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I like it. The only thing I wonder about is the hostility of the Vikings to magic. I thought they were more tolerant of it than other Europeans? At least as long it was a woman practicing it? Unless you were Odin, then you practice as you please. I don't know, it's just what I think I remember from something I read.

Welcome to the PPC, shiny new person! Have a full set of polyhedral dice, in whatever material and pattern you want. Even urple with melose spots. Also have some brownies, which are most definitely not drugged.

What're your fandoms? Preferred pronouns? Favorite non-alcoholic beverages? Most-desired sweets?

--The Triumvirate, more colloquially known as Calliope

Ixi, you've already adopted a newbie before the newbie appeared!? BAH! Bah, I say!

Anywhoo, hello there, person-I'm-assuming-to-be-a-guy-because-of-the-name! Come now, share something else with us! Fandoms? Other interests? Creative ways to eat a cookie?

From me, you're getting a barrel of industrial sprinkles!

I'm not very good at introductions, so the first sentence is gonna blow.

I was an innocent child before Iximaz showed me the light of PPC mission reports. Right now, I'm no longer a pure saintly human being, I listen to metal and disrespect my elders.

In all seriousness, after I read some of their mission reports for badfics (and got over the odd feeling which I later learnt was my angelic half being ripped out and replaced by cynicism) and clicked all around the PPC wikia, I knew what I had to do. Keep lurki- Announce my existence to the world!

So yeah, hello there. o/

In the beginning, there was Warhammer. Then there was 40k. (Then there was AoS, but we're trying to keep this simple).

Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k are actually pretty different. They share a category on The Pit, but the universes, while sharing many aspects — 40k started as Warhammer IN SPAAACE — have diverged radically in tone and content. Fantasy tends to be a bit lighter in general, from what I've heard (I'm really not a WHF fan...)

Most people, at least here in 'Murica, tack 40k on the end of any reference to Warhammer. This is a good way to annoy Fantasy fans, especially the really old ones. After they complain, you can point out that their setting was annihilated and their game replaced by AoS. You can actually see them tense. This is great fun. Never do it.

Have a seventeen foot long, wool knit, multi-color scarf and a bag of jelly babies. Use the irresponsibly.

Without even clicking on the link, too. That was hilarious.

I was personally thinking of HonorH's Buffyverse Honorificus, whose author is definitely not still active (I mean, I'd love to be proven wrong here, but it seems unlikely). After that, I thought of Supernatural, but outside of the 2013 Blackout I don't believe there are any SPN demons in HQ (which, uh, good. That sounds terrifying).

I brought up the Warhammer/Warhammer 40k bit because the non-crossover badfic is placed in the 'Warhammer' category while the crossover goes for 'Warhammer 40k'. Neither really sound like my thing, but thanks for clarifying.

Looking forward to seeing your comments on the changes; should be interesting.

~Z, who technically has a half-finished Plort interlude in among the various unfinished interludes on her GDrive and should probably finish it sometime soonish

Weeeeeell, technically we might have one: Hejsdfnk Wwerbj, who speaks only Old High Demonic which his Universal Translator just cannot translate right. But there's, y'know, some irregularity about his canonicity... ^~

Warhammer 40K is probably the 'primary' part of the canon; it's set in the 40th millennium and involves lots of very miserable people killing each other in SPAAAAaaaace. Warhammer [nothing] is a fantasy version; I don't really know much about it. So yes, they're different, but I think most people who say 'Warhammer' have a mental '40K' tacked on the end.

And, Thoth: congratulations! (Snuck in at the end so as not to spoil Zing's surprise. ^^) I do intend to look over the prompts a second time to comment on the changes (insofar as I can remember what it was like before... I said I was tired!); possibly tomorrow, depending on how things go.

hS Huinesoron, Baron of Plort, of uncertain domicile

Whew, you kind of need a hat in this weather...cold and rainy. Only really fun because it's the first really cold and rainy day so far...

*sets Hat firmly on head*

Right. Let's do this!

Prompts: So,, unlike last time I did this, I actually read the prompts first. It was a good choice--they were fun to read, and it was actually more interesting to see the bios after.

The writing is pretty great. I didn't catch any typos, and if there was any misused punctuation it didn't jump out at me. You also used a good number of betas even before hS came in--and, from what I can tell without having read the original version, you were able to take his concrit and edit well with it, which is an important skill to have.

You do sometimes use a few too many short sentences in a row, which gives a choppy feel, but it's not everywhere. Keep an eye on that, or maybe start off getting a beta who'll catch it until you're used to spotting and fixing it (or both! Both is good). One way to catch it yourself might be to read your work over aloud to get a sense of where (and how frequently) the sentences just stop.

Some quick positives! You used some descriptions and details in the second prompt that I really enjoyed. One was the description of a side of the room apparently being "a swamp composed entirely of books, which seemed to have obtained their current placement when a hurricane blew through." I also liked the detail of the 80s console in addition to the RC's console, and, well, this next bit kind of speaks for itself:

After his tenth break along the way, he briefly considered working out how to summon some demons to do it for him. After the twelfth, he was halfway through the equations before he remembered why this was a Bad Idea.

Yes. Tom's home canon intrigues me; you've also managed, between the profiles and the prompts, to give enough details about it to...well, to intrigue me. I look forward to seeing more, especially since it seems to mesh reasonably well with the PPC.

Overall, I enjoyed the prompts. They were written well, apart from the occasional abundance of short sentences and a time or two where the language was a little redundant ("seemingly a swamp [...] which seemed to have obtained," funnily enough). Both should be fine if you keep an eye out for them (or your beta catches them).

Agents: Oh man, the agents. I like them. I like their interaction, I like what I've now learned about Tom's home canon, and I think they probably have a good chance of producing interesting missions. You've also managed to make the prompts and the profiles jive pretty well, which is great!

A few things to point out:

-Tom "has a lasting element of fear regarding any sort of demon"? Setting aside the fact that I would love for him to meet a demon agent from another canon (do we have any active ones anymore?) or even just see different interpretations of them in other canons on missions, this doesn't completely come across in the second prompt. It's possible he's afraid offscreen, but when this is his reaction to finding a demon in his monitor after all...

Tom rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing in there. But if makes you feel better, I’ll run a scan on the thing just to make sure.” He ran his phone over the terminal.

His phone beeped.

Tom sighed. “Of course. Just my bloody luck today. Gloves?”

...it comes across as far more "So the monitor's possessed...must be Tuesday" than "Aah, demon, why." Unless they come in different danger levels, you should keep an eye on that.

-Thoth himself. First of all, I absolutely love the fact that, unlike the majority of PPC agents, he's viewing access to the library as very good payment; it's a nice little twist, and the love of books/knowledge does a lot to make him fit into the PPC world. I also like what you've done to limit him (such as his powers not always working properly). I'm also a bit curious about his 'typically eventful' past, though I suppose I could get that from a wiki. His personality overall looks interesting, though the "look[ing] down on 'mortals' just a bit" is...uh, let's just say he'd be able to find some fellow aliens in HQ who share that with him.

Overall this looks good. Neither agent looks overpowered, they both look interesting, and in terms of how they actually interact, well, I'd read more.

Badfic: I know pretty much nothing about Warhammer...no, that's a lie. I know absolutely nothing about Warhammer past the name and whatever I can conjecture from that. (Also, I'm guessing Warhammer 40k is not the same as just plain Warhammer? Help me out here, guys.) The fic seems pretty tasteless, though--but that's all I can really say about it, beyond that at least the spelling looks alright and it is most definitely a crackfic. If anyone who knows the canon has input, go for it.

When it comes to the crossover fic...uh, good gracious golly me. Ouch. Random bandits! Violence! Gandalf rolling with it! Bad capitalization! And I'm going to stop there because my storytelling sense is starting to hurt. No, I don't know what exactly that means. "Odd addition" is right, though. Also, I don't quite know (and refuse to go back to check) if Gandalf knew what a marine was, but if he did, he shouldn't. At any rate, Thorin shouldn't just be accepting it. It's bad. I look forward to the mission. I shall now go scrub my brain, thanks. (Out of curiosity, which of you first found that...uh...uh...thing?)

Suffice it to say, um, that's pretty bad, and I don't want to see that crossover fic again before it's missioned, and can I go home now? --oh wait. I am home. Pity the dog's not around to pet; perhaps I'll have some hot chocolate instead.

However, before that...a Decision! After all that text, it should probably come as no surprise that I'm going to say Permission Granted. Congratulations! Here is your titanium spork; use it well, and have a Bleeproduct gift basket as well. Also, you are now a Knight of Plort. Long may you battle the forces of the Marizu and...uh...divers other foes of our fair Protectorate. Go forth (and write/celebrate/etc)!

~Zingenmir/Baron Eshakhar

I don't have my stake in Thoth, that's ridiculous. There's no room between my Tzeenchian claws.

^_~

~Neshomeh is part of the 40k fandom now. This is a thing that has happened.

Also, when I say writing, I mean the write-up.

And I'm now going to quit (with correcting myself) while I'm not too far behind.

That's actually part of why I posted--didn't feel like letting my notes go to waste. Well, I say notes; it's actually screenshots. But now it's becoming a write-up. So.

Also, ow, my brain still hurts from looking at the crossover badfic. Why.

~Z is going back to writing

I thought that was more of a Blood Angels thing, not a Thousand Sons one. [/40K joke]

Since I know it's weird that I offered the first comments but didn't come back to actually put a hat on, let me just say that I was considering doing just that when Zingenmir posted and got me off the hook.

hS

I'm on it. Sorry, especially to Thoth!

~Z

I'm not even the one asking for Permission—but I have a stake in the outcome, so...?

~Neshomeh

The reason that story would be interesting isn't because of the inherent interest in New York - it's because the Avengers fought Loki there, and a giant portal disgorged aliens from the sky. Your hypothetical story would be a drawn-out reaction to those events - events which are caused by and played out by the big-name canon characters.

(Also this is... pretty much the backstory of one of the later MCU villains. Not gonna say which, because spoilers.)

hS

The man later called Salazar is born in Al-Andalus around 950, to Moorish parents of a wizarding family. The Caliphate of Cordoba is at this time at the peak of its power - in the late 970s, it will strike north to take a huge chunk of Christian Iberia, nearly unifying the penninsula.

Things are fairly good for wizards in Al-Andalus. Magic is an accepted part of Islamic folk religion, and (unlike Christianity) isn't viewed as automatically evil. Al-Salazar spends his youth in the libraries of Medina Azahara, learning about both magic and the world, and is favoured by the wizard Caliph, Al-Hakam II.

But the world is not content to simply be learnt about, and Salazar's studies leave him more and more disturbed. There is an implacable hostility between Al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms to the north (Leon, Navarre), and the pagans aren't much better - Viking raids, though a century past, left a mark on the landscape of southern Al-Andalus. They also scarred Salazar's family, killing his grandparents despite (or even because of) their magic.

Everywhere he looks, Salazar sees the drawing of battle-lines: not just between religions, but between wizard and Muggle. The Frankish wizarding community is siding with Christendom, trying to buy favour for itself by establishing an anti-Caliphate magic centre in the Pyrenees (which will later become Beauxbatons). Over in Eastern Europe, the peaceful Durmstrang College in Scandinavia has been bent by its second master into an anti-Muggle institution aimed squarely at the Vikings (in fairness, Salazar can sympathise with this). And the Vikings are ranging further and further west, promising future tensions with the Maya who view the whole Western Hemisphere as their area of influence.

Around 970, following a certain incident with the Caliph's daughter Lubna of Cordoba (ahem), Salazar begins to travel the world. He visits proto-Beauxbatons, convincing the Frankish wizards to make peace with the Caliphate (though the Caliph's death in 977 and the subsequent invasions of Christendom reverse this). He trains at Durmstrang under Harfang Munter, introducing the Norse wizard to some of the spells used in the Caliphate. He visits the Mountains of the Moon, learning from the African wizards - and uses their expertise in astronomy to undertake a perilous journey to the New World.

Salazar's adventures in Mesoamerica and North America are numerous. He learns to perfect his inborn skill at Parseltongue, and uses it to meet with the ancient Feathered Serpent who lives in the Mayan lands. This turns out to be a Basilisk, which Salazar befriends to the point that it grants him a sliver of its horn to use in his wand.

Salazar departs, promising the Mayan wizards that he will prevent any Viking incursions into their lands. To this end, he travels first to Iceland, and then to Ireland. In 980, he stands with High King Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill of Ireland at the Battle of Tara, driving the Vikings out of the Kingdom of Dublin. Then, he journeys to neighboring England.

Why England, and not Scandinavia itself? Three reasons. First, he trusts Durmstrang to keep a lid on things in the Norse lands. Second, he's very concerned by the 'peace' that has sprung up between the Saxons and the Norse - it looks likely to end with the Norse simply taking over the whole of England. Third, there is a prophecy uttered many years ago - a very confusing one, saying things like 'Four must come together for Three to arise, but One will walk a different path' - that suggests Britain is definitely a place to watch.

He enters Britain in the east, on the edge of the ancient Fens, and in the heart of the former Danelaw. It becomes clear that his suspicions are correct - the Viking settlers are seething with resentment at the Saxon king Aethelred, and it is clear that revolt is not far away. Danish raiding parties already harry the English coast, striking all along the south coast. Salazar tries to calm things down, but he is outed as a wizard, and driven from the Fens. He heads west, towards Winchester and the court of King Aethelred, seeking the famous Champion Godric Gryffindor...

Or something like that. Obviously none of this is from the books (which don't even say how old the various schools are), but it serves as backstory to the hypothetical Salazar series. With that in mind - how well does it hold up to both history and canon?

hS

In the MCU, you could theoretically tell a story about Joe Workingman set in New York after the end of the First Avengers. Depending on his actual role, you could tell an interesting story without touching one of the Avengers.

Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,
Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,
Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,
Shrewd Slytherin, from fen.

First off, I have to quibble the word 'from'. If you ask my wife where she's from (after she says 'America'), she probably won't name the state she was born in. That's not where she was raised, or where she spent her teenage years. So 'from' doesn't have to mean 'started from'; heck, it could literally mean 'this is where they were when they had a magical conversation about making a school'.

But setting that aside, let's assume we can trust Godric's hat (I'd forgotten it was his hat; I bet he looked really goofy in it). We can also assume that the narration of the Harry Potter series is trustworthy when it discusses the Founders - given that there's at least one intelligent artefact plus multiple ghosts from the time in question, it would be unreasonable to think it was wrong. What does the Hat's song tell us about the Founders, and how does it stand up to what we already know?

Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor

We know that Godric Gryffindor was born in Godric's Hollow (per Deathly Hallows), which is in the West Country. That term usually means Devon and Cornwall, plus everything up to Somerset - pretty much everything west of the Isle of Wight and south of Wales. The Hat tells us he was from a moor - so where is that?

The obvious answer is that Godric was from either Exmoor or Dartmoor, down in Devon (though Exmoor extends into Somerset). I see no issues with that; it makes him thoroughly English, and from the region which remained English while the Danelaw was in place. Let's move on.

Fair Ravenclaw, from glen

Rowena Ravenclaw was Scottish. The word 'glen' is exclusive to Scotland. It's sometimes exclusive to the Highlands, in the north of Scotland - and what a coincidence, Hogwarts Castle is in the Highlands too.

But was she born Scottish? 'Ravenclaw' is probably her married name - her daughter shares it, and an out-of-wedlock child in the 10th century would be... unusual. 'Rowena', however, is a Latinised Saxon name. So might she be a Saxon of one kind or another, who moved north and married?

Alternately, she could be born in Scotland, but of Saxon ancestry. About a hundred years before the Founding, the northern Saxon kingdoms came under Viking rule. Could Rowena's family have fled north, to the safety of the independent kingdom of Strathclyde? Perhaps. Let's move on.

Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad

Helga Hufflepuff is... actually not confirmed as Welsh. Okay, she's Welsh in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but as a non-narrative source is up for debate. If you assume that moor, glen, valley, and fen are intended to point directly at their homelands, then yes, she's from The Valleys in South Wales. But... y'know, 'valley' is a pretty generic term.

There's also her name. Helga is a Scandinavian name, no ifs, no buts. Wherever she lived, Helga has Viking ancestry.

So could she be a Viking in Wales? Um... not really! The Danelaw was separated from Wales by English Mercia. The region was the last to be conquered during the near-fall of Wessex, and the first to be reclaimed. And, Wales was British, not Saxon - it wasn't even part of those squabbles!

I think the most harmonious option is the one I suggested elsewhere - that Helga's family also fled the Vikings, though they were of Viking descent. This is becoming a hint that the Norse were very anti-wizard - and there might actually be more evidence for that!

Look at Durmstrang. It was founded in Scandinavia, but by a Bulgarian, not a local. It's the only school that teaches the Dark Arts. It also flatly refuses to accept Muggleborns. What I'm wondering is whether Durmstrang was actually set up as a pseudo-military establishment - a guard to watch against the violence of the Muggle Norse, and to protect the few Norse wizards and witches who escaped them.

Okay, let's leave that for now and move onto our most mysterious Founder:

Shrewd Slytherin, from fen

The Fens are in eastern England, but 'fen' itself is also a generic term for swamp. If we assume that the geographical terms are supposed to be capitalised (the Moors, the Glens, the Valleys, the Fens), then Slytherin is from the east, Godric from the south, Helga from the west, and Rowena from the north - all very neat and tidy.

The other theory out there is that he's Irish, Ireland having a fair amount of bog-land ('bog' wouldn't scan, and 'fen' is a near-synonym). That would give us English-Scottish-Welsh-Irish for the Founders, all very neat.

But... Salazar is a Portugese name. In fact, it's a Portugese surname, not a first name at all. So what in the world is it doing on a Saxon or Irish wizard?

Hence what Scapegrace dubbed the 'al-Salazar theory' - that Slytherin isn't British at all, but from Iberia. It would make sense of his name, and also highlight him as separate from the other three - which, in the end, he was.

There are other ideas pointing to Salazar as a traveller. He's friends with a basilisk, which were invented in Greece (according to a chocolate frog card, of all things). He also has a wand made of snakewood, which as I said before, exists only in the Americas and Australia. Hmm... side-thought, there's a Feathered Serpent in Mesoamerican mythology which was worshipped from about the turn of the BC/AD years. That's a thousand years before Slytherin lived. Is it possible that the basilisk horn in Salazar's wand comes from Quetzalcoatl - that the Feathered Serpent was his first contact with basilisks, and led to his decision to breed his own?

Coming back to the point... there are wetlands in Iberia, but it's not exactly known for it. I think the most likely option is that Salazar came into Britain by way of either the Fens or Ireland (and indeed stayed there a while, so he could be said to be 'from' them). Either would be a good origin from a geographical perspective - coming via the Fens would mean he lived in the (former) Danelaw, meaning we have a Saxon-Welsh-Scottish-Viking setup, while Ireland would feed the anti-Viking story by letting him help drive them out.

Al-Salazar is a stretch. It's meant to be a stretch. I'm almost positive Rowling just liked the word and used it for her evil wizard, who was probably from the Fens. But there's just enough ambiguity for me to push my own version. ^_~

hS

...just out of curiosity. Probably not anytime too soon, though, unless I run into it and am in the right mood.

And I know the movie was generally well received (I think? I wasn't paying a ton of attention, but people generally seem to be okay with it?) but so far I don't really feel like watching it. I'm only vaguely curious. Like Cursed Child, right now it'd basically have to blunder into my path, but even more so. (If it ever shows up on Netflix, chances I'll watch it go up, of course. By a little bit.)

Now, in other news...raaaiiiiiiin. We has it. Lots of it. :D Unfortunately, it comes with a chill in the air, but still--it's rain!

~Z

Funnily enough, there actually was a West Coast Avengers team in the 1980's. Hawkeye was the leader, at least for a while. I haven't gotten to read them yet, just summaries, but I will someday.

Other than sudden shrinking of British Empire, the bombing at Dunkirk, and possible enlistment of mages(?) as soldiery, are there any others effects on the Wizarding World in England? I think mages in Continental Europe are far more affected, and those in the colonies even more.