The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Equality. Socialism. Humanity.

I've suggested My Little Unicorn and The Conversion Bureau as potential legendary badfics, but that seemed to peter off.

Not sure my answers were entirely accurate- did this kind of on the fly. But this was fun! :D Here are my results: http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?b1=17&b0=43&s0=55&s1=26&m1=19&m0=45&c1=43&c0=38&femi=29&t0=19&t1=45&j1=19&j0=45&e0=36&e1=33&p1=26&p0=21&prag=67

Also I would just like to note that my browser has refused to log me in for the past week or so and I've had to manually input my name and email so often that it's been saved in those slots :|

I'm looking to find someone who has been a beta before and who is willing to work with me and my partner on our fanfiction, https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11653159/1/Dual-Guardians If you are willing to help, message me via Fanfiction.net or via my gmail. You'll be temporarily working on chapters already completed on Google Docs and putting suggestions to change things that need changing. If you decided you want to stay with the story afterwords, I'm sure we can find a way to include you.

No? Well, here's a nice little test to find out the answer to that question anyways, courtesy of palindrom.

And as an example, here are my results.

Let me give you a black-hole chocolate cake with red berries coating, and my congratulations for all the time you passed here.

I set it to Tracer x random and it's at least somewhat funny every time. (I'm sorry, Tracer.)

-Twistey

"The Stu who had them really felt it when Richard remembered that little fact to the fic."

"I think I could have done without the 'charred raw burger' look he had once the fic was done giving him all the damage he should have got from the exhausted Aura," Richard said with a grimace as he paled at the memory.

"Hey logic said he impaled his arms, so no Aura, so damage. I'm not complaining when our target kills itself for us."

On the nitpicks, "dared to glance" would technically be correct, but it's commonly phrased without the "to". I... don't really know why. I guess it's a colloquialism, or slang, or something.

The second one is definitely a mistake, and I shall fix it. {= )

~Neshomeh

I became so immersed that I forgot to take notes. So I had to read it again, because I vaguely remembered zhat there might have been two mistakes.

He hardly dared glance at Farilan with his stalk-eyes.
Shouldn’t this be "dared to glance"?

That would make us 'tit for tat', I believe they saying goes.
Should be "the".

HG

"Or maybe pokéball is just shy, I dunno. Anyway, try to keep it away from your consoles; I wouldn't want to be indirectly responsible for your games getting wiped." He got up to choose his present, and then something sank in. "Wait, Whitney, did you call him 'Mr. Fitzgerald-to-be'? I didn't even know you guys were dating!"

"Congratulations to both of you!" said Ami, smiling fondly.

Chris took a deep breath and grabbed a random Party Ball. "Please don't be awful, please don't be awful, please don't be--"

The ball split in half, and a pair of gauntlets with curved blades and shotgun barrels landed in front of him.

"Aw, man, how come you guys always get all the cool toys?" said Violet.

((Uh, Violet doesn't appear on the list of participants, please fix))

Technically speaking, there's not that much to beta. I didn't spot a single SPaG error. That doesn't mean there are none, but still!

The only spots where I was actually confused were the bit about how long Reill's been a bard and a little bit of a pronoun problem.

The first: "'Ten years,' he said, smiling. 'Five years, if you count the traveling as part of it.'"

So... he's been a bard for less time if you include the travel? I don't get it.

The second: "And in that moment, Reill realized he loved him."

I think you're most likely saying Reill realizes he loves Hallow, but it could also be read as Reill realizing that Hallow loves him, given the previous line of description detailing how admiringly Hallow is looking at him. I think fixing it would involve turning the focus back to Reill.

The prose is maybe a bit stiff in places, a bit "there was this and then there was that," but it relaxes as you go, and you also have some beautiful descriptions that light up the world. I love the detail you put into the various regions, the foods of the South, the goods that come through Harrow's dock, and all of that.

As for the actual content? I like it! It's a very sweet and happy sort of world that Hallow lives in, up until the jerks turn up. Part of what makes this work better than your usual A/B/O fic is that this is (I think?) an original universe, where these are just the rules everyone is used to. You're not trying to stick these bizarre templates on characters who don't otherwise have them. You are also careful to remember that while people may fall into broad categories like, to take a real world example, "gay" or "straight," that doesn't mean everyone in the category thinks and acts the same. (Nor does everyone necessarily fit neatly into them in the first place, which may or may not be something you want to deal with; I'm just covering my butt.) Shockingly, we're all individuals!

As someone who is only familiar enough with A/B/O to know how deeply weird it is and that it has nothing to do with how wolves actually behave, I could use a little more information on what those categories mean in this world? I sorta get the impression that alphas are big and strong, and omegas are soft and pretty, and betas... actually betas haven't really come up at all yet. But on the other hand, I also appreciate that it's not treated as a terribly big deal; it just is. Like it would be if that's how the world worked.

I like how you've developed the relationship between Hallow and Reill so far. Objectively, it might've come to the point a bit quickly (three days, I think?), but it feels very natural nonetheless. Being able to talk to a person for hours, and feeling immediately comfortable in their presence, like they're an extension of yourself... that's how I fell in love with Phobos. So of course I like that. {= )

To answer Reill's question about happiness, have the quote from Moulin Rouge that immediately leapt into my head:

The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return.

~Neshomeh

This... this is too perfect. {X D

---

"John, I have been watching you while you did some pop culture referances. Your skilled. VERY skilled."

"Oh, yes, John is great at it" said AERYN.

"INDEED. maybe the greatest. Look at Johns body. His torso! His elbow! His nose! Its like he is built for pop culture referances! Every aspect of his perfect physique built for that one divine purpose. "

"I am thus going to officially invite John to the pop culture referances championship!" continued the talent scout.

"We are going to the championship!?" said Aeryn

"Yes, the ticket has a +1. And you both go straight to the final!"

"Awesome!"

"But you will be fighting against someone else that made it to the final...someone you know well....Scorpius!"

"Then its settled" said John. "We go. We cant let Scorpius win at anything. Even pop culture referances."

---

It's funny because it's true! No one in the Uncharted Territories beats John Crichton at pop culture references! {X D Whole thing here, I think.

~Neshomeh

And we have that little RP/interlude after "Thirty Hs," too.

Those excerpts look great, and I'm stoked for all of it!

~Neshomeh has much to do today.

all in the planning stages for years at this point.

"Because We Like You"
The chronologically next story of my spin-off, this takes place immediately after "Pick Your Poison" and shows my little Sue kid recruits being officially inducted to the PPC. It's actually a fairly complex interlude, with a handful of cameos and, I think, the first really detailed description of the nursery we've had yet? If anyone knows of an existing one I may have missed, let me know. But yeah, this one kicked my butt for literally years, and I'm glad it's in the beta stage and close to release. Just waiting for feedback from one more beta, Nesh! :)

* * *

"A Fistful of Hs"
My Thirty Hs mission, now into its second draft. I'm trying to make this mission fairly unique and different, and not to turn it into "oh no the badness is so bad," out of respect to the folks who find it legitimately entertaining. I'm trying to keep it pretty silly, but still have a plot surrounding it. I had quite a lot of fun drafting it, actually. There's also going to be a mini-mission side story of my Cafeteria agents going into Thirty Hs in search of edible substances.

This one will take a while to release, as there's another interlude I need to write for Doc and Vania that takes place between "Because We Like You" and this one, covering the 2013 Blackout.

An unbetad excerpt?
Vania nodded to Doc and started forward. “Let’s do this.”

“Wait. But.” Doc glanced from his partner to the scientist. “Disguises?”

“Do not bother,” said Minutia. “None of this story actually takes place on the surface of the Wizarding World.”

“Okay, that was some very suspicious phrasing you just chose, there.” Doc continued talking even as Vania dragged him towards the portal. “Nobody said this was a crossover, and I don't see where a Harry Potter story could take place other than oh my God we’re in outer space.”

Indeed, they were. The Potterverse version of Earth, geographically indistinguishable from World One’s, stretched out below the agents for a seemingly endless distance (with the British Isles facing them, appropriately enough). The moon loomed huge ahead of them, and the sun, still too far away to look any bigger, was somewhere behind them, allowing the agents vision.

Doc began to scream for a split second, but then clamped his mouth shut with his cheeks puffed out. He pressed his back to Vania and moved around her in a circle, flailing his arms. As his cheeks began to darken, he sank down at Vania’s feet, grasping at her hand briefly until the hand fell and he went still.

“Doc, please stand up. You're embarrassing me in front of all the celestial bodies.”

* * *

"The Garden Spells Trouble"
This is going to be a weird interlude, even by PPC standards. It appeared in my head fully formed after I read Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, an obscure little romance with a very light dash of urban fantasy. It's somewhere in between an interlude and a mission, and will finally reveal the Cafeteria Division's head after all these years. And will also connect to Phobos's Catastrophe Series, somehow. I doubt anyone was clamoring for Yoof and Séverine to get their own big episode, but uh. It's coming.

This story is actually ready for a third draft before betaing, but I've been putting it off since it takes place so far in the future from my current writing. I wanted to bang the whole thing out right after reading GS, so I didn't lose the idea.

Another unbetad excerpt:
Meanwhile, Yoof had been checking out what food was available. Uneaten food that required reheating had been carted back into the kitchens by the previous shift. (Nonperishable food was left out in the Cafeteria to keep agents occupied while new food was prepared. Less popular foods of this variety tended to sit out for weeks before either getting eaten by a desperate agent or managing to escape on its own.) The kitchens also featured massive walk-in pantries, refrigerators and freezers, containing various raw ingredients and unprepared food acquired from various fics and canons.

"What are our options today, Yoof? Sound off leftovers."

Yoof stood rigid and saluted. "From the leftovers! Slowpoke tail! Frosted guano! Meatloaf!"

Séverine rolled her eyes. Even all this time after the Blackout, the meatloaf was hardly getting touched. Didn't agents understand that not eating the meatloaf was what had caused Slorp in the first place? "And what other ingredients can we use?"

"From the freezer! Belgian fries! Sea salt ice cream! Maui's dolphin steak! Ants! Meatloaf!

"From the fridge! Spinning leek! Rukh eggs! Ham and jam and spam!"

"A lot?"

"Yes! Also, Superfast Jellyfish! A few good taters! Armored goat milk! Meatloaf!

"From the pantry! Dehydrated dextro-amino foods! Kupo Nuts and Deku Nuts! Beebles! Monkey biscuits! Some DHARMA supplies! Meatloaf!"

"Excellént, excellént." Séverine rubbed her hands together, mentally combining ingredients. She moved each of the mixing bowls to a separate counter. "We will put the guano and meatloaf back in the fridge. We need the food to be eaten this time." She paused again, glancing between the doors. "Okay. Yoof, I am going to begin mixing Kupo Nuts into dough. Please go knock some Beebles unconscious."

"Yes!" Yoof grabbed a large metal mallet from a corner and dragged it into the pantry, which was filled with tittering laughter. Unnervingly, the sound only increased with each loud thwack, but Séverine was too focused on mixing to notice.

—doctorlit, the slowest writer

I can't select text, can't scroll smoothly without some poorly-coded Javascript causing it to lag, and to be quite honest it's practically unusable without opening the page in Reader View. Anyways, I'm pretty impressed by the fic generation capabilities of it.

Which are, uh, partially why I took so long to respond to this.
Also, procrastination.

By 'a few thing', what I actually mean is is that I have two main projects:

1. My first actual PPC story spinoff! Finally, after two years or so of being here, I've nearly got the spinoff, er, begun. Not to imply all that time was spent on that spinoff, because that would then imply that the thing has had more effort put into it than it has, therefore implying that it's better than it probably will be! That was mostly just finishing school, and, and trying to figure out what I was even doing and, uh, procrastinating.
It will consist of a bunch of short stories all connected to a larger one. It will have no missions or sues and it will be about an Operations division that's had basically nothing written about it.

Dos. A weekly prompts thingy with Alleb.
I would actually really recommend this, if you lot have troubles with motivating yourself to write things - it was for this reason that Alleb and I started doing it, after all! It's also useful for that whole worldbuilderitis thing, which was also partly why I started doing it.
It's essentially a workshopping thing - one of us will find a prompt, we each have a week to write a thing on that prompt, and at the end of the week, we look at each other's stories, and beta them. Repeat next week, with the other person finding the prompt.
Thus, you manage to:
- Get writing practice done (which is a bit important considering that the only way to get better at writing is to write things)
- Get a bit of betaing practice in
- Get your writing consistently critically looked at
And so on and so forth.
Also, you get to talk consistently to cool people about your stories. At least, I do.
I've been using it as a way to help me to further expand and look at my own original universe - using the prompts to write little vignettes within it. Which, of course, is very good for further developing it, and the like.

It's actually been brought to the Board before; I don't remember exactly when, or who found it, but it was a number of years ago and we had a lot of fun with it. I might even have some of the results still saved somewhere, though by now I couldn't tell you which they were or why I wanted them saved.

I think they've upgraded the settings, though--it feels like there are more options. Certainly I don't remember the presets...

(And of course I tried it this time too. And *of course* the results of keying in Jacques & Co (with pairings set to 'any') gave me the villain (and more or less Ra's al Ghul) Mary Sue sending him to assassinate President Luxury, only to completely fail at that, be told there was some sort of prophecy, and finally marry Luxury after having some sort of intense relationship with *himself*. And the whole thing was titled 'Revenge of the CAD'.

It was pretty wild.)

~Z

(Which should probably be spelled as Boardiversery, but I don't remember anyone ever doing it, so I'm sticking with this.)

Yes, you read that right! Five years and two days ago, I said hello on the Board and somehow that snowballed into 'yes, actually, maybe I will try for Permission', and, well, now a very big chunk of my recent writing is (both posted and unposted) PPC stories. It's been quite the ride.

Here's to a good sixth year and getting some more stories out!

[Party food and fireworks begin to appear out of nowhere: benefits of a virtual space!]

Let's celebrate!

~Z

The completely out-of-place 'Once you are dead, you are nothing' between all the raunchiness is kinda hilarious, honestly.

Almost instantly, Backslash blushed and covered his face with his scarf. "Whitney, we're in public! Ugh, alright then. Let's get this over with."

He stepped over to the collection of Party Balls, picked one up, and punched it hard. Instead of flying across the room, the large orb gently floated into the air, and started flashing red with its distinctive jingle.

Next moment, the ball split in half, and something glitchy-looking flew out of it, landing on top of his head. It seemed to shift between a bunch of pixels, several skeletal fossil Pokemon, and a black ghost-like shape, unsure of what to make of itself.

"Just my luck," he muttered. "I get the glitch Pokemon right out of the gate."

Everyone who's participating can check out the introductory post below. Have fun!

http://ppc-posting-board-2-proto.herokuapp.com/posts/6044