I knew the ring-losing is a huge cliché, but I do like subverting those. You think it would have been better without?

The emotional mood of this story is powerful throughout the whole thing. Even though I only guessed the Notary as being the Time Lord before the end. (Haven't read enough of Lola to be able to recognize her speaking voice.) But the simultaneous yearning for the other character on both parts, and the firm, almost careful refusal on the part on of the Notary, are incredibly expressive and powerful.

Even though it's all dialogue, the scene breaks, and the clear fact that these exchanges don't follow together as a single conversation, also get across the vast gulf of time between these moments. The first one, with the single line, becomes incredibly cold in retrospect, as it seems like the first time Lola broached the subject, and that the Notary just straight up shut it down with a one-line denial.

—doctorlit, trying to come up with his own story now

Just very sweet! I like how slow and calm and quiet this is, compared to the other prompts. The losing-the-ring thing is the one moment of heightened action—a bit cliched, but I like that Ix ends up solving the problem almost immediately, and then they just get on with it like nothing happened.

—doctorlit, liking weather variety in the Courtyard, too

I think, by this point, Elanor would already see the Detective as another father figure in what looks like a rapidly expanding roster. ^^; That is, of course, assuming Aegis and I continue on that timeline.

I called this turning out to be a dream before I finished reading it, but I didn't expect it to be a dream of real events. Everything seemed to be going so perfectly and easily for Daichi (headband aside) that I didn't believe it could be real. Makes the ending even more of a surprise, firstly that it really did happen, and secondly for the sudden dark mood of Daichi's present. I'm not quite sure why it's driving Daichi to drink, considering it was such a nice, calm dream, but maybe not all the dreams of his past he's having are so nice?

—doctorlit, whiplashed

Ah, a different take on the prompt. Very interesting. I like both the "original" as a straightforward proposal scene with the hint of foreshadowing by mentioning that it takes place on Alderaan, as well as the "flashforward" version where we see the emotional aftermath. The recording eye gives Cinnabar the chance to experience the flashback in the same time as the reader, letting our reactions parallel each other.

One thing that does feel like a discrepancy is when Pariya, in the second story, says she doesn't want to be seen together. She says this right after kissing Theo, and right before drawing him into a hug. I suspect you meant for this to be contradictory, with her actions giving the lie to her words, but it still felt a little too blatantly off to me.

—doctorlit, putting off any diplomatic missions to Alderaan any time soon

This was nice! Very simple and basic, but very nice to see Harris get a moment that goes right, for once.

I can't remember: was Sonia a character we saw published before, or is she newer?

—doctorlit, Frosty sometimes

I like the presentation of Vulcan emotions, and the source of the misunderstanding. I also like the time skip that shows how T'Zar has grown more used to human idioms and behavior over time.

What's particularly well done is how you presented Dawn's injuries in the opening scene, explaining it to us with details spread here and there throughout that scene. much better and more natural than simply stating that she was hurt on a mission, even without specifically saying what happened.

—doctorlit, often logical

This was cute! A small, short scene, but I like that we get a good range of the Aviator's thoughts on the matter, and that he's getting support from both Elanor and the TARDIS. I'm also amused by Elanor's excitement over getting a dad, especially since it goes against the stereotype of kids not liking their step-parent in fiction.

—doctorlit, promising not to tell Zeb

As usual, I love the interaction between these two. The voices you've given both really step out of the screen and speak in my mind.

But my favorite part, by far, is the list of barest bare-bones "benefits" the Flowers confer on married couples. It gets across so much of the Flowers' focus on work, and their lack of understanding of romantic pair-bonding, all in a single sentence. Well done!

—doctorlit, also disdainful of romantic pair bonding, though not a Flower

I'm glad you liked what I did with the languages. Interspecies communication issues are a thing I like reading about, and it's nice to see that I've managed to pull it off.

It's also good that I managed to get a general mood of conflict going, since I wanted that so the "proposal" would seem way out of left field in a potentially-funny way.

You have a point about the lack of description. If/when I go back and edit this, I should find a good spot to add some (para 1. could use a long sentence's worth of physical descriptions.)

Yes, neither agent is human. They're both from the Chanurverse, which is technically part of the Alliance-Union 'verse (but not tightly integrated), all by C.J. Cherryh. Quick summary off the top of my head: Farah is roughly an antropomorphic lion and wearing some sort of loose trousers (probably in black because PPC), and Kk'kttak has a rat-like face, a very thin throat, smells somewhat of amonia, and already had rather concealing black robes when he got here.

- Tomash

Firstly, this link heads to the code.

Now, in reference to the title, "loop until the answer stays the same for a while" is a valid technique in nemerical simulation code ... which this is. However, usually it would help to have some assurance that the system won't do arbitrary weird stuff a few more iterations after you stop looking, and that it'll actually settle down eventually. That is, you'd like to be convinced of stability.

However however,
a) The contest organizers assured us the procedure would be stable.
b) In practice, everyone just rolls with it except where the book said you need to watch out for stability issues.

- Tomash

I like how you play with the alien languages here, both in the physical pronunciation, and in how the translator attempts to present figures of speech from it. I also like that the pre-existing conflict between the two agents isn't spelled out right away, but sets the mood throughout the whole piece nonetheless.

I could have done with physical descriptions of both agents, since neither seems human, and I don't know what they're from.

—doctorlit, going to review all of these, hopefully

A) Well, that was sort of an unintentional effect. I was meaning to imply undernourishment/stress with perhaps a bonier face in the 'before'. I'm glad it turned out that way, though! I quite like the implications of a more feminine 'after'.

B) Thanks! :D I put a lot of effort into making the two portraits look a lot like each other, and I'm glad I nailed the nose.

But they are boring and blatant CGI, so that makes them boring.

—doctorlit is the movie effects equivalent of a genwunner

I mean, what more is there to say? It was an excellent movie and you covered, well, everything.

Only one small quibble with you: The crystal foxes were awesome and it is blasphemy to say otherwise. :P

Okay, so. Making an effort to do more, longer-content posts on the Board. Time is limited for me, but I have to try. I feel like my job is pulling me away from my number-one hobby, and I don't like it. From here on out, I intend to try to write something about every piece of fiction I consume, and hopefully inspire a discussion thread as a result.

Anyway. Star Wars. I saw it yesterday with my mom and brother, and the following will essentially be my unfiltered, initial impressions, as I haven't yet watched or read any reviews online. Here is the official SPOILER WARNING for not only The Last Jedi, but probably for at least some aspects of the other seven films, as well. And I'm potentially spoiling everything so please, go no further if you haven't watched yet.

Also, I don't have all the new character and planet names memorized yet, so forgive me for being vague about any of those. And for rambling. It will be mostly rambling.

I think this was the best-written and best-plotted Star Wars to date. It's far more character-motivated than any of the others by far. The inevitable consequence of this is that Last Jedi finally does what I feel Lucas was trying to communicate about the setting all along, particularly in the prequel trilogy, but wasn't quite able to due to his poor writing ability: make Star Wars morality not black-and-white. And to make the message even more powerful, that it's delivered primarily through Luke Skywalker, a character that pop culture has viewed for decades as one of the most generic golden-boy good guys. It was a little shocking to see him criticizing the Jedi order, but also kind of freeing, when it comes down to it. To me, this says (finally) that it's not the side you say you're on, not the face value colors you wear, but the things you do with the abilities you possess. The film plays with this in so many ways, both subtle and obvious. Luke's lack of regard for the past Jedi institutions, while focusing his training of Rey on simply studying and understanding the Force itself, is a big part of it. Rey herself also supports this theme, overtly being called by the natural Dark Side cave on the island, and sometimes having some darkly utilitarian thoughts ("The Force is something the Jedi use to control people and . . . and move things."), while very clearly having "good" goals in defeating Snoke and keeping the Resistance alive.

Kylo Ren has become a much more interesting villain to me this time around. The film makers did an incredible job of setting up his turn to the Light Side, making him interact with Rey throughout the movie, having such heartfelt and honest discussions with her, and . . . man, it was such a stirring scene for me when he offed Snoke and stood back-to-back with Rey to fight off the Knights of Ren! And of course, the ending of Return of the Jedi set us all up to expect Kylo to join the Light . . . so what a depressing let-down right afterwards, when he takes control of the First Order and continues the attack on the Resistance! But it makes Kylo a more believable villain for me. Most of the past Star Wars villains, particularly Palpatine and Maul, were basically motivated by their belief systems, acting in the name of the Sith religion for purely abstract reasons. I like that Kylo rejects all that came before, acting in the name of his own desires. I hope things stay that way in Episode IX, now that he has essentially ended the Sith as we've known it so far. It also makes him an unexpected mirror to Luke, since during this film they both more or less literally burn down the legacies of the established faiths they once represented.

Slight side note from there: I love that after all the fan theories about Snoke's identity and significance to past SW history, he just gets killed off with no real revelations or examination of him here. What a great red herring! Incidentally, now that I've seen him in non-hologram form and heard him speak more, I do think he was Palpatine after all. I can easily see the texture of his skin and the mutilation of the left side of his face being results of the electrocution and fall Palpatine took at the end of RotJ, and his voice frequently takes on the same growling timber of the Emperor's sexy voice. But as I said, it really doesn't matter any more, and I'm okay with that.

One major, ongoing weakness that this film shares with the entire rest of the series is that we still don't have a reasonable explanation behind the politics in the conflict. Like, the prequel trilogy remains the most solid politics explanation so far, and that primarily only worked because Palpatine stood to gain so much in a dictatorship because he got to be the dictator. I suppose Snoke's motivation in starting the First Order was probably similar, but I can't understand why General Hux and the rest of the storm trooper regimens are so dedicated to wiping out the Senate and the Resistance, when they're essentially nothing but grunts. In The Force Awakens, Hux gave that grand speech about wiping out chaos and imposing order, but that's just philosophy. I want to really know why Hux and company think a dictatorship is the best, most efficient, most productive way to run the galaxy. I want to know what problems were either being caused by, or not being addressed by, the Republic Senate that justified obliterating seven planets' worth of sentient people. I think the non-Force using Empire/Order side of the conflict in SW is unavoidably going to feel rather cardboard until we start to understand their viewpoint better. But again, hopefully Kylo's turning away from "identity politics" in this film will allow more room for development of a real purpose to the First Order in future films.

Finally, Yoda. Yo-yo-yo-yo-yoda! His appearance was just such an absolute pleasure. Frank Oz's performance follows along from the ones in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, complete with the return to the puppet, rather than the CGI used for Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Even admitting that the puppet technology really doesn't look that good in the current age of film, it felt good, it felt right, to know that in the final moment of that scene, Mark Hamill and the Yoda puppet were actually leaning against each other, and that it wasn't something just added in post. It also fits that the puppet form of the original trilogy is Yoda's "defining" point in time from which Yoda appears as a ghost, as I feel that even Yoda was being influenced by the decadence of the Jedi order during the events of the prequel trilogy (even he couldn't see beyond the veil of darkness Palpatine was cloaked in), and that his time on Dagobah was truly the time of his greatest enlightenment under the Force. Following from this, and tying into my earlier point about not equating "Light Side" with "Jedi" and "Dark Side" with "Sith," Yoda is even the one who follows up on Luke's desire to wipe out the old Jedi codes and laws by immolating them, even using natural lightning to do so—an excellent Light Side use to parallel the long-established use of lightning as an attack by Dark Side users. For a scene that contains a lightning bolt and small forest fire, it's such a peaceful, comforting scene. Very well done!

Finally, some minor stuff. I like the guinea pig-birds as fine and funny SW-feeling background decoration, but disliked the crystal canines, as they looked a bit too much like a World of Warcraft monster, even though they actually had a storyline purpose. However, I loved the planet the crystal canines lived on, though. I first saw that planet, and I was like, "Oh, an all-ice world, like Hoth." But then, it turns out to be salt! A planet whose geology is primarily salt! That's so original, and made for some great visuals during that battle sequence, especially in the underground caves later on. It might even account for the stupid appearance of the crystal canines, if the crystals in their fur are partly due to salt being incorporated into their biology. I found the hologram cameo from Maz to be pretty unnecessary and tacked-on, especially since Rose came from the planet Maz directed her group to anyway. Seems like she could have just known about the master hacker guy herself, and saved the movie an entire scene. The scene in the casino was great. It had all the creativity of past "cantinas" in both set and character design, but felt noticeably different from any setting we've seen in SW so far. It also put the overly clean and shiny aesthetic of the prequel trilogy to much more appropriate use. I probably don't even have to point out that the heroes rescuing the hippogriff-looking animals that were being abused for sport gave me all kinds of happy feels quite beyond the ones being invoked by watching a new SW movie. I especially love that the animals escape by trashing the casino, where the money raised off betting on them was being spent. And the final sequence involving Luke was perfect in every way.

—doctorlit calls it: Episode IX will have Hayden Christensen appear as Anakin's Force ghost, and it will be amazing

Here are some spoiler lines for use in discussion posts, to keep spoilers out of the automatically generated previews:

"They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler." "They hate that spoiler."

I'm sorry I didn't watch the video, but I don't like to cry.
Here is something else really cool. I love gingerbread and cuneiform is really fascinating.

Edible Archlaeology: Gingerbread Cuneiform Tablets

1/3: 'eeeey, it's a nipple! Doesn't that feel better? ;) Oddly, the thing that's really drawing my eye here is the lightly-sketched log Derik is sitting on; I really like the design of it, even though I can barely see it.

#5: Henry is adorable; I want to ruffle his hair. I love the way his t-shirt is riding up as he raises his hand - it's a nice little detail. I feel like the top itself is slightly wrong, though - the straight line up to his arm suggests it's being pulled tight, but then it's all rumpled at the sleeve? He ends up looking like he has a giant shoulder blade pushing it out, which I'm assuming isn't the case. ^_^

Old Henry for some reason looks alarmingly like Dobby? Dunno what's with that.

#6: Woof! I founna woof! :D I think you're right about the head - if she pointed it in a straight line from her neck, it would be 'narrower' than the neck. The tail is lovely, though, and (weird detail time again) the 'flame' lines are perfectly simple and perfectly placed.

hS

Kaede, I know what the problem is - you haven't actually written any words, Kaede. I don't know what alphabet you use, but I'm pretty sure those aren't it. ^_~

Obviously, I love the pose - it's extremely evocative (unless you were aiming for something else...). The simplicity of the shape of the head is also nice - and the hair shows good consistency with the other Kaede image.

I do feel like there's something wrong with your angles, though. The sheet of paper doesn't seem to be in the same perspective as the room itself, and I'm positive that the light coming through the window can't show that shadow from the pen pot. I do like the variable sharpness of the shadows, though - they are, correctly, sharper when they're closer to the object casting them.

hS

The TXR hackery continues! (seriously, TXR is pretty freaking nice and I've been having a lot of fun with it).

This isn't the shortest or cleanest code I've ever written, but it seems to work reasonably well. And it's gotten cleaner then it was initially. It's also only two screens of code. Which is... pretty decent for me. https://pastebin.com/xUJSbEsf

(Well, it's better than none... ^^)

<img src="http://www.yourimage.link/here"/>

You'll need to upload your image somewhere first (Imgur works; Photobucket doesn't), then find the direct link option.

Or... stick it up on Google Drive and just link to it. ^~

hS

So, we haven't had a thread in a few days, and I was recently reminded of a video I saw once, that I think people should watch. It's kind of old, so you may have seen it already, but I figured why not share.

Warning, this video can evoke some pretty strong emotions. Most people I know have cried while watching it. Having said that... https://youtu.be/ltun92DfnPYvvvbnnn

Thoughts? Opinions? Other videos worth sharing? Suggestions that I was totally wrong to post this? They're all welcome.