The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

(( *snerk, snort, lol* ))

Yeah, I agree with all of that. There are a lot places where systems break down, or are unfair, and we should examine and question those systems to see if they can be improved. I'm a programmer - or at least, I want to be. This is the sort of thing that I might do as a job someday, although in a very different context.

Everyone who has covered this previously has been smug, incomprehensible, seemingly focused on making me feel guilty, or all three.

So congratulations, Nesh. You win the Thoth Award For Remarkably Lucid Explanation Of A Poorly Explained Yet Uncomplicated Topic (TAFRLEOAPEYUT).

And yes, I often buy Fair Trade chocolate when I have the choice. I don't often buy my own chocolate, though...

Always a difficult subject.

I don't want to get too deep into this, mostly because I'm not really very well-versed in the topic, but what I've heard from various quarters is this: you don't have to feel guilty for the things you didn't do. However, we do exist in a system that is set up to unfairly benefit some people more than others, and as such we have a responsibility to challenge that system rather than passively sitting back and enjoying it. How you choose to bring a challenge is up to you and your individual ability, whether it's active campaigning or making educated decisions about how to spend your money or voting for progressive policies or just trying to be decent to people, but it always starts at home, by challenging your own assumptions about how the world works and how it should work.

For instance, that "one little thing" you want. You've got the ability to be upset by that because (I presume) you're not currently worrying about food, clean water, shelter, physical safety, and other basic necessities. Can you have that little thing? Yeah, you can. That's the essence of privilege. That doesn't mean it's not cool, and you can enjoy it, but be grateful, don't take it for granted, and make sure you buy it from a fair trade source.

It sounds like you probably know that really, and that you're on the right track. It gets easier to recognize these things, if not nicer, the more you work at it.

And it doesn't excuse people being jerks just to be jerks, either. Justice should never be smug.

~Neshomeh

Also, dibs on Supernumberary, mini-console or otherwise. It's my favorite misspelling of his name. ^_^

~Neshomeh

I've seen a documentary about growing and harvesting the cocoa seeds. People over there, working for decades never in their life have tasted chocolate.

Ah, found it. [CLICK]

Yes, I am aware, more or less. I understand. And it is terrible.

The reason I don't like it is that, judging by context, the person who raised it didn't do so to make a point or start an intersting conversation about colonialism and European exploitation, which, while uncomfortable, could be interesting. They did it, so far as I can tell, to be a flippant buzzkill towards my genuine enthusiasm about there being a new type of chocolate. And frankly, "new in bar form" is new enough for me.

Yes, I know that the world sucks. But can I at least have this one thing, just for a little while?

Okay, there is another reason, too. I hate feeling guilty for things that I have no control over. When people talk about how some horrible thing is done "by white people," I feel implicitly implicated in something I never did, or was even involved in. And I hate it. So that's another reason.

Although I do love chocolate. So I suppose I'll shoulder some blame for the demand for the stuff.

(( Also, apropos of nothing, the radio is currently playing the Ride of the Valkyries on piccolo. It's like the tiniest heroic charge is happening. This is hilarious and I had to share. ~Neshomeh ))

I know, "fascinating" is rapidly becoming my catchphrase. But it's interesting nonetheless.

That's also central to how I make my characters. Not so much the badfic recruits, because everything about them is already known, but Nume is a good example.

For him, the basic starting concept was Dr. House, or "brilliant misanthrope with a chemical habit." Well, once he decided he wanted to be his own person and stopped being Generic Agent #2. The Bleep habit actually came from the very first Fill the Plothole I wrote with him, though, in which I interpreted the summary as Legolas coming across an agent's Bleeprin, accidentally dropped in-fic, and the agents having to go get it back. Proto-Nume was very upset about losing that Bleeprin. Why? Well, wouldn't it be interesting, I thought, for a PPC agent to have an eidetic memory? He'd know his canon backward, forward, and inside-out, but he'd also be stuck with all the disturbing and awful things that can happen on missions. So that made Bleeprin a vital necessity to normal function and also set him on the road to "brilliant." "Misanthrope" came along for the ride.

So why does a guy like that do a job like this? Few people become PPC agents who aren't in some way passionate about it, and that holds true for Nume, too. One of his stealth traits is that he loves his job. He wouldn't trade being a PPC agent for anything. Why? His life back home was kinda rough. He was a huge geek in a time when being a huge geek wasn't easy. He grew up wanting to be on the bridge of the Enterprise, or at least somewhere in Middle-earth. He loves his canons better than he loves himself. And every so often, it shows.

But how do I know he comes from that time? Oddly enough, because of his voice—and, I'm embarrassed to admit, a bit of my own teenage arrogance. I thought I needed to explain my tendency to use big words and unusual turns of phrase somehow. That is the sole reason Nume is from the 70s: because I thought I sounded older than I was. Sigh. But, once I'd made that call, I was stuck with it, so I had to actually learn more about the 50s-70s and how growing up in that time would shape someone. That's how Nume ended up taking some inspiration from my dad, and sounding a bit like him sometimes. I think that's how he ended up being a Trekkie, too, because Star Trek was on the air then, and it's kind of the original modern fandom. It worked. So I had to learn Trek, too. >.>

What else... Oh yes, why does Nume swear the way he does? Catholic upbringing, deeply resented. Why does he know medical stuff? His parents were a doctor and a nurse. Why is he squicked out by sex? That repressed religious upbringing fits the bill again. Why does he hate people? He was a freak in a less tolerant world, and people were pretty much never good to him, so why bother?

Eventually, all the pieces just kinda fit together and you end up with a whole, solid character. The more you ask why, the more you find out, and every answer makes them more unique and more them. {= )

~Neshomeh

There's two questions here, really:

Is it actually 'a new type of chocolate'?

That depends entirely on how you define 'chocolate'. If you're referring specifically to the bars (and their derivatives), then yes, it is: until the Ruby Chocolate project began 13 years ago, this stuff had never been made into chocolate bars.*

*Actually even this isn't strictly true. The Guardian reports that the beans are grown in Brazil, Ecuador, and Côte d'Ivoire - the latter being in Africa, meaning these trees have probably been in use in the chocolate industry for a while. But they weren't used exclusively, as it were.

But is that a fair use of the word? 'Chocolate' derives from the Nahuatl (Aztec/Maya) word xocolātl, and if you allow the native drink to be included as 'chocolate', then the first 'Ruby chocolate' probably pre-dates the European discovery of the Americas.

So, like so many things, the question ultimately comes down to semantics.

Does it matter?

Sadly, yes. There is a long, long history of white people Europeans more technologically-advanced/richer nations exploiting the product of poorer ones. Sometimes, those poorer nations/peoples were even deliberately constructed - the tobacco and cotton industries, for instance, were built on the backs of African slaves in North America and the Caribbean. Other times, they were just taken over, politically and economically.

Nor has the problem gone away. Vast swathes of Africa are short of food because farmers can make more money growing bananas for Europe and America than they can growing their own crops. They're not being forced to do it (any more)... but the economic structure the First World set up is meticulously designed to keep them doing it.

So, ultimately, the point your friend should have been making is: will this give any benefit to the Brazilians, Ecuadorians, and Ivorians who actually grow the stuff? Or will it just product more incentive for European and American corporations to keep them growing cash crops that leave their country in ruins?

One thing's for sure: there's no chance the people growing the cocoa trees will ever get to taste Ruby chocolate.

hS

(The third question, which doesn't need discussing but which might be worth thinking about, is 'why didn't you like that?'. Had to say it; consider it dropped. ~hS)

Yes, yes, absolutely we should have Mara and Isaiah.

For Nume's class, I thought there might be a unit on shipping/romance and how not to, with several guest instructors from among the most affected agents. Who's actually in charge, I don't know.

Or, as you say, he could be doing something else entirely and making a point of it anyway. *g* Funnily enough, he was actually thinking of being a lit teacher had he not wandered into the PPC instead. Maybe his class would be on PPC canon, and actually knowing it before you sit down to write fanfic? Ooh, he might be the Elrond of this OFU, the guy with the mountains of reading homework and the most feared essay assignments. And the Eyebrows of Doom, of course! And he's even supposed to look a bit like movie!Elrond. It all fits! {X D

Hm, yeah, Jay and Acacia the writers would probably be the headmistresses. Doesn't mean Jay and Acacia the characters wouldn't still take a role, though. As the coordinators, maybe? 'Twould be a departure from the norm, in which the avatars of the OFU writers are the coordinators, but this whole thing is a little abnormal. The PPC setting is interesting for an OFU because of how meta it already is. Half the characters already know they're characters even if they don't always like to think about it, and they know about fanfiction and OFUs. That's bound to make a difference in how things are done.

I did not catch Lemony. Huh. Avlates really isn't a fan, is she? I intended for them to come across as playfully condescending, a little bit trollish, but basically friendly. And also of ambiguous gender. (I personally am not sure whether Lem's a woman or a gay guy or something else.) But a careless fanwriter might well miss those details. Once Lem twigs that that's supposed to be them, though, they'll have something to say about it!

~Neshomeh

Yeah, I am waay to excited about this. A started talking about it in class. And then the person two seats to the left said that it wasn't *really* a new type of chocolate, just new to white people, instead of expressing enthusiasm about the new chocolate.

...And then I remembered why I don't like school.

I actually, just a bit ago, spent a whole heap of time fiddling around with working in a new character, and had a similar issue. I've found that, at least for me, with what I write, how I write, et al, that a good way to differentiate a character is by considering their chemistry with other characters. What 'role' they fill amongst a cast of characters, how they interact with them, that sort of thing.

The first PPCfellows I developed - Finch and Bingle - came out as a result of that sort of thing, in fact - one being intensely caustic and paranoid and, to contrast, the other being incredibly passive and somewhat dopey, with the rest of their personalities developing around those concepts. 'Why' Finch is paranoid, 'why' Bingle is passive, et al. I recently realised that many of the other characters I had in the thingy I'm doing were very sort of accepting, passive-sorts, so I've taken to further emphasising Finch's rebelliousness, which is certainly a thing I would not have considered on first having written him. Finch was, in fact, in the style of method #1, modelled after another character - Yossarian, from Catch-22. I, initially, was focussing on the 'paranoia' aspect of his personality and, in those initial stages, would have decided Finch would have been too cowardly for such rebelliousness. And where he certainly was really quite derivative to start with, I like to think that all of these small alterations eventually led him into growing into more of his own thing.

This, of course, works a whole lot easier on an ensemble cast, and you got to look out for flat characters with that sort of thing! The character's role within their cast should serve to be as a guide for the rest of their development - not their entire character. Finch's role is that of the caustic, rebellious, cowardly straight-man, but he still has personality beyond that, other elements of his personality shaping those particular traits. The classic 'why' is he caustic, 'why' is he rebellious - 'why' does he fit within that role? While he is made to work well with certain characters, he can still be written on his own, because he still is his own character, y'know?

I think there can be a separation, then, of the concept of the character and the delivery of them. At their cores, Yossarian and Finch (at least, how I worked on it) were made of the same concept: a character that is near unreasonably afraid of dying. It was in delivery that they diverged - Yossarian is depicted as compassionate, loyal, constantly falling in love with various women. He loves life and people because he is terrified of losing them. Finch, on the other hand, is bitter, cynical, thinks everyone else is mad. He despises life because he is enraged that it would dare try and leave him.
So I guess that could be a thing to consider - look at a character, figure out what, exactly, the most basic, most general concept of them is, and then figure, in what other ways could that concept be delivered?
An angry taxi driver could be angry because he hates his job, or maybe he's angry because he likes it too much and believes nobody respects it enough. That sort of thing.

I wonder if I even answered the question.

Chemistry!

[BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP]

[beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep]

Agent Kaitlyn looked up from her book. “Did you hear something?”

Hand still on the red button, Selene rolled her eyes ceilingward. “It’s called a console, Kaitlyn. Remember?”

“Har har.” Kaitlyn found her bookmark and got to her feet. “But seriously, there was a second beep – you heard that, right?”

“Maybe it was an echo,” Selene suggested, tabbing through to the mission details. “Wouldn’t surprise me in this place. Right, looks like we’re heading to-“

“It wasn’t an echo,” Kaitlyn interrupted, frowning. “It came from…” She knelt down and peered under the table.

Selene sighed. “I’ll just sort it out myself, then.”

There was a thud from the table, and then, “Ow. Selene, there’s a thing under here.”

“I’d imagine there is,” Selene agreed. “Probably lots of things. Is it a) alive, b) threatening, or c) amusing?”

Kaitlyn crawled back out and got to her feet. “See for yourself,” she said, dusting herself off.

Selene gave her a level look. “I’m not doing that.”

“Yeah, you are.” Kaitlyn grinned. “It may take a bit of persuasion, but you’ll-“

[beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep]

Selene grumbled and tapped the button again, but the tone carried on for several seconds. When it stopped, she sighed, got to her feet, and walked over.

Kaitlyn beamed at her. “Told you.”

Muttering to herself, Selene bend down and looked into the darkness. There was a long pause, and then she glanced back at her partner. “There’s nothing there.”

Kaitlyn arched an eyebrow. "Yeah there is."

"No," said Selene, standing up, "there isn't."

"There is," Kaitlyn insisted. "It was a little silver box covered in lights. It looked kind of like a console, but… small."

The vampire shrugged. "A reflection, maybe?" she suggested, glancing around. Her gaze lighted on the far corner of the room. "Or… Kaitlyn, are you sure you were looking the right way?"

Kaitlyn snorted. "Well, obviousl- how did it get there?"

She stalked across the room, scowling her finest scowl. The device huddled between a bookshelf and a weapons cabinet did indeed look much like a console; its chrome surfaces gleamed, and the main screen was lit by a pulsating glow.

"This," Kaitlyn said, jabbing a finger at it, "wasn't here. It was under the table."

Selene shook her head, smiling slightly. "How long has it been since you've slept?" she asked. "You can't run on mushroom fumes forever."

"Cheeky." Kaitlyn squatted down and peered at the console. "It's got real buttons and everything. What do you think it is?"

"Probably another DIA monitoring device," Selene said, wandering over. "Can we get on with our mission? We don't want the Hyacinth on our-"

[beep]

Kaitlyn swung back around, pointing an accusing finger at the device. "It beeped! You heard that, right?"

"Obviously." Selene bent over the miniature console. "Perhaps a warning against getting too close?"

"I was closer than this under the table," Kaitlyn disagreed, "and it-"

[beep]

"Stop that!" She glowered at the device. "I'd swear it's deliberately interrup-"

[beep]

"Oh come on!"

Selene sighed and turned away. "Whatever it is, it can wait," she said. "Mission. Come on."

Kaitlyn gave the miniature console one last deeply suspicious look, then got to her feet. "I suppose you're right," she said, walking back towards the main console. "It's going to bug me all mission, though. I wonder who put it th-"

[beeeeeeeeeeep]

"Oh, quiet, you." Kaitlyn glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes widened. "Hey. Hey! Where--? Selene, where'd it go?"

---

^_^

(This story is canon to Kaitlyn and Selene's timeline, though if mini-consoles don't get used, it's just a weird thing they encountered.)

hS

... "Anyway, Graphs!" is the title of the second volume of my autobiography. ;)

(The first volume is, naturally, called "Growing Up Elvish", and every chapter is named after a Middle-earth song. In "Anyway, Graphs!", they're probably called... I'unno, obscure mathematical things.)

hS

(I will never grow tired of google-eyed fanart.)

((I especially like the...beaded thing I don't know the name of. And it's great to have a visual. I actually have really minor plans for Brandy in this story, which I'll hopefully still remember in a few days to a week...

...GrammarBootCamps. I think Mara and Isaiah should make an appearance, don't you? :D

As for Nume...I can't help but wonder what class he's actually doing that in. And how he's justifying it as relevant to the subject matter. It'd be hilarious if there was no strong connection but he made that the first lesson anyway...

...come to think of it, as the original creators of the PPC, shouldn't Jay and Acacia be the shadowy Headmistresses? Well, maybe they're taking a more active role. Or, more likely, the agents are around being agents and the actual writers are in the shadows...that or the SO is serving as Headmaster by proxy. That would make sense, since in-universe the Flowers set the place up.

Also, did you catch Lemony's appearance? It seems I forgot to identify her by name in the end, but she's the third woman in the JayBird and Brandy trio.

Aaand my final reply (to hS) may have to wait for later, since I have things to look over before class...whoops. Well, 3/4 is pretty good for early morning before class...

~Z))

((For my part, it's meant to be reasonably good (if unedited), but a little bit (to a lot) off my normal style. For instance, I wouldn't normally go straight for "like an anime character", but here I thought of it and just went for it. So...expect more cliches and little to no editing? And less regard for good story flow/some characterisation details/better word choice? I mean, I am trying to get the agents in character, but it's working from memory rather than from going and rereading and getting a beta or two to catch things that sound a bit off.

Hm. Essentially, I think I'm aiming for "relatively good but somewhat careless in places." Low effort, basically, which makes sense for the Avlates persona's resultant style (even though at her age--which is older teenager--and at DuskWater's--younger teenager, maybe fourteen or fifteen--I did spend a ton of time editing most things I posted. Which is part of why a lot of what I wrote stayed on my computer, most likely.

Anyway. I'm glad you're enjoying it :) It was very fun to do.

Now I just need to finish the next chapters of the two fics I started posting last week, not to mention the third thing I came up with...though at least that one's probably a oneshot.

(Self advertising, what self advertising? This is a Subtle Reminder, this is.)

~Z))

((gets there first. The more the merrier!))

http://www.makemegoogly.com/HDH15

(Yeah, the googly eyes thing is one of the few sites I know where you can post stuff to the Internet but you don't need an account. Enjoy the slight extra derpiness it lends to the picture.)

-Twistey

Also, how did you know that Morana and Calamity were going to fall in love? Ah, that doesn't matter.

What matters is I WILL DO ANYTHING! TO MAKE YOU SEE! HOW MUCH! YOUR WRITING SUCKS! ANYTHING! YOU HEAR ME? Even going to comment in front of everyone on your fic which is EXACTLY what YOU DID in the first place. YOU MOVED FIRST AND SAID I WAS THE BAD GUY FOR DEFENDING MYSELF. Piece of scrap. You're going down. YOU'RE. GOING. DOWN.

And everyone else? Please go down the thread to read my fic (I won't say it's better than this one, because I want you to find out yourself) and read the awful things JayBird did. Please understand this situation from my point of view. JayBird is driving me crazy. I don't think I can take it anymore. I need help and support. Do it for me and for the PPC, okay?

Thanks, and may Scott Cawthon bless all who come help me.

-Nightmare Twistey The Demon Fox Animatronic

---

(Yeeees. Yeeeees. DEEWIT. KILL HER.

-Darth Twisteyous)

Hey, you're not so bad after... wait, that was actually kinda creepy. I'm scared. o.o

((I'm having too much fun with this. Can you tell?

-Twistey))

Everybody suddenly started replying to my "nice to meet you" because of somebody's question. That's great!

-Twistey

P.S. I need to make a doodle of this.

What kind of brain do you have that makes you think of that as making sense?! I'm the author of these two characters, so I can do whatever I want with them, and I have the power to decide what is and isn't canon with regards to my OCs.

As for the demand for me to stop writing? Even if I were to play by the rules of your cutesy little game, miss Happy Sunshine Dictator (hah, I got that from the wiki), I could still make other characters and other stories. Ended one story does not equal stopped writing altogether.

Oh. OH. OHHH. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHH!

You know what? Since by your logic, if one author kills the other author's character they're supposed to die in canon, I'm going to base my Mary Sue for Morana and Calamity to kill OFF OF YOU! In a way that makes it OBVIOUS IT'S YOU! AND THEREFORE! You're either going to SEE MY POINT that your logic doesn't work! OR YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO STOP WRITING AND/OR ACTUALLY DIE, WHICH WOULD BE EVEN BETTER, YOU PIECE OF PURPLE DISEMBOWELED SCRAP! BUUAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

YOU KNOW WHAT?! MAYBE I AM EVIL! BUT! Evil does NOT equal PIECE OF SCRAP. There are some people who are pretty dang good at being bad, y'know?

(Like HITLER!

-Twistey)

Um... hi. That was weird. Anyway.

As for the plagiarism argument? You've been yelling the same thing at me for days on end! That's proof that I've won, because you have no other strategy left but to yell the same ting at me over and over! Hah! Take that!

And learn to spell "plagiarism"! Paljersit sounds like a FORKING COUNTRY IN THE MIDDLE FORKING EAST. You know what? LEARN TO SPELL, PERIOD. Then and only then will your argument be valid.

-Nightmare Twistey The Demon Fox SUPER PROUD OF MYSELF 'CAUSE IT'S OBVIOUS I'M BETTER THAN YOU Animatronic!

((Haha, this is kind of funny how our badficcers are yelling at each other. RP fights with Huinesoron FTW.))