism for crediting inspirations, though, since those show up on a whole separate section of your dashboard. Don't wanna give 'em THAT much credit.

Interestingly, all but two missions have at least one hit already, and none of the interludes have any. I assume some of these are PPCers who wandered over to poke around, but clearly no one is clicking through either series in order. {= / "The Smasher" and "The Girl and Her Dragon" are the two missions no one's clicked on yet, and the three with the most hits are "Diptych: 'Secret Agents' and 'Cosmic Love'" with 9 and "Harry Potter and the Dragonriders of Pern" and "Ring Child" each with 7.

~Neshomeh

Being a laser weapon, it has few moving parts to jam, but you clean the lens and make sure that the power pack is loaded properly, as both of these commonly lead to malfunctions. As you take stock you realize that aren't wearing any socks. You appear to be in an abandoned upscale commercial district, so you could find a clothing store to loot, but you still don't know where the rest of your squad is, the Squats remain a lost civilization, you were supposed to scout for enemies farther down the spire, and the temptation to dance is still strong.

They believe me, but a hyperdive fails to manifest.

How about The Seems?

If you're not familiar, the approach there is to place application forms for "the most interesting job in the world" around. Applicants who met the standards (which may be quite strange) get a job interview that... won't be forgotten in a hurry.

I do it to this day, actually. Because classes are still boring.

And yeah, Nethack is common. As is SSHing home to do some programming.

(I'm current through the Ordeal novellas and Games Wizards Play. Haven't read Feline Wizards #2 and 3 though.)

- Tomash