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(I'm not younger than 13, but I'm still not comfortable with putting it out for folks I don't know IRL to see.)

-Twistey

Because I know where I can find that! :D

NES Areatha isn't a terribly polite houseguest; she's seen here storming CLS Exeter St. David's isolation chamber and taking over his ship. Well... for a given value of 'storm'.

This is the end of the prologue from last year's NaNo; the shot is entitled 'She sauntered towards me, wearing nothing but a smile.'

My assumption is that the movie adaptation of Gravity's Embrace would keep Areatha's habitual nudity, but - to maintain its PG rating - would consistently cover it up with increasingly contrived foreground objects. This is the first such shot, and it just gets worse from here on out.

hS

I am seriously going to draw my next picture with no hands at all, just to avoid dealing with them.

Thank you very much for the advice, though. I'll be going back and trying to rework at least some of those hands, though with all ten visible at least in part, I may not get all of them working.

Remembering the crease on the joint, and adding in the angle from the first thumb joint (which is alarmingly non-curved, I can't take it :O), are probably the things I'll focus on.

hS

I still haven't finished day 16, but day 17 was easy!

I took the incredibly naive approach in Lisp. Worked pretty well. It took a minute or two to run, though, and I exhausted the heap and crashed my code on the first runthrough. I had to expand the heap, or it wouldn't work. Come on SBCL, I'm only consing up a 50 million element circular list! :-P

...And I mistakenly named my post "Day 19". https://pastebin.com/mvHvquN5

The fic itself is 33k words, so surely that should be enough to make something ridiculously coherent, right?

What came back out was a glorious mess of urple nonsense.

The midnight air shed darkling not to the midnight hours still unchangeable truth with forest boughs and still more upon the night. With dim lusty pains anguish the voice silver glitterings and feel it rich anger shows hope. Not grieve the bugle amen.

I never once used "bugle" or "amen" in the fic, so why the generator spit that back out at me, I have no idea.

Everybody looks pretty great here. I love the kiss. No idea what it's based on, but it looks natural and not like their faces are trying to merge, which is always a plus. ^_^

I'mma critique the hands this time, because there are so many of them in this picture, and they all look a bit boneless. Hands are hard, no two ways about it, and subtle little changes in the line make all the difference. The fingers should widen a little at the second knuckle, then taper toward the tip. (The third knuckle is probably not prominent enough to worry about.) The more they're bent, the more the crease on the inside of the joints will become prominent—if the sides/insides of the fingers are visible, this really helps make them look more 3D.

The first joint of the thumb also tends to stand out a bit, just above the wrist, and gives the base of the hand a square look (unless it's tucked in). Remember the thumb has three segments, just like the fingers, but it's set lower and the first segment is joined to the palm by muscle and skin. When relaxed, it tends to curve inward, not stick straight out. When fully extended, the third segment (of the fingers, too) can actually curve outward a bit—at least, mine do, especially the thumb and first finger.

All this subtle stuff adds up to make a believable hand. Drives me nuts, but at the same time I kinda love it. {= )

~Neshomeh, who has kinda stalled out on drawing, but will hopefully be able to catch up after cookie-making is over.

Right in the feels box. I love it!

The gut punch that is the last line really sells this whole piece. Bravo.

The Four Pathologists (plus Fifth Alchemist)

Time Lords! Specifically, PPC-insert Time Lords; these stories springing out of a thread in 2013 were the origin of the Librarian, and also of these characters. The Fifth Alchemist is the only female version of my own stand-in - she's a redheaded mad scientist, who the Pathologist... well... yeah. You get it. ^_^

Bonus points for recognising what the kiss is based on.

Overall I'm fairly pleased with this, but it's far from perfect. I may update and digitally colour it later. We'll see.

hS

(Since it's all lost in the mire of Off The Front Page now.)

I gave myself the additional challenge of using only characters based on my wife, Kaitlyn. This isn't much of a challenge, because I have a lot of those (and I like drawing her).

All my art is on my long-existing but never-used DeviantArt page, along with a couple of other sketches. For Drawcember specifically, I have:

#1 - A Protagonist (Connie Sims of the IAIA) - I loved the face on this, and eventually coloured it in:

#1C - A Protagonist, Coloured (Connie Sims) - two versions, each with their own issues, but a great learning process.

#2 - An Antagonist (An unnamed naiad) - not one I'm terribly pleased with, to be honest.

#3 - A Disused Character (Andromeda Ethrax) - this was where I started getting really good advice, as can be seen in:

#3A - A Disused Character, Revised (Anda Ethrax) - blending! Hands!

#4 - A Character's Room (Former Agent Constance Illian-Sims) - geometry is my thing. ^_^ Slightly revised from the Board version, to adjust that window seat.

#5 - Young, Middle, Old (Firethorn) - an experiment in shading and in tweaking images.

#6 - An AU Character (Connie of Wessex) - an image I've had in my head for a long time, which I'm glad to be able to almost do justice. This one has been fixed up since it appeared in the first thread, following RemnantShadow's advice.

And now...

hS

Finch's optical sensor narrowed and glared over at Bingle in a new kind of disgust.

'This is one of the stupidest ideas you-ve ever had.'

'Alright, then, Finch,' said Bingle, narrowing his own eyes, nodding, looking down at a sheet of paper in his hands.

'Will you marry me with knowledge of the benefits of, ahem:' he raised the sheet up to his face, glanced at Finch from behind it, and continued reading. 'An extra day off per annum, permission to an RC of slightly larger than usual size, a free "do not disturb" sign, and - and - a single, guaranteed free cake for the wedding.' He looked over at it, raised an eyebrow at Finch.

'Bingle, no.'

'Free cake, Finch, for absolutely no price at all!' Bingle exclaimed, waving the sheet in Finch's optical sensor. 'That costs absolutely, literally no money, at all! In the most literal sense possible! Zero!'

'I had bloody figured that,' Finch hissed, shoving the sheet away.

Bingle shook his head and folded his arms and dramatically raised his eyebrows. 'Free cake, Finch. It might be chocolate, or even maybe have some form of ice cream or other dessert on it!'

'Why do you keep emphasising the cake? I can-t even eat.'

'Oh, it's not just cake.'

Finch pointed at Bingle, at his sheet, with an actuator. His optical sensor twisted and twirled as he said: 'You know, Bingle, there are lots of people out there for whom marriage is a very important event of deep religious meaning, with real spiritual consequences and relevance. You-re really bloody degrading them, right now.'

'Finch, I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that, and that is mainly because I was paying you no attention at all because I was thinking of all the benefits - free benefits - like cake - free cake - we could get just by entering a legally binding marriage for the rest of our lives or until our relationship degrades into apathy and occasional violent bursts of arguing and we commit an inevitable divorce, tearing a great schism between our once peaceful families.'

'No! That is so - that is so bloody dumb!' Finch ran an actuator down his optical sensor. 'You always come up with incredibly horrible ideas like this, and then you always try and drag me into them!'

Bingle wrapped his hands together and thought deeply. 'I suppose you will be saying no.'

'No! Ask someone else!'

'Maybe I just will.'

'Okay!'

'And we'll enjoy it.'

'Good!'

'That free cake and those benefits, all for free. We'll love it.'

'I bloody hope you do.'

'Okay, then,' Bingle said, eyes dramatically narrowed, stepping backwards down the hall. 'You'll regret not taking me up on this, you know.'

'No, I won-t.'

Bingle's slow shake of his head suggested that, yes, Finch would regret not taking him up on that.



Bingle returned and Finch didn't regret a single thing. Bingle walked over, heavily sat down, back arched. He looked like he had been crumpled up and thrown away. His eye did not just look black; it looked lopsided.

'DMS, right?'

Bingle nodded.

'Already married, right?'

'Very married. Also, I suspect she was some form of... dragon. Or minotaur, perhaps.' He reached around his mouth, feeling for any remaining teeth. 'Either way, she was capable of both fire-breathing and goring.'

'Right out of a dramatic mission where their relationship was put to its very limits, right?'

'The Ironic Overpower hasn't liked me very much today, Finch.'

'It hasn-t.'

'You know, in my defence, out of all the doors I knocked, I was only beaten up once.'

Bingle exhaled, Finch groaned.

'If you really want to bloody try it,' said Finch, a claw on his optical sensor. 'I will do it. Because we-re friends. And I pity you. And I-m sure that cake is bloody delicious.'

Bingle glanced at Finch. 'Really?'

Finch glanced right back, behind that claw. 'Sure, Bingle.'

'You know,' said Bingle, heftily propping himself against the wall and looking at the corner between the wall and the ceiling. 'Now that I think of it, knocking on the doors of multitudinous people I've never met before to ask if they wanted to get married for cheap benefits wasn't even a very good idea, was it?'

'I can-t believe I suggested something like that.'

Bingle nodded and said: 'You really ought to be more responsible, you know.'

Continuing on from this thread, about Character Drawcember. Why am I continuing it? Because I've gotten really good advice from the first half, and have just finished another drawing. ^_^ I'll take that to a subthread, though.

It's by no means too late to start, by the way! Even if you only get a single image done, people like RemnantShadow and Neshomeh offer excellent drawing concrit. It's a great way to improve (and also to build a stockpile of character images... I have an inordinate amount of love for my little folder, now.)

hS

((This is unbeta'd and possibly slightly sadder than the other prompts. I'm sorry.))

"You OK?" Cinnabar asked as she entered her RC. Theo was sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at a holoprojector that Cinnabar had never seen in the room before.

Not looking away from the scene playing on the holoprojector Theo shook his head. "You know how I said my left eye records just about everything I see?"

"Yeah." Cinnabar replied as she moved around both Theo and the holoprojector to sit next to her partner, as she did so she noticed Theo had been crying, a rare thing for the Mandalorian Cyborg.

"Well, there are special times that I'm able to keep. When I was still in my 'verse some of my crew used to edit the recordings so that it was more like a third person video than just a first person view from my eye." Theo explained, still watching the scene. "And of all of those scenes, this one..." He broke down crying again, unable to finish his sentence.

Cinnabar looked at the holoprojector, the scene showed two figures, one obviously Theo and another, from what Cinnabar could remember a Zabrak Force user, staring out across a beautiful world, rolling green fields and hills gave way to snow-capped mountains in the background. Turning her attention back to the two figures Cinnabar saw, and heard, Theo kneeling down, a ring appearing from one of the compartments in his gauntlet as he said "Pariya, will you marry me?"

The force user, Pariya, looked down and smiled. "You are aware it is highly unusual for a Jedi to marry, especially to someone who works for the Empire?"

Theo, in the video, chuckled. "Since when have you been a usual Jedi?"

Pariya laughed. "That is very much true."

"Well?"

Cinnabar almost jumped as the line was said twice, almost in perfect sync. Once was by the slightly worried, but still happy Theo in the video and the other was from a much sadder voice in real life. Turning from her thoughts to the video she realised she'd missed part of this Pariya's response.

"-course you dolt. Stuff those uppity Jedi Masters back on Tython. I'll happily marry you."

The video cut back to the beginning, just two figures standing at the edge of a grand complex of buildings admiring the view. Cinnabar looked at Theo. "You really were married?" She asked, despite already knowing the answer.

Theo's vision broke away from the video and he stared at Cinnabar. "Yes. Today would have been our tenth anniversary."

((Fin.))

She's been banned at least twice. Once it was confirmed that 'Makkara' was Zdimensia, her ban was re-enforced. No escalation, just standard following of the rules.

hS

And it comes out moderately coherent. For instance, purely by clicking the first suggestion, I get this:

The nightshade nodded quickly and set off in pursuit "... No one here but me to hit him were her mind not on other things in hq as nyx had managed to break in the ppc had to offer some weak form of emotional support in the ppc [...]

Which can be parsed as this:

The Nightshade nodded quickly and set off in pursuit. "...no one here but me to hit him." Were her mind not on other things in HQ... as Nyx had managed to break in, the PPC had to offer some weak form of emotional support.

Which at least approximates coherency. (Though I am downright baffled to discover that the Nightshade is my most typical character.) Reorg is... sweet mercy, it's 62K. :O I had no idea.

Um, anyway, anything novel-length should give something coherent. My next plan is to try all my pre-mission sections from Driftwood, to see if the single location/event format means it'll come out with something plotted.

hS

Events like this are one of the things I love about the PPC.

I’m afraid I’ll sit out on this, because I probably can’t fit a proposal into the story arc intended for Androia and Hieronymus, and since I have family over here for the weekend, reading and commenting will have to wait.

HG

Section Four: On Thy Topics Of Discussion

16. Anything you feel might be of interest to the PPC (e.g. stories, news articles, websites, trebuchets full of pie) is on-topic for the Board. Don't worry about your interests being too eclectic, either — someone's likely to be interested.

17. The PPC community thrives on discussion, and wastes away in its absence. When you post a thread on the Board, try to do so in a way that encourages discussion and interaction. If you're posting links, you're encouraged to expand on them somewhat.

18. That doesn't mean the PPC is Serious Business! Silliness and insanity are welcome here — even encouraged. Feel free to leave your sanity at the door. Most PPCers do.

19. There is no Article 19.

20. The PPC has always been about having a good laugh at badfic, so feel free to talk about it, and post links if you find something you think is worth sharing. If there's a thread about badfic on the top half of the front page already, go ahead and add to that - otherwise, feel free to create your own! (And when replying to a thread about badfic, or reviewing a badfic, please remember Article 2!)

~

I'm not 100% happy with the 'on-topic' language in A16, but it does get the point across. I've re-captured my own text for A17, though maintaining the point of Tomash's. And I've slipped the 'let's laugh at badfic' part of A20 back in.

One thing I'm probably not supposed to admit to being pleased with is the loss of the rider to A19. I always thought it was funnier just standing by itself. ^_^

hS

I forgot to fix the numbering.

(and that'd then replace the section in its entirety)

- Tomash

Does this mean that there is no Article 20 and no Article 21, or did you leave them out here because you don’t want to change them?

HG

MS Word tells me that my combined out-of-continuity interludes are 4281 words. The Harry Potter thing may be based on all seven novels (about a million words^*)), and I don’t know how much human effort went into it.

HG

^*) Computed from data on The Harry Potter Lexicon.

Nobody wants to watch this escalating over weeks or months again.

HG

I may not get a chance to comment on these individually, but I am reading and enjoying them all. Keep it up!

~Neshomeh

-First comment: I've left 'when did you learn to read' blank because...that's a vague question. When did I learn how to start sounding out words? Uh, probably somewhere around...yeah, I have no idea. I think that'd be somewhere in grade 1, so, 7, but I have no clue whether or not my parents were teaching me a little at home first. It's been a while since I was seven, hush.

When did I start reading really quickly, though? Not stumbling over words as much, but really just *reading*? Yeah, right after my eighth birthday. I remember that really clearly. It was awesome. And then I proceeded to devour books whole for years to come. So is that the answer that question's looking for?

I don't know. Take your pick, I guess: unknown or eight. Whatever works.

-Also, about betas and outlines: generally I've used betas for pretty much anything I've actually posted, and a few things that never made it that far (or haven't yet). Outlines...I'm starting to change in that, but the answer isn't never OR only when the work requires it: it's that I never used to, because I was introduced to them in school and found them really restricting, but I experimented with them a little a while back and I'm starting to try out using them more. I've also certainly done a lot of working out how parts should go and then having a ton of notes to work from, even if it wasn't an official outline. So...yet another question that's somewhat difficult to answer.

-You have *no idea* how tempted I am to answer "I'm from the future and technically haven't discovered the PPC yet" etc. *No idea*. :D

-How many of my PPC stories are cowritten? Turns out it's about two thirds. I rounded up to 'most', since there was nothing in between that and 'roughly half', but...yeah. That'll hopefully change by next year, though...either on my part or the census'!

And I think that's it. I need sleep. This was interesting.

~Z