The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Some kind of library, not just the one at my school seems to be the most likely option.

(Also should I be happy I caught the reference right away? I wonder if I should go back to those books...)

(Which, as it so happens, is where I found the first Young Wizards book! But only the first. I'd like to read the others sometime.)

I was always hiding in the library in my free time when I was in school, and I was actually a library assistant in middle school. I probably would have found my Manual while re-shelving books, and been curious about this new tome I couldn't remember seeing before...

who frequently got poked to stop reading in class. I don't remember getting banned from showing up with novels though.

I also sometimes made the not-great decision of reading in hallways.

(and then later the school handed me a laptop for disability reasons. Large amounts of NetHack were played during lectures once this happened.)

- Tomash

Before I clicked, I was pretty sure you were talking about YW, but it crossed my mind it could have been the PPC, too.

Then I thought, what if the Flowers got in on the Powers' strategy of presenting Manuals to people under the right circumstances? That might be an interesting way to recruit from supernatural-friendly universes. Or even mundane ones, if they slipped a few dog-eared hard copies on library shelves, random used book stands, those Little Free Libraries that keep popping up, and the like. Most people would pick the thing up, go "yeah right," and walk away, but every so often, a fan with the right balance of keen and crazy would come along and follow the instructions on the back cover... {= )

Well, when I say "the PPC Manual," I probably just mean Volume One: So You've Decided to Become a PPC Agent.

~Neshomeh

Probably middle school, too. I remember hanging out on the floor in the corner where they had the fantasy/sci-fi books, looking for the next McCaffrey or L'Engle I hadn't read yet.

Trivia: I was actually banned from having novels with me in class, because if I got bored in math I'd read instead of listen. Maybe math class should have been more interesting. {= P

Could potentially have been one of the first to access a Manual on a computer, too, back in Ye Olden Days of Dial-up. They were fairly common in schools when and where I was a kid, and I had an MSN chat habit for a while. Eventually turned into an AIM habit, and a fan board habit, and a Neopets RP habit, and a PPC habit...

Y'know, I could see the Manual hiding out on ff.net and other such archives.

~Neshomeh

There are 43 people who've made more that one post on the front page (if we ignore Deadpool, a Mary Sue, and Mythcreant), while only 13 people (again, ignoring Deadpool and Mythcreant) have more than 10 posts (8 of those 13 have over 25 posts). There's also (if various single-use names are discounted) 8 people who have one post on the front page.

So it looks like the Board is made of a bunch of folks who wander by occasionally and don't post too often. That doesn't look too good as far as engagement goes.

(I'd do some stats on the Discord, but it seems a lot harder to do stats on.)

- Tomash

Since I know there's a few Cousins on the Board (and since there's a plea for more discussions below), I was wondering: if the Powers were looking to offer you wizardry back in the day, how would they have gone about it?

In my case, I suspect I'd either have gotten snagged by a Manual somewhere in my middle school's library (I spent a whole bunch of time wandering around in there). Alternatively, I might have gotten slid a shiny new computerized one, probably by way of a Linux LiveCD that had undergone some tweaking.

(for the many of you who have no idea what I'm on about, this is referring to the Young Wizards series, which I'd like to recommend. I can be more detailed than that if anyone would like.)

- Tomash

It was nice to see Ix opening up to someone more, and how that happened seems in-character for her.

I also wonder if Jacques's feelings at the end of the mission are going to become significant later.

- Tomash

I'm thinking of making an audio drama for this very play. If you are interested in voicing a role, let me know! If you have not read this comedy from Shakespeare but are still interested, here is a link that has the original lines (which we will be using) and a modern translation beside that to help understand the original.

http://www.portcity.edu.bd/ELibrary/ENG/amidsummernightsdream.pdf

If you want to audition, please tell me your top three role choices. I don't have audition lines yet but I hope to have them ready soon.

With all the misery and death caused by the wars of Maedhros, the sooner we can get aid to come then the swifter the war will end, and the less blood will be spilled over the baubles of an ancient past. Send a swift messenger to Beren and Luthien, the swiftest you have; he is an honourable king, for all that he fails...

But I come to him now, at the turn of the tide.

Best mission I've read in years. Seriously, it was fantastic.

Not the inner goddess. The less I say about any inner goddesses, the better, I think.

No, it's Anastasia's other strangely animate, disembodied inner thoughts creature. Her subconscious. Early on, I was annoyed with the subconscious "character" because it flip-flopped so wildly between being supportive of Ana and criticizing her. But after a few chapters, I came to realize that's actually pretty normal, at least as far as my inner thoughts go. So that aspect of Fifty Shades of Grey, at least, was decently realistic, and dare I say, even subtle?

As for obtaining a copy, I suggest ducking into Goodwills every once in a while. You'll eventually find on for a buck or two, and that way you're not financially supporting bad writing. Yay? Just don't get addicted to them cheap Goodwill books. Bookshelves run out of room fast that way.

—doctorlit is almost looking forward to Twilight after this. At least Twilight has fight scenes.

It looks like you've seriously intimidated Maedhros - now he thinks you're a Power. Oh, the things you could do with this.

What do you do with this?
-Alter the course of history! Persuade Maedhros to give up on the Silmarils and organise a mass exodus east over the Blue Mountains, leaving Beleriand to Morgoth.
-Take advantage of him! Elves are hot, and Maia/Eldar romances aren't entirely unheard-of.
-Accelerate the end of the war! Point out that if he sent a messenger (eg, you) to Beren and Luthien, they might be amenable to helping out a mission over the Sea to Aman, to call on the aid of the Valar in defeating Morgoth.
-Jut get out of there! Convince him that you absolutely need to head east to the mountains, for some Maia-y reason.
-Do the moral thing and make it clear that no, you're not a demigod, you're just from the future.

I'm certain the Jedi will be shocked by your revelation - always assuming they believe you.

Did they believe you?
-Yes, and they've just stolen a hyperdrive from Watto and set off in pursuit (taking you with them as evidence).
-Yes, but their principles mean they're stuck on-planet until they can work out a trade.
-Yes, and they used the Force to get you to reveal your role in events; now you're their prisoner.
-Nope, they think you're drunk high on Death-Sticks.

I don't think I remember seeing it in an actual story; you'd probably want to hunt down a reference to it and find out what it's said to do to its patients, then extrapolate that to a full-blown Suvian.

hS

... the Wiki includes a nice big article on the term Mary Sue. It starts out with this definition:

A Mary Sue is a fictional character that achieves its goals in the story with minimal effort, out of proportion to what the audience would expect given the setting(s), culture(s), and other inhabitants of that universe. In order to accomplish this, a Mary Sue will have character traits heavily skewed in favor of outstanding attributes over significant flaws.

If you're volunteering to write the answer to the relevant FAQuestion, which is found in the 'What do you mean when you say...?' section (I suggest using a PC; mobiles are notoriously tricky about the wiki), I suggest starting out with a link to the article (there's code for 'See also' somewhere), and basing your answer on that.

hS

These things are notorious for getting dirty and jamming up at inopportune moments, like when confronted by, I dunno, boogie-inducing Chaos cultists or something.

hS

I'll check that out later.

Pray for me...

This was a great review, though, and almost makes me want to get my hands on a copy so I can see it for myself, but I'll admit—I'm the same way about sex scenes in books and movies, so... *shrugs*

Maybe if I gave it a go, though, I could try to piece together what Christian does behind the scenes. :P

I was going to lead off with some hyperbolic defense of my choosing to read this novel, which I thought would very cleverly mirror Anastasia’s stubbornness and free spirit in the face of Christian’s controlling tendencies. But I just don’t have the energy. Let’s get this over with.

Other than mentioning the word “sex” sometimes, I think I’ve managed to keep this safe for work. Unless the word “sex” is too much, in which case, click away. Spoilers for only the first novel of the Fifty Shades trilogy.

This was dull. This was, by far, the least interesting novel I’ve read since The Magic Mountain, although at least Fifty Shades of Grey was shorter. Being asexual, I’m hardly a stranger to waiting for pointless sex scenes to end so the plot can continue. Well, FSoG is basically all the “waiting to end” part, and almost no discernable plot. And I get it, I’m obviously not the target audience. But there should still be something happening in a story, and for several wonderful chapters at the start of this novel, it really seemed like that was a possibility. I convinced myself that it was hinting at Christian doing something interesting in his business practices. Maybe something heroic and selfless, maybe something shady and illegal. But something. And maybe he actually was; Ana overhears some of his phone conversations throughout the novel, and maybe the reader is supposed to piece clues together from those dialogues and figure out what he’s doing? If so, I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out. Maybe answers are revealed in the following books, but I’m not going to read those. But most probably, I was just tricking myself into looking for plot threads that weren’t really there. The point of the book is the sex scenes, and sex scenes that go nowhere aren’t a way to carry a plot.

Knowing that FSoG started out life as a fanfiction, I really thought it would be a lot more amusing than it is. I mean, most of us have read a sex scene in a fic that’s just so awkwardly written, it becomes hilarious. But no. It was all just straightforward sex. I found myself wanting to skip past them all to look for more . . . dialogue, and . . . whatever. There wasn’t much else to look forward to, but at least people talking to each other is something I can relate to.

Christian Grey. Good Lord, what a wasted character. Orphaned early, survived trauma, grew up rich, constantly bored, uses his wealth to fight world hunger, learned to fly airplanes and gliders and heaven knows what else. Do you see it? How very close Christian was to being Batman? Or at the very least, Sherlock Holmes. You’re so bored, Mr. rich executive man, why don’t you go out and solve some dang crimes? But it’s that control freak portion of his personality that ruins it all. Yeah, he does charitable efforts through his company, but he’s also got his huge, fancy house, his private helicopter, his demands for the biggest suites in the hotel, his personal staff. One side of the coin tarnishes the other. It leaves little for the reader to feel endeared to the character in any way.

Anastasia Steele, on the other hand, surprised me. I’ll admit I like her quite a bit. Her “innocence,” as the novel kept putting it, about romance makes it all the more impressive that she consistently stands up to Christian. She doesn’t accept that the rich dude should get whatever he wants, but makes her own needs clear, and fights against Christian’s expectations of her where she feels they would get in the way of her own life. Best of all, she looks at this potential relationship of nothing-but-sex and demands more from it. And Christian starts to follow down her path, beginning to feel romantic love for Ana. My one complaint about Ana is that she keeps putting pressure on Christian to let her touch him, even after he expressed that being touched reminded him of his mysterious childhood abuse. I realize that the power dynamic between them is terribly skewed, but he’s essentially telling her that he has an emotional trigger, and she keeps trying to do it anyway because dat body be hotty. Like, no. Christian made so many concessions to her through the course of the novel, it’s pretty disrespectful of her to not recognize this one personal limit of his.

But that drift towards an equal, loving relationship that characterized the second half of the novel makes the ending feel all the more abrupt and jarring. It seemed like they were heading down a path of compromise and working together to make the relationship function for both of them. I was even starting to like Christian a bit more, since he was allowing Ana some control over him. . . And then, literally in the last four pages, it rather felt like the author forced the resurgence of some of the earlier conflict between them to break them apart again. On the one hand, I get it: two more books. But on the other, did there really need to be more books? Maybe it’s not even my place to say, being ace and maybe/probably aromantic, but . . . even after not really enjoying the rest of the novel, the ending still managed to disappoint me. It just felt very artificial.

The one thing keeping me sane through this novel was Taylor. (Well, that and picturing Christian as a giant, sentient aye-aye in a business suit.) Taylor is Christian’s . . . “butler” for lack of a better word. His specialty is not being in a place, then suddenly being in the place when Christian needs something. Is he a supernatural being? I know in my head he can’t be, because this is a realistic Earth setting, but in my heart, I desperately need him to be a supernatural being. The universe was spawned from the Twilight one, so it must have some supernatural elements in it, right? Heck, it could even be set in Twilight, for all we know. Taylor = glitterpire confirmed, Taylor is best character confirmed, I love you, Taylor, you kept me sane, you deserve so much more.

Oh, one cool thing about the cover of my paperback copy. “Fifty Shades” is written in white, and “of Grey” is in a very light grey, but in certain lighting, like in my pantry, the colors reverse. It’s quite a cool effect, and fits the title very well. Kudos to the cover designer. When a PPCer is complimenting the cover designer, you know he is fishing for things to say.

Enough of this. If you’re looking forward to me reading the sequels, don’t. I’m not reading them.

—doctorlit is glad his subconscious will stop coming up with objectively unfunny jokes now, like when the cricket crawled up out of a sink drain, and he thought to himself, “Fifty shades of cricket.”

I can hardly contain the riotous feelings—or are they spoilers?—that rampage through my body. I can hardly contain the riotous feelings—or are they spoilers?—that rampage through my body. I can hardly contain the riotous feelings—or are they spoilers?—that rampage through my body.

I can't recall if I've met you or not, but have some popcorn regardless!

Also, I'll take your word for it.

You have the standard kit of your regiment:
One (1) lascarbine
Two (2) 30-shot power packs, one (1) already loaded into the lascarbine, one (1) in a belt pouch
Two (2) fragmentation grenades, currently on your belt
One (1) combat knife, currently in your belt sheath
One (1) uniform: a greatcoat, rubber boots, pants , gloves, goggles, belt with three (3) pouches and one (1) knife sheath, and boxer shorts; all of which you are wearing, and all of which are similar shades of brown and beige
One (1) Armageddon-pattern re-breather, which you are wearing
One (1) flak helmet, which you are wearing
One (1) flak vest, which you are wearing under your greatcoat

Agony in Pink was missioned while you were away.

Did my no-account booze hound of a sergeant give me anything useful? Like whatever passes for currency around here? A map? A decent weapon? A stick of gum with a foil wrapper and some dental floss, even?

~Neshomeh doesn't know if they have those last two things in 40k, but oh well. I like your set-up and I'm not in the other game, so here I am. ^_^