The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Ix swallowed. "Can we just go back to the group, please? If... if that's alright with you. I'll be fine, promise."

"Yes, it is!" Gall said.

"It's a game," Derik went on, ignoring her, "and there are rules. You play in a pitch-dark corridor and hit a light-up ball back and forth until one team can't continue. No magic or powers, no weapons but padded bats."

"And no protection unless you're a wuss."

"Unless it's for other players' protection. We don't actually want to seriously injure anyone."

Gall grinned. "Just to the point where they cry for mercy. If they're still conscious."

"But it isn't supposed to be a brawl, which you always 'forget'." He looked up at Thoth. "I'm not saying you wouldn't be an asset, but someone has to worry about safety! And that's for our own team, too. It all gets very mixed up in the dark. If I had your word it would be all right, perhaps...?"

Meanwhile...

Jenni blinked, not particularly thrilled at being balked twice in one evening, but shook it off with a subtle shift of posture. "Oh, that's good," she said. "Go on, then." She indicated that Ix should proceed with her healing. As long as it got done, she supposed.

I would certainly be in favour of some kind of mental health check - dementia screening, for example. But I wouldn't say that older people can't be effective members of the government.

What I do support is more engagement of younger people with politics. More possibility for younger people to run for election with a hope of winning, and more young people getting out and voting. The latter is widely regarded as what caused Theresa May to throw away her majority - Jeremy Corbyn managed to get young voters to actually come out and vote.

If the people who are going to have to live with the consequences for longest decide that age and experience is more valuable than what a younger candidate is offering, great - that's how democracy works. But America was offered a choice between Trump and Clinton, both around 70 (and Bernie at 75!); Britain was presented with May at 60 and Corbyn at 68. In ten years, all of them except Mrs May will be beyond the point where today's policies really affect them (except in terms of healthcare, but HAHA they're all rich anyway so who cares about the poor amirite?); why were they the only options for making those policies?

hS

"Thoth, standing still in a fight... heh, that's a good one. I'm siding with Derik in this one: I'm pretty sure the other teams would object to a two-meter tall player with centuries of military training who can shoot fire, read the opposing team's minds, and see the future, among other things."

"You overstate my abilities somewhat," said Thoth. "I am rather poor with fire. Nor am I excellent at reading the future. In any case, I would be happy to join you in combat."

I'm confused. The small anti-immigration socially-conservative party is in a coalition with ... democratic socialists? How is that even supposed to work? Am I just projecting American levels of partisan gridlock on everyone else's governments?

- Somash

The company that makes Pokémon GO announced they're making a similar game based on Harry Potter. Everything's a bit vague at the moment, but it sounds like they have the legalities in order at least.

Here's hoping this doesn't vanish into thin air during development because it sounds like a neat concept.

- Tomash

Where did you get a drop spindle? How long did it take you to learn? Was it hard? And, perhaps most interestingly: was there enough information in the books to learn from, or did you have to look things up/get advice?

~Z

Which...is a phrase I'm fairly sure I've never in my life heard anyone use, but shh, I'm going to make it a thing for the moment. Anyway: I've read the Beka Cooper books, but I don't remember much more about them than the general storyline, and even that is really incomplete. I didn't connect to them as much as I did to her other books, so I never really reread them? Or maybe I've reread one? I actually own one or two of them, but they've mostly just stayed on the shelf after I read them the first time...which was when they came out, hence why I don't really remember much.

Meanwhile, I've done the opposite with most of the rest of her books.

Oh well. Still cool to meet another person who's read some Tamora Pierce :)

~Z

I sadly don't have a list.

She wasn't about to show off the malunion and scars that gnarled her hands. "It's just little cuts," she said. "No big deal, really, I can heal it myself." She swallowed, worrying that what she said had come off as rude. "I'm sure you could do a good job, though," she said, "but I don't want to trouble you."

"Cuz I was thinking about inviting you to join our Australian Indoor-Rules Quiddich team, but—"

Derik, who had settled into the amiable state of drunkenness he'd shot through earlier, barked a laugh. "That is a horrible idea! No offense, brother—rather the opposite—but it hardly seems fair."

"So? No rule says the teams have to be fair. Blast Hardcheese got killed last season, and I don't want a repeat. Even the Physical Therapy nerds kicked our asses thanks to their precog and your totally divided loyalties."

Derik shook his head. "No, I keep telling you, Bjørnsen's useless in Headquarters. And my loyalties are perfectly intact!"

"Whatever. All I'm saying is that if Nevermind can have a kender, we ought to be able to have a giant. I hate playing those guys; half the time we can't even find the stupid ball cuz it's 'fallen into his pocket' again."

"Now, you know Earwig can't help that. Anyway, we've got Suicide. He's, what, eleven percent cyborg? And arguably crazier than I am."

"Yeah, but he's sweet on Green-eyes over there, so he doesn't want to bust up her friends. You both suck when we're against PT, so we need some muscle who's willing to do the damn job. Look at this guy." She gestured at Thoth. "We could just have him stand in front of us and let the other guys knock themselves out trying to get through!"

(( Sorry for running long, but this argument has been playing in my head all day. >_>; ))

Meanwhile...

"No, I'm not upset with you," Jenni said. "No one is. Gall's happy to have her mace back, and I agreed with you jumping in. I only did myself because I thought it was safest if things did escalate any further. Fortunately, they didn't." She smiled. "Now... are you going to be stubborn like 'GL' over there, or are you going to let me have a look at you?"

I did read a bit of Wild Magic and Circle of Magic, but I don't remember any of it.

Do you support an age maximum on being elected to office?

If so, what?

(I can see decent points each side could raise on this, so I was wondering what you think)

It's been a pretty good election for the Democratic Party, really. Hopefully it signifies a move away from Trump-style populism.

Meanwhile, we had an election recently down here in New Zealand. That ended in pretty much the weirdest way possible - right-wing incumbents National got ~46% of the vote, but the loosest of our loose cannons, Winston Peters, decided to screw them and go into coalition with our Labour Party instead.
I'm still not sure how I feel about this. I mean, I'm glad that National's out - screw them and their wrecking of our national parks - but I'm not keen on Winnie having so much influence. I'm just hoping the new government can get some good things done in the next three years.

Ix kept them closed by her sides. "It's nothing, it was just an accident." She glanced back at the other agents, then back at Jenni. "You're... not upset with me?"

"I do not consider you a threat. However, I thought that a warning was in order."

Tom has been frowning, wondering what Jenni had meant, but Thoth's statement caught enough of his attention to earn the Marine a glare. "Thoth. Try to do it properly."

"Very well," said Thoth, slowly. "We are... cool." The word felt slightly wrong in his mouth.

((Tom's still a bit oblivious, bless him.))

His excitable energy, well-meaning though it was, was reason number one she'd wanted to step away, and he had not been invited along.

"Yes, thank you," she said curtly. "A moment, please?" She pointed him back to the others.

With a perimeter firmly established, Jenni calmed her own feelings and addressed Ix again. "He's not wrong," she said. "But first things first: where are you hurt?"

Meanwhile...

With the others out of earshot, Gall shrugged, stuck her mace back in its belt loop, brushed her hands off on her trousers, and sat back on the chair. "So, Jötun, we're cool, right? You know I was just messing around. Didn't think you take me seriously. I mean, come on!"

"Do I detect the meagerest hint of an apology?" Derik muttered dryly. He gave in to gravity at this point and plopped down on the floor beside Thoth. Much easier.

... she's 33, and kicked out a 73-year-old. As a resident of the country where the anti-EU/age graph looks like this:



... I think I'm entitled to say that the gerontocracy can go boil its head in a duckpond. Someone in their seventies has absolutely no business making laws on behalf of a population where the people who will have to live with them the longest are the ones who most disagree with their positions.

hS

"That's what you're worried about?" He tried not to laugh: that wouldn't help. "Ix, I don't think anyone's upset with you. Honestly, I think most of us are just wondering if you're okay... Are you okay?"

Danica Roem is now on track to be the first openly transgender US state legislator after winning a seat in Virginia. Her opponent was, ironically, the most anti-LGBT member of the legislature, who'd, among other things, proposed an anti-trans bathroom bill.

- Tomash

Ten seconds from the nearest exist, now.

Twelve seconds.

Unless she Apparated out? No, she didn't want to try that in HQ again. She'd been lucky enough to arrive in one piece as it was.

Besides, for all she knew, Jenni could talk to the Flowers. And then the Flowers could decide she was more trouble than she was worth and throw her out. And then what? Her memory wiped, no place to her name, no safety net during the full moon and no Wolfsbane—

"I got blood on her mace," Ix said, ashamed. "I... I can clean it, though, it wouldn't be any trouble. I didn't mean to lose my temper, it was an accident, please..."

Gall held up both hands (mace dangling from her arm on a loop) to show that she was innocent. "I didn't do it!"

"Do what, though?" Jenni said. "Ix? Please tell us what's going on. Or just me, if you want." She gestured an invitation to step off to one side.

(( Thoth, I think you might've been looking at the post where Jenni had put her arm around Ix? Cuz Gall didn't. But Gall being falsely accused of skulduggery is fun. {= ) ))

I learned to spin thread with a drop spindle because I was inspired by Sandry in the Circle of Magic books.

"She's shaking like a leaf..." He turned his attention to Ix. "Ix... You do realize nobody's going to hurt you, right? It's okay! Just relax."