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About Nume's primary being Blue, I mean. I did guess Ilraen would have the colors you picked for him. Gall being red is perfect. I run a dragons deck that I think she'd get a kick out of... Did not guess Black for Derik, though.

As for Jenni... I think Red-White-Blue would fit her pretty well. White's about peace and healing, too, which fits her as a FicPsych nurse. :)

Elanor safe in the Nursery? Check. Zeb sufficiently distracted and out of the RC? Check. TARDIS tidied up? Well, sort of check. It was presentable, anyway.

Hair?

The Aviator growled out a low string of Gallifreyan swears as she tugged a brush through her snarled locks. Once she had her hair straightened, braiding it would be easy, but right now she was wrestling with a knot the size of her fist, and she was seriously beginning to consider reaching for the scissors.

Wait—there. The rat came loose and the Aviator quickly brushed it smooth before setting to work on braiding.

She glanced behind her at the black dress she'd laid out on her bed, taken from the TARDIS' wardrobe. She wasn't normally one for dresses—cargo pants and tank tops were more her speed—but she and the Detective had decided to try and make a proper date out of this. Of course, knowing him, he'd probably show up in his tattered coat as always, but she was trying, dammit.

Not that this was a date-date. Just a... semi-more-romantic leadup to another night together.

They weren't dating.

That would be silly.

The Aviator tucked a silver hair comb into the braided bun at the back of her head and frowned. Why was she going to all this trouble when it would all get pulled loose in tonight's activities?

She didn't want to look nice for him or anything. He certainly wasn't going to go to the same effort.

It just felt like the thing to do, that was all. That was it.

The TARDIS hummed in amusement and the Aviator gestured at the ceiling with her middle finger. "Shut it, you," she said. "It's not a date. And I'll thank you to not bother us while we're busy!"

The TARDIS rumbled again, but fell silent.

There was a quick rapping on the door, and the Aviator's head whipped around when she smelled Zeb on the other side. "Don't co—!"

"I'm just letting you know I'm borrowing the OH MY GOSH ARE YOU GOING ON A DATE TONIGHT IS THE DETECTIVE COMING OVER ARE YOU TWO GONNA KISS?!" Zeb squeed, his mane poofing out as sparks flew from his fur. He bounced in a small circle in the doorway before sprinting away. "I'M BORROWING THE X-BOX DON'T MIND ME OKAY BYE!"

The Aviator groaned and let her head hit the dresser. So much for keeping the not-date secret.

Now, let's see how much I remember. {= D Starting with who I've been thinking about the most recently:

Derik: Red/White/Black. You, and he himself, would probably think the White would come first, what with how much he cares about order, protection, justice, and all that good stuff. However, it's his emotions that make him go, and sometimes go too far, which is what Red is all about. And occasionally, the influence of Black makes him pretty dang scary.

Gall: Red again, but this time Red/Green. Green thinks what it has is pretty great, and it can always get bigger and better. If you mess with it, it will unleash the wrath of nature on you. Gall knows she's pretty great, and if you mess with her, she will unleash the wrath of a Monstrous Nightmare on you. Or she'll do whatever because she feels like it, because Red. Life's an adventure, yo! (I understand Red/Green is the color pair of dragons in MTG, so yeah, go figure.)

Nume: Primary Blue, because Blue is all about the mind, knowledge, and memory. Secondary White, because rules, order, and protection. Nume does what he does because he knows he's the smartest man in the room, and he knows he's right, and he doesn't need anybody else's approval, dammit.

Ilraen: Yes, he's Blue. But it's not his primary. Ilraen is actually doing the White/Red thing properly: doing the Right Thing because it is Right, and it Feels Good to Do Good, and you Don't Mess With Family. He's all heart—but with a side of wicked smart that will come up and catch you by surprise if you're not paying attention, which is where the tertiary Blue comes in. Plus he likes tinkering with technology. So, White/Red/Blue.

Jenni: ... I don't even know, to be honest. Like, I'd think White/Green, maybe White/Green/Red, but it's not right. She's not really about the group (Green/White is ALL about the group), she's about individuals and feelings and relationships and family (Red), and being incredibly psychic (Blue) but keeping it in check because morals and rules (White), and basically just making things better (also Blue?). Maybe she's our actual Red/White/Blue character? Phobos, help me out!

~Neshomeh

So, because the shipfest thread is somewhere down the page I thought I'd link the prompt in with it (because, yes I do pay attention to the rest of the board).
This fortnight's prompt is:

"(At least) One of your characters is preparing for/on a date"

I will actually post a prompt reply this time I swear. (and hopefully it'll be prompt-ly ba-dum tsh)

Nova

It just depends on the version of Batman you are looking at. Some versions are more detective-centric than others, and more Blue because of it.

-Phobos

Brightbeard - Brightbeard likes everything to be neat, orderly, and structured. This puts him solidly in White, as does his strong moral compass. He also values tradition, community, and growth, which makes his second color Green. I can't really get a read on a third color, so White-Green will have to work.

Barid - Barid is kind of ruled by his emotions and he's a bit of a force of Chaos. That makes him a good foil to his partner and it also puts him in Red. His methods (poisoning and shadow magic), as well as the fact that he is only in business for himself, makes him Black. If he has a third color, it is probably Blue. He's smarter than he looks and does have a love of maps and exploration. So, I'll go with Red-Black-Blue for Barid.

Decima - So, we've got a Slytherin. That means ambition, and ambition means Black, right? Well, that's definite in there, it is tertiary for her. Her strongest color is White, because she wants systems and order (she once apologized for the state of her room when there was a single sock out of place). Her second color is Green because she is inflexible in her world-view, as seen by her inability to accept how exorcisms work because the process doesn't conform to her views of magic. She has such a hard time with things in the couple of missions she has, because the PPC has given a major blow to her view of the world, and she is slow to adjust to that. White-Green-Black

-Phobos

I would have pegged Blue as Batman's primary, but what you said makes more sense. Thanks!

Batman is all about Justice, which is a White ideal. How he goes about getting that Justice (fear and intimidation) is decidedly against the law, which is fairly Black. There is also a fair amount of high-technology and detective work, so I would put him in Blue for a tertiary.

Batman - White-Black-Blue

Lex Luthor is out for his own advancement, no matter the cost or legality, so based in Black. However, he uses the fact that he is a "legitimate businessman", as well as using the systems of justice, to shield himself and his nefarious schemes, which is surprisingly White. He is also a very intelligent, very resourceful man, which is Blue.

Lex Luthor - Black-White-Blue

Bonus: Catwoman is only out for herself and her cats. The world doesn't care about her, so she doesn't care about it. So she's based in Black. However, she is also smart and ridiculously skilled at what she does, and that actually falls under Blue. However, there is also a little part of her that wants to be the good guy, that wants (certain kinds of) bad guys to be brought to justice, and that means White.

Catwoman - Black-Blue-White

What are Batman and Luthor's colors?

Now, about your characters all coming out in the same three colors...that's totally fine. Two characters in the same color combination can be very different. It all depends on the balance of the colors, as well as what aspects of a color a character exhibits.

For example: Batman and Lex Luthor are the same three colors. They are very different characters, though.

-Phobos

Thank you so much for making the Red, White, and Blue joke for Cap. That made my day.

So... looking at my characters, I'm starting to realize how many of them are pretty identical when it comes to colors. Most of them fall pretty squarely in the Red-White-Green triad.

The Aviator:
Primary: Red. Ave's made it pretty clear she values her freedom and will be leaving the PPC once there aren't any people left to tie her down. She's hot-headed and emotional, and doesn't always think things through.
Secondary: White. She's loyal to her partner and family and will do whatever it takes to keep them safe.
Tertiary? Eh. If anyone can think of a good reason for one, I'm all ears, but Blue, Black, and Green don't really fit her.

Zeb:
Primary: White. Zeb's a lion, it makes sense he values community. He's self-sacrificing and hates to see others in pain. And he just wants everyone to get along.
Secondary: Green. He knows his place in the universe and he's pretty content to accept it.
Tertiary: Red. Zeb thinks with his heart, not his head, and it shows.

Ix
Primary: Black. Funnily enough, I didn't see this one coming until I got to thinking about it. Ix has long since come to accept that nobody's looking out for her (...well, except Charlotte) and it's up to her to make the most of it with what she's got. She's driven—she put in a lot of hard work to get to where she is—and knows the instant she stumbles, she'll fall right back to the bottom. The world isn't going to be kind to you, so you'd better seize whatever opportunities you can to keep yourself from becoming a target.
Secondary: White. Ix just wants everything to be okay. So although she doesn't believe that will ever be the case, she still tries to make things better where she can.
Tertiary: Red. Despite what she says, she's still in Gryffindor for a reason.

Charlotte:
Primary: Green. Everything happens for a reason, whether you like it or not, so you'd better figure out what to do with what you have. Sure, it doesn't mean she can't complain about it the whole way through, but she's not generally one to fight for change. With one major exception, which leads me to her second color...
Secondary: Red. She (like so many of my characters) once again thinks with her heart instead of her head. She wants something, she wants it now. When she decided she was going to become human for Ix, she went and did it at the first opportunity. When she gets determined about something, she does see it through.
Tertiary: And once again, I fail to think of a third.

Dax:
Primary: Red. He and the Aviator share the same taste for adventure and going out into the world to experience everything it has to offer. He's also, ahem, passionate. He's here to have a good time.
Secondary/Tertiary: White and Green. Dax has a strong sense of justice (He is Chaotic Good) and after being a guard on a skyship for a while, he's got a pretty strong sense of loyalty to whoever he considers his extended family.

Lorson:
Ah, Lorson, thank god you're here to provide a break from the monotony. Well, sort of.
Primary: Red. Lorson values freedom over anything else. He is his own man now, and he takes advantage of that by living life to the fullest and not concerning himself too deeply with the consequences.
Secondary/Tertiary: Black and Blue. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and no matter what happens, he plans on surviving no matter the cost. The best way to do this is through knowledge. His mind, more than anything else, is what he considers his best weapon. Lorson strives to be the best he can possibly be. He has an insatiable thirst for knowledge and he's big on the whole technological aspect that usually gets overlooked in Blue's personality.

Hoo boy, that turned out a lot longer than I thought it would.

Last time I plugged my MTG blog it was with a deck tech, which I understand has a narrow appeal. But this is the PPC; we are readers, writers, and watchers of things. We like to analyze things, and look at characters in interesting ways. To that end, I give you: Color Analysis - MCU Avengers

In this article, I look at Captain America, Iron Man, and Black Widow, and I assign them a three color combination based on their personality. It's not only fun, it is also educational. I use this as one method of better understanding characters that I am reading or writing about (other methods may include Space Marine Legions and classical elements).

So, please read my article and, if you are feeling it, try your hand at assigning colors to your own characters. You can also argue your own interpretation of other peoples' characters (but let the author have first crack at it, please). I'll look at my own PPC Agents in a comment below.

-Phobos

I realize this probably isn't going to see any discussion, since I seem to be the only one here who likes King's really dark stuff. But I intend to write a review of every piece of canon media I consume from now on, and forwards I must march.

Spoilers for It in addition to The Tommyknockers.

I think this is the darkest King novel I've read so far (though I suppose the novella Apt Pupil is still probably the darkest, since all the evil there comes out of human failings). Up to this point, I had read The Shining, It and From a Buick 8. All of those, despite the horror elements and actual murders, still had the classic setup of heroic characters poised against the villains. There was always the sense that as long as the good guys banded together and tried their desperate hardest, there was at least a chance they could overcome the supernatural adversaries they were pitted against.

Not so in The Tommyknockers. I found myself legitimately wondering midway through the story whether there could be any real resolution at all. I didn't delude myself that the Haven townsfolk who had started being converted into alien beings, with their human minds and morals being overwritten, could ever be restored to their natural selves. The line-up of protagonists got progressively grimmer and less promising as the novel progressed: the town constable, being transformed herself and fighting it off through sheer force of will, until finally blowing herself up in a desperate attempt to warn the outside world of what was happening in Haven; an old man, immune to the electromagnetism transforming the rest of the town thanks to a metal plate in his head, who tries to bring a policeman from Derry to prove to the outside world what's happening, but the air is too toxic for the policeman by that point, and he is killed and the old man captured; and finally and least promising, Gardener, the drunk who was actually introduced at the beginning of the novel, and who, despite being immune thanks to also a plate in his head, goes along with the Tommyknockers because he wants to use the alien technology to free the world from nuclear power. To Gardener's credit, he at least manages to hijack the saucer at the end and strand the Tommyknockers on Earth, but the fact that it takes nearly the whole novel for him to wise up and realize how dangerous the aliens and their technology is is frustrating. Especially since he's partly responsible for foiling the old man's plans, and since part of his realization came from the constable blowing herself up. I have to wonder how things might have gone differently if Gardener had managed to work with the other protagonists earlier on, if maybe some of the town could have been prevented from transforming into full Tommyknocker, if only Gardener had stopped getting drunk literally the whole novel. The whole situation just felt incredibly hopeless for most of the read.

It's interesting how King took a plot that sounds like it should be science fiction (a crashed flying saucer is exposed and starts turning the town into aliens), and writes it very much as a horror novel. It's the transformation of both the Havenites's bodies and minds that do it. The physical changes are bad enough, but it's the mental changes that really horrify. The people in the town, despite their new telepathy and ability to invent amazing machines, almost become childlike in their unquestioning devotion to excavating the saucer. As the human parts of their brains get dominated more and more by Tommyknocker-minds, their ability to question their own actions vanishes, and they are driven fully by the impulses planted in their minds to keep outsiders away, to get the ship out of the ground, to keep inventing dangerous technologies. And where most alien species in sci-fi stories are defined by cultural development, the history of their species, and the character traits of individuals, the final revelation of the mysterious Tommyknockers is that they lack culture, individual identities, and even history, since they seem to propagate themselves through the mechanism of their ships transforming other sentient species into copies of themselves. It's strongly hinted that the development of technologies gives them an overwhelming rush of euphoria from some endorphin-like molecule, and this addictive drive to create things has driven their species to pursue that, and only that, at the cost of any moral ability to question the risks that technology poses, and any ability to respect other members of their species as autonomous creatures—instead, the Tommyknockers seem to inevitably end up using their own people as living batteries. Heck, they don't even have a name for themselves; they had to borrow that from reading the Tommyknocker nursery rhyme from Gardener's mind. Things like that don't matter to them. They are invention junkies, and they always need another fix.

There are actually a fair number of inconsistencies in the middle of the novel. Different people seem to transform at strangely arbitrary rates. The "shed people" who expose themselves to a Tommyknocker computer in Bobbi Anderson's shed are supposed to change at a much faster rate than anyone else in town. Indeed, they are the only ones who are wholly and physically Tommyknockers at the novels end. But throughout the novel, other people seem to completely lose the humanity in their minds before others; in particular, Bobbi herself still has to fight against her feelings for Gardener right up until the very final days before she tries to kill him. It seems like Bobbi should have lost her human mind the fastest, since she was the one who tripped over the ship in the first place and was exposed the longest. That said, this novel had me hooked. I mean, I'm a book nerd, but I rarely feel so desperate to find out how a story unfolds that I have to stop myself from flipping ahead through sheer will power, but I had to fight that urge this time around. Just very intriguing, suspenseful writing all throughout.

Pennywise makes a couple of cameos in this novel, Derry being just a couple towns away from Haven. The Tommyknockers was written only a year after It, and takes place only two years after. It's actually kind of frustrating that he brought Pennywise back so soon after; it feels like it ruins the Loser's Club's triumph at the end of It, which really felt like a final victory, considering how much Derry got destroyed during that final confrontation. I suppose it's possible that did successfully kill the Pennywise they were facing, and that the new one is one of Its/Her eggs that they failed to find and crush. It still feels kind of disappointing. It was, however, kind of amusing for Pennywise to metaphorically take the Tommyknockers down a peg. The teen who saw him had transformed so much by that point that he didn't even make it back to Haven alive, as his body could no longer survive in Earth's atmosphere. Surely the human parts of his brain/mind were fully gone by then, yet Pennywise still tried to feed on him. I guess Pennywise's powers trump the Tommyknockers!

Bobbi was an author of Westerns before encountering the flying saucer. She wrote her last novel while she still had human parts to her mind, but then promptly stopped caring about her writing, and never tried to get it published. That means that I have an unexpected mission to perform, in the name of a certain New Caledonian Museum . . .

. . . Which will have to wait until my next spot of free time, because I need to leave for work now.

—doctorlit, eager to see the lengths Sues must go to in order to invade this story

If you haven't read, then don't you dare look! This post contains spoilers for the Tommyknocker book! If you haven't read, then don't you dare look! This post contains spoilers for the Tommyknocker book!

https://discord.gg/FWFP9W8

And I have produced Zero which I guess makes all of us even after all?

I have released... seven.

And two of them are collabs with Ix.

slowgracegonnaslow

Big regret. I couldn’t get through the disclaimer. No one deserves to read that.

I recognize you too!! Happy Boardiversary!

Oh cool! Can I get an invite to the server?

It was so horrible, the contents didn't even register in my brain until later. I don't think it is a must to spork though; not many people can stomach that particular fic. Reading it will probably cause some lasting brain damage.

Welcome back!

Why has this NSFW legendary not have a mission to it yet? This fic just turned 20, and features practically every charge in the books.

(Heeeey Skarm. Sorry for tacking on again, but they are both MCU, eh?)

So to my mind, they are two halves to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's the half with all the good material, and there's the half with the two Guardians films and Ant-Man. Yeah. I know it's not a popular opinion, but those three are my least favorite films of the series. I've seen a lot of complaints lately that Marvel films have a problem with undercutting serious moments with out-of-place humor. Honestly, I think the majority of the films and TV shows are at a pretty good balance in that regard. Except for my disliked three. A-M and the the two GotGs put way too much focus on humor. A-M I didn't mind quite as much as the GotGs, mostly because I really liked Hank Pym, Hope and especially Cross. But the first GotG had basically nothing I really liked, apart from the mix tape's use as the soundtrack throughout the film. The constant lack of seriousness made it hard for me to reconcile that film as existing in the same universe as the Captain Americas and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.s, etc.

That said, I think the sequel was a big improvement over the first, though that same problem of overbearing, idiotic humor is still present. We got to know all the characters a whole lot better this time, other than Quill. I think that's fine, though—we got pretty much all we needed to know about Quill in the first movie. I'm glad they gave all the other characters chances to open up, especially Rocket, Yondu, and Gamora and her sister. I also liked the little scene between Dax and Mantis, where Dax is talking about his lost family members with a fairly neutral and expressionless face and tone. Then Mantis touches him, and immediately starts crying. It shows us that Dax really is as emotionally deep as the others can be, and just doesn't show it. Although that makes me wish he wasn't always used as an outlet for stupid jokes.

Ego was a fun villain, definitely an improvement over Ronin in the last film, who was basically just a personalityless vehicle to introduce another Infinity Stone into the series. The actor who played him whose name I can't be bothered to look up did a good job of playing up the self confidence of an immortal being. He's all powerful and very self-absorbed, but is confident enough about it that he doesn't feel any need to boast constantly. He knows he's powerful, and that's enough. His evil plan feels like a reasonable extension of his identity. It's the sort of inhuman thought process you would expect a creature like a Celestial to have. All around, I rather liked him.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the resolution between Gamora and her sister. The sister had been a fairly flat villain in the original, as well, and for a while, it looked like that was going to continue. She was threatening to kill Gamora at the outset, but then (and in an example of a moment of humor I did appreciate), she was satisfied with finally besting Gamora in combat. After that point, the relationship between them finally evolves past violence, and they start having the discussions they should have had all along. I wish the sister had decided to join in with the heroes in the end, but I'm sure they'll be reunited against Thanos during Infinity Wars anyway.

I really liked the one space dogfight in the beginning. The . . . choreography? of the ship movements was very different and cool-looking. The detail that the . . . gold people . . . were actually being logical and piloting their fighters remotely was both amusing, and fitting for that culture's characterization. Why should they dirty their hands with fighting out in space?

Although that does lead me to another problem that carried over from the original movie: too many alien characters look and talk like humans in face makeup. The entire race of gold people, the green lady, the handful of blue folks. And a lot of them have accents from Earth English dialects. It just makes them feel like they have no unique cultures out there in space, it's all just weird technicolor transplants of humanity. I am told the aliens in the original GotG comics are like that, so at least it's a faithful adaptation in that regard, but I still don't like it.

And yeah. Still way too much adolescent humor for me. I got enough of that nonsense back in grade school and junior high. It wasn't funny then, and it isn't funny now. I'm not really looking forward to the Guardians showing up in Infinity Wars, because then I'll have to put up with it even more. Joy.

—doctorlit, the token stick-in-the-mud MCU fan

"We're really gonna be able to jack up our spoilers if we're two-time galaxy savers." "We're really gonna be able to jack up our spoilers if we're two-time galaxy savers." "We're really gonna be able to jack up our spoilers if we're two-time galaxy savers."

Séverine stirred the soup furiously, sloshing it over the sides of the pot. Ignoring the splashes of soup that were now burning into crusts on the stove top, she called, "Please hurry, Yoof! Lyn's team finished nearly ten minutes ago!" She gave a pained glance to the wheeled serving cart behind her, where a solid cubic meter of steaming lasagna stood imperiously on a tray in the center.

Yoof whined, "Hnnnnnn, I know, Séverine! It's almost ready to—" Then he gave a long, low moan.

Séverine's spirits crashed. "What has happened, Yoof?"

"Hnnnn . . . Séverine, I forgot to mix any yeast into this dough before I baked it! It's all short now."

Séverine let her breath out. "That is fine, Yoof! That just means that you have made flatbread."

Yoof's ears perked up. "I didn't even know I knew how to make flatbread! But now I know that I know it!"

"Indeed, Yoof, indeed." Séverine poured her finished soup into a serving tray that would fit in the salad bar.

Another agent skidded to a halt next to the cart, somehow keeping the pitcher she held from spilling. "Oh, crap!" she yelled. "I totally spaced and forgot to put any sugar in the lemonade! I've got to fix it or it'll be all bitter." She spun around, ready to head back to her work space.

"There is no time!" Séverine said, her voice high-pitched. "Just set it with the rest! If anyone complains, we can call it 'all-natural' or 'diet' or something. If they don't like it—"

"Don't read it!" Yoof chimed in, smiling.

"Something like that." Séverine lifted the tray of soup and quickly carried it over to the cart, letting it slam down next to the lasagna cube, and sloshing soup onto the cart and floor. The agent with the lemonade placed her pitcher on the other side.

A man sat in a chair nearby, playing Candy Crush on his phone. "Oh, right. I forgot I had a kitchen shift," he monotoned. "Consequently, I forgot to actually do anything involving food."

The other three cafeteria workers stared at him for several moments. Finally, Séverine said, "For God's sake, man. Even this division has some standards."

"Oh? Well, maybe you should try heating those up some time." He never looked up from the screen.

Séverine blinked. "'Standards' is not a kind of food, you imbecile."

He mumbled, "Maybe they will be if you heat them long enough."

"Ugh! Never mind him," Séverine said as Yoof stuck his flatbread loaf on top of the pitcher. "We have plenty of food to send out into the dining hall. Lyn's lasagna looks fine, and my soup is flawless. I did not forget anything." As she said this, she wheeled the cart through the big double doors and out of the kitchen.

And right into a mob of agents wielding pitchforks, torches, and furious glares.

"All right. I may have forgotten how dangerous a room filled with hungry agents can be."

—doctorlit note: Lyn's team belongs to Vixenmage.