The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Fantastic Beasts and How to Mind Them
doctorlit and the Face of Stone
doctorlit and the Chamber of Speculations
doctorlit and the Prisoners of Work Obligations
doctorlit and the Goblet of 2% Milk
doctorlit and the Order of Being Sad That His Singing Voice Is Worse Now
doctorlit and the Fully Read Prints
doctorlit and the Deathly Typos
followed by a poorly planned cell phone game, and finally
doctorlit, the Worst Man-Child

—the hard part for doctorlit was not making EVERY entry self-deprecating

It's short and silly, and poor 'guya is upset.

I can't confirm or deny your suspicions, but ;)))

It does feel less justified, yes, because Malfoy was actually cooperating with them. They wanted to use it anyway just to see what the Slytherins were saying behind closed doors, because they still don't trust Malfoy, and so they have to face the inevitable fallout for when Malfoy finds out they were spying on him.

I think even in the American Deathly Hallows McGonagall told the students Snape has "done a bunk" after she chased him out. But that's my kid brain remembering weird details like that. But yeah, British slang can get pretty strange :'D

It was mostly to out Lockhart like in canon, yeah, and to give him something productive to do. But given that Lockhart himself has motive to delay the investigation, it's no wonder that it stalled. I'm of the opinion that Dumbledore knows a lot, but he's not omniscient. He doesn't know who the real culprit is, just that they're caught up in the Old Ways of the Circle of Avalon.

:)))) Time to visit Aragog indeed!

Thanks for catching the typo!

Yesterday, I released my riff of the third chapter of Illenium, with guest riffer Mina Overpower.

-Ls

Correcting Typos was pretty good too.

-Ls

Well now, nothing can make me doubt my own suspicions of Lockhart like the main characters also suspecting Lockhart much too early! There’s going to be some kind of twist . . . then again, Lockhart seems to be rather unhealthy, all of a sudden . . . Okay, I just reread the scene where Hermione heard Lockhart and Astoria through the door . . . Is she the one draining his magic? And if she’s the attacker, is her magic draining so quickly that she’s still growing weaker over time, even after draining an adult wizard and a bunch of Pureblood kids?! Holy crow, I am boggled . . .

Oh no, the inevitable misunderstanding due to English pronouns being ambiguous and simplistic! And due to Lockhart and Draco both having really nice hair! Still, I’m not totally sympathetic to the Golden Trio on that one . . . the Polyjuice gambit feels less justified in this timeline, somehow. (Also, I’m not sure I ever really grokked just how short the timeframe for Polyjuice is. No wonder Crouch, Jr. had to keep it with him in a flask all day!)

I understand why you use so much British slang terms in this story, and usually, I can figure out the meaning from the context. But boy oh boy, did I sit through a moment of dread this chapter while I looked up what “doing a bunk” meant. I guess I should have known, considering canon!Lockhart tried to fly the coup when things got scary, but it sounded so much like a euphemism for drugs or something . . .

Oh, your Dumbledore gets angry! I like seeing an angry Dumbledore! He shouldn’t be chill during a moment like this. I am curious to learn his reasoning for letting Lockhart run the investigation in the first place, and letting things get this bad. He must have had some goal in mind, even if it was just to out Lockhart as a plagiarist/scammer . . .

And now Draco’s been attacked. I still can’t quite shake the idea that all of these attacks are happening purely to frame Harry, but that feels like a little much. Plus, Myrtle is the only one who knows about the fight Harry and Draco had, and she couldn’t have left the Chamber to tell anyone, so it might just be a coincidence after all.

Aha! Spooder time! But no animate car to save the day, this time . . .

One typo: “. . . his notebook clutched white-knucled in his hands.”

—doctorlit and the Chamber of Speculations

I mostly spork badfics in video game fandoms. Same problem here.

Yeah, I think plagiarism would be a huge charge. I think even one of the comments noted it.

-Ls

If 90% of the fic is copy-pasted from canon, is the other 10% enough to build a mission around?

I mean, the changes you've described sound pretty bad, so the answer might be yes! It's just one of those things that requires thinking about before you dive in. There are only so many times you can write "the agents skipped another X hours/days/weeks of pure canon" before it gets tired, so how do you plan to work around it? Maybe they don't skip everything—maybe they take the opportunity to go sight-seeing. Maybe they spend the whole time bickering. Maybe they do something else I haven't thought of. A mission might work. But think about it before deciding. {= )

As for the age of the fic, no updates for four years is still pretty solid. Given that it's a young fandom, just do your best.

~Neshomeh

The Trio and Malfoy continue to investigate Lockhart, but someone's about to let the Polyjuiced cat out of the bag...

We were back in the giant cave.

Einia annd Grimpaw were playing chess. Quickflash was telling stories about legendary falcon warriors to the little wolf pups, and his guards were trying to catch fish in the lake (despite the fact that falcons are meant to catch birds in flight, not fish).

"You just fell for the Fishing Pole Trap," said Grimpaw. "Checkmate."

"Aaargh," Einia replied. "I suck at chess! Hmm, did you hear about the new chess variant, quantum chess? I'll probably beat you at it, because I am way better at quantum physics than you, Grimpaw! Ha ha!"

Meanwhile: "And then Blazespeed dove into the monster's mouth, and then the monster exploded!" (Talk about weird myths.)

Meanwhile: "The fish are so slippery!" protested one of the guards. "I wish that I was an eagle."

"Don't say that, Greatwings," said the other guard. "If you were an eagle, you couldn't have joined the Aether Circle. Isn't guarding Quickflash your life-long dream?"

"Yeah, I know. But we have to follow him around all the time, Preycatcher. Ooh, is that a crab over there? It looks really weird--pretty sure that normal crabs don't look like that.

Several dozen wolves--all the Omega Pack members--were engaged in some sort of activity. Some were catching fish (more successfully than the falcons). Some were chatting. Some were playing board games. Some of them were even gambling.

I looked around to make sure that no one was watching. Then I decided to explore the cave.

…

It was a while later before I realized that I wasn't wearing my earring.

Yet curiosity drove me on, even though I was probably walking toward certain death.

Then I saw her.

A wolf completely encased in ice, eyes round balls of horror, fur on her back standing straight up. Her mouth was open in a scream.

I also noticed a dozen other frozen wolves. Most were in the same position as the she-wolf, as if trying to escape something terrible. Three were in a fighting stance--back hair up, lips curled back in a snarl, claws lashing out. There was even a wolf pup, grinning as if there was nothing in the world to worry about.

As I kept going, I saw more and more statues, scattered about. My neck and back broke into cold sweat.

Then, out of nowhere, a white-and-blue menace flew down from above.

Most of the fic from what I've seen is, word for word, exactly the same as Moon Rising, besides weird typographical errors like two characters speaking in the same paragraph and such, as well as adjustments made to accomodate the Sue and the occasional added lines or paragraphs to facilitate wangst, romance, etc.

As for whether it's old enough, I want to wait for Neshomeh's input, since she brought up fic age in the first place. Wings of Fire is a more modern series (the first book was published in 2012; the most recent book in the series came out last year), so finding an older badfic could be tricky, but it isn't impossible.

I could also spork a fic from a different fandom, but I'd prefer sporking a Wings of Fire fic for my first mission, since I know both the canon and the fandom like the back of my hand. A badfic from a different canon is an option, though.

Just... ow. That could definitely be made into a good mission joke. The weird "x-reader" first person was confusing too.

I'unno if it's quite old enough. I've only sporked a few fics, but the ones I have are from 2006-2012-ish, I think. It's probably fine?

-Ls' Random-ish Thoughts

"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." So always look up anything unfamiliar, even if it sounds like the most obviously silly nonsense you've ever heard of. There's always a chance you're behind the times or just plain ignorant. Trust me, I've been plenty guilty of this in my time. {= )

This especially applies when beta'ing for someone from another country. English comes in many and varied forms, so what looks wrong to an American may be correct for a Brit or Aussie. Not just for spelling; idioms are many-splendored things, and different life experiences make for different perceptions of what's normal/usual.

On a related note, you should always have an objective reason for making a correction, and be able to explain it clearly and kindly. You may make style suggestions, but ultimately it's the writer's story, not yours, and they're allowed to disagree with you in matters of taste.

Know that your goal is to help the author realize their vision (not yours) in the best possible way. To do that, you have to understand the vision. When you're not sure you understand something, ask (don't assume) what the author intended. Clear and considerate communication in both directions makes for the best outcomes.

Basically, keep an open mind. You might think you know where a joke, arc, or story is going, but... you could always be wrong. {= )

And that's okay! Everyone makes mistakes. Accept it humbly, learn from the experience, and move on. That's how you get better.

I hope that was helpful, but if not, ask a more specific question next time. {= P

~Neshomeh

I'll think about how I can expand/rewrite the original prompt in a way that really shows off the prickly character interactions, then. I enjoy reading about character conflict in stories, so I'll be giving it a lot of thought. This is good! I like thinking about how I can improve my writing.

And thanks for the tip on humor, I'll definitely check it out. For me, humor is one of those concepts where I understand the execution but find the ideas difficult to grasp. My humor is mostly, "Well, I find it funny, so maybe other people will find it funny, too," although I do understand that humor can be quite subjective.

On a sort-of related note, I found a possible fic I could spork. It was first published in 2017 and last updated in 2019, so I'm not sure if it fits the five-year guideline, but it is bad. There is rampant plagiarization of canon, but with an OC shoved into the story who, surprise surprise, is a canon's twin sister, but runty and trajeck. The Sue steals her sister's lines and interactions with other canons, pulls the canons around her OOC (Carnelian's the most blatant example, but there's also Winter-bashing and Qibli acting less suspicious than his canonical self), and has a contradictory "personality" where she's standing up to an angry dragon one moment and crying the next; in a given moment she basically does whatever's most convenient or most trajeck for her. Oh, and there's bad grammar (even in the plagiarized bits) and obtrusive in-text author's notes, the most obnoxious of which was the one that said the author changed Qibli's eye color because they liked it better that way. And I've only read the first ten chapters so far, but I do want to get through the whole thing before I start sporking it.

Edit: Whoops, forgot the link. The badfic can be found here.

Any advice you have?

--Ls always responds to beta requests, unless it's a mission to an explicit fic.

You'll be better able to help people with Permission requests if you pay attention to what feedback the PGs give.

And, general note to everyone, it's very helpful to have a non-PG beta a Permission request, so that a PG isn't taken out of the request-answering pool. {= )

I think I've said before, and will say again: I'm happy to offer guidance to anyone who wants to be a beta but isn't sure how. Feel free to ask me for advice!

~Neshomeh

came about as a result of Momo's frequent use of kitchen knives.

Not a lot to say, since it's short, but this is a cool talent for Momoka to have! Maybe next time there's a role-play for a meal or party in HQ, she can design something fancy!

In the sentence, "Club members were instructed an array of interesting things . . ." I think that should be "instructed in an array."

—doctorlit fell asleep on his feet while chopping carrots at work once. Don't worry, nothing bad happened.

Such great comedy potential in having a small horde of mini-Boggarts turning into things like "graphic design that is slightly off-centre" or "legos constantly underfoot".

How ‘bout mini-Boggarts? Instead of your greatest fear, they manifest as your biggest annoyance—perfect for driving agents and OFU students crazy.

—Ls