The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

The email was sent before this post, but only noticed by me after.

I will delete any further copies of it I'm sent.

hS

If Bramandin really wants Kelly and September moved to "Out of Continuity", she has to find somebody else to do it for her. For obvious reasons I can’t appear to support revoking Permission for not following the Permission Prompt Guidelines to the letter.

On a meta note, Tomash should be allowed to post here.

HG

with being on a list of people to have Bramandin's phone number. I do not believe that Bramandin has good intentions in their interactions with the PPC. The complaints Bramandin puts forth here are near identical to the ones from years ago. There is no demonstration of acceptance of personal wrongdoing on their part.

I feel like every interaction I have witnessed since returning is manipulative with the purpose of attaining recognized victimhood. This actually seems to be a near obsession, that the PPC must be forced to admit that they victimized ZDimensionsa years ago and then to proceed in giving them the attention they feel they deserve. All the attempts to make themselves seem like the reasonable one(the posts below for everyone else to wait until the dust settles), and the more mature one (see the posts they are still posting on the Grand Concilliary the last couple of days) are, in my opinion, just bait to get everyone to let them by with their behavior. Any apology they give is just a ploy to get them clear for a little while to attain what they actually want (see the beta request they have thrown into this thread. I have observed that several threads they have begun with high drama and then roped people into feeling sorry enough for them to attempt to beta for them after they had just behaved badly toward their betas).

I do not buy the argument that it is a misunderstanding at this point. It has been explained, many, many times, and Bramandin has explicitly stated in her email thread that she intentionally manipulates the folks here. This is what people who are emotionally abusive do. They turn everything around until they are the victim. They demand apologies from others for their behavior. I am too tired right now to go through all the posts again to link it directly, but I have the distinct impression that some of their posts fit well with the concept of 'negging'.

Undoubtedly the next response from her will be a nearly incoherent, non-sequitur filled rant that indicates that I am a horrible bully. I am saying undoubtedly, because that is the exact pattern of behavior that has been followed since 2014.

I believe that my questioning of their motives did not come through strongly enough in my earlier post. Or maybe it was my stated desire to not cast a vote due to my relative newness and I had not read the email thread yet, so they have now cast me as being on 'their' side. For explicit communication here. I am not. At this point if it comes to a vote, if my vote counts for anything, I will vote for a ban. I do not believe Bramandin is good for this community or that their intentions are in anyway good.

I feel very strongly about what I am about to say here. Being autistic is no excuse for their continued behavior as being autistic does not in any way mean 'incapable of learning'. A mistake may be made in entire innocence one time, but once it has been explained, it is arguably not made in innocence the second time, and definitely is not made in innocence after the fiftieth time it has been explained. It also does not mean, 'callous disregard for others as emotional beings'. It might mean that the person gets through an entire conversation and only hours later realizes that the other person was upset due to poor reading of the situation, but does not mean that when they realize the other person was upset that they then feel nothing for the other person.

Autistic people are not sociopaths.

It's never given me any problems, probably because I never use it for anything. ^_^

hS

I'm working on a reread of Discworld at the moment; I'm currently in Witches Abroad, and loving every minute of it.

hS

*dons lilac*

It's the Glorious 25th of May, and that means a momentous day in fandom: the anniversary of the People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road, the anniversary of the first release of Star Wars, and Towel Day.

Happy Geek Pride Day!

Elcalion, who was there

I cannot speak for anyone else; however, I am not angry for any of the reasons you state.

I am angry because you show no respect for the opinions of others. Nobody has wronged you, and you have wronged others; people have told you so, but you can see no further than your own grudge.

I am angry because you have now twice broken your ban - especially so this second time, because you have lied to the community since your return.

I am angry because of how you treated Neshomeh when she tried to help you, even keeping secret your ban violation for you.

I am angry because of how you use your autism as a shield to deflect valid criticism of your actions. Again, I cannot speak for anyone else, but I don't believe there has been a thread debating whether to ban me (if there was, someone please link it, because that'd be a hell of a thing to miss), so people are clearly tolerating me despite my own issues.

I am angry because you still aren't listening when people point out your troublesome behaviour. You don't consider what they say; instead, you deflect.

I am angry because you appear to be making no effort to improve yourself. You are blinded by what you view as an injustice against you, and you refuse to grow past it.

I am sorry that we cannot help you. I am sorry that the community failed you when you first arrived. I am sorry that the only thing that can keep you from harming the community further is the banhammer. But that is how it is. This isn't how it had to be, but it is how it has to be now.

Agent Huinesoron (DOGA/SIELU/DAS-DIG, depending on who's asking) strolled along the 'Green Stuff' aisle of the General Store. Every few steps, he pulled a box or bag from the shelf, and added it to his increasingly-overstuffed basket. It wasn't often, after all, that you could even find fresh vegetables in HQ, and there was an interesting salad he'd noticed on a mission in Dorthonion that he wanted to try. He'd need grapes from the vinyards of Dorwinion (into the basket they went), celery from anywhere (a bundle of Sphinxian imports followed the grapes), and of course, fried-

There was a swish from behind him, and a level voice said, "Put down the mushrooms and step away from the shelf."

Huinesoron turned slowly, and had to forcibly restrain himself from looking twice as far down as was actually required. "Agent Kaitlyn," he said, doing his best to smile. "It's been a while. Why are you pointing a stick at me?"

The not-actually-hobbit woman brandished said stick. "This is a Muggle-use wand," she said, "ten and a half inches of applewood with a unicorn hair core. It could blow your pointy ears clean off."

The elf frowned. "I thought those things didn't work in HQ. That's what you told me about mine…"

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. "That was a clever lie." Without looking away, she flicked the wand in the general direction of the end of the aisle. "Incendio. Now hand over the-"

"Hey! Do you mind?"

Kaitlyn looked round guiltily at the couple a few steps down. A tall, dark-haired man was patting out the flames on the hem of his coat, while the woman with him tried to stifle her laughter.

"I mean, I know I'm a pyro," the man said, glancing up, "but this is ridicu… oh. Priestess Kaitlyn."

"Um." Kaitlyn flushed slightly, and did her best to hide her wand without actually moving. "Your High Priestiness. Hi."

"Just Dafydd will do." The ex-PPCer plucked at the charred edge of his coak. "Ah, well, I needed a new one anyway. But," he added with a scowl, "that doesn't mean I wanted you to set it aflame."

"That's his job," his wife said with a wink. "Hi, Kaitlyn."

"Agen- um, Constance." Kaitlyn chewed on her lip for a moment. "Sorry about the… the fire thing."

"Good." Dafydd let the blackened fabric fall from his fingers. "Why the pyrotechnics, anyway?"

"I think she was showing o- ah. That is to say." Huinesoron thought for a moment. "We were having a discussion. It got out of hand. Greetings, sir."

Dafydd seemed to register him for the first time. "Huinesoron," he said, the Quenya name flowing smoothly in his lilting accent. "Elen sila… well, no stars here, I suppose." He shook his head slightly, and then his gaze sharpened. "Actually," he said, "you're just the person to sort out a little dispute we've been having."

"Oh, you're not going to--?" Constance folded her arms across her chest. "Really, Dafydd?"

"What?" The elf spread his arms. "If you won't see reason, it's perfectly legitimate to ask a third party for advice."

Constance snorted. "A neutral third party, yes. Not another member of the Noldorin Supremacy Club."

"I wouldn't say I thought-" Huinesoron began, but Dafydd barrelled right over him.

"It's not being Noldorin that makes me superior," he said, then stuck his tongue out at his wife before turning back to Huinesoron. "Imagine, if you will, that you have been sent to hunt down a Suvian who utterly upends the entire history of our people. Do you agree that you would have a greater right to kill her than your partner," he waved one hand at Constance, "who simply objects to the way her Lust Object is treated?"

Huinesoron considered this. "It does seem rather more significant," he mused. "I think I'd certainly want to-"

"Oh, come on." Constance planted her hands on her hips and scowled. "You can't seriously value ancestry over character! I mean, would you say I had the right to the kill just because we were in one of my Dad's bo-?"

She stopped abruptly, ignoring Huinesoron's curious look, and turned to Kaitlyn. "You're with me on this, right?" she said. "I mean, if the Suvian was meddling with Luthien or whoever, you'd want to take her out, right?"

Kaitlyn held up her hands. "Hey, don't drag me into this," she said. "I'm just here for the mushrooms. Besides, I'm DCPS; I don't kill people."

Huinesoron glanced at her, his brow furrowed. "I thought you'd transferred to Floaters."

"I'm temporarily assigned to Floaters," Kaitlyn corrected with exaggerated precision. "I'm still a caseworker underneath. Just like these two," she flicked her wand at Dafydd and Constance," are still retired even if they're taking on this mission of theirs."

The couple exchanged a startled look. "We haven't got a mission," Dafydd said. "What are you talking about?"

Kaitlyn glanced from him to his wife and back. "The one you're arguing about," she said, "with the elves and the Lust Object…?"

"Oh, that's just hypothetical," Constance said with a flick of her head. "It didn't come up when we worked together, so we never really thought about it."

"Then why are you here?" Huinesoron put in. "In HQ, I mean, now that you're retired."

"Because it's next to impossible to get groceries out of season in Malij," Dafydd said. "Like tomatoes, or… mushrooms." He reached over and plucked the carton out of Huinesoron's hand, tucking it one-handed under his arm. "See you around. Connie - run."

---

This was fun. ^_^ Writing should be fun, and having a challenge - like shoving four characters and two dissonant scenarios into the same story - makes it more so.

Nor was it particularly difficult. Because I know the characters I've created - hS is a Noldo trying to work through his superiority complex, Kaitlyn is a bouncy kid who really wants to be a hobbit - I knew straight away how to get them into this situation, and how it would unfold. hS has never shown an interest in cooking before - fine, I'll make it something non-Elvish (so he's experimenting) and specifically highlight that it's a rare opportunity. Send in the mushrooms, and the conflict is established.

I have to credit Kaitlyn for the idea of Dafydd and Constance's argument being hypothetical. I could have written it as literal (they're the sorts to push their way into a mission, and I could've come up with something they needed to buy from the Store to make the kill), but it would have deprived me of the gag at the end.

In terms of the writing, most of this sprang full-formed. My original plan ('plan' in that it was the idea in my head when I started) was for Kaitlyn to blow up a shelf, and for her next line to be 'Hand over the mushr- omigosh I'm so sorry!'. I dropped that in favour of the continuity nods - except for Constance and Huinesoron, all of these characters have history with each other.

The final gag was a late addition, too. Originally, they were going to be in HQ to pick up the proper ingredients for lembas (which, again, you can't get in Malij), but the opportunity to slap on a cheeky ending was too much to resist. :)

This story (which clocks in at just under a thousand words) is sort of halfway between a Permission piece and a general ficlet. It takes a stab at introducing the characters - it tells you that Kaitlyn acts hobbit-like but isn't one, and throws Dafydd's personal superiority complex out there - and their relationships (the 'sir' in hS's greeting to Dafydd speaks volumes), but it doesn't descend into 'as you know, we retired almost ten years ago now, because...'.

Then again, it doesn't need to. Agent bios are there to catch anything untoward in your backstories and powersets; Permission pieces are supposed to show off your writing and your characters' personalities. I think (hope?) I've done that.

Concrit is of course welcome; I'll be inserting this story somewhere on my site (unless there's serious problems with it that I've not noticed).

hS

I can't think of any reason I would want your phone number.

You have demonstrated here, in what is currently your most recent post to the Board, that you still - after three years - do not understand what you have done wrong, despite what must be tens of thousands of words by now explaining it to you. Are you proposing that sorting out your sleep schedule will somehow allow you to change that?

hS

I am angry. People don't seem to understand why.

People are angry at me because:

I won't stay silent about them wronging me, and it makes them feel bad.

I have tonal problems, and am perceived as negative when I mean good.

I miss subtle clues.

I agree with my concritters, which makes me argumentative.

People are angry. Do you understand why? If you can't demonstrate that you do and take the appropriate steps to reconcile with those who are angry, the dust won't settle until the banhammer has swung.

I believe that anyone can change. I think that you need to learn to recognise when you are in the wrong, and change yourself instead of demanding everyone else change for you. Until you are capable of this (and I know you can be), I'm sorry, but you have no place here.

I haven't slept well since my Monday freakout. ((Don't get me wrong, it was pre-planned, I was just not calm when I did it.))

I think that I should not communicate anymore until my sleep schedule is normal.

I think that I should be given another chance after everyone rests.

I also think that no decisions should be made until after I return.

I might close my Bramandintook account for the while. I cannot guarantee I'll check my zdimensia account.

July can have my phone number
Neshome can have my phone number
Huisoren can have my phone number
Nameless admin can have my phone number
Ozzie can have my phone number
Skarmory can have my phone number
Miah can have my phone number

I've been treating the Despatch as a very meta area.

Sometimes the self-inserts are just Sues, and we don't hear about whether or not any of them are actually a representation of a real person.

One of the stories I have worked on for awhile is a lot less creepy if she is considered to be just a shell.

*gives peanut butter cookies*

This is a fictionalized version of Miguel, so I'm not committing libel. Sort of like how Ami's a self-insert of me, but she's not literally me.

Also, Miki used to be a mini-Chimera Anima based on Mint's dog, but a particularly bad sentence in his homefic ended up having him talk. I figured a talking dog could have a lot of potential for comedy and/or cuteness. :)

I also use one of those phones! XD

So ages ago I wrote a piece from an original fic, and I remember some of you guys really liking it. The universe it is set in has gone through a couple of iterations since then and this is from the latest of those, so you'll possibly recognize a few names at least. Without further ado I give you... Part 1:

----

This is an Excerpt from a no-holds-barred interview with the famous Ward of The Protectors, the most well known, and some even say first, hero group in the world to date:

“Origin stories? Wow you do want to set us up like superheroes don’t you.

But no, we’re not superheroes darling, we’re very much not. Perhaps Anti-hero would be a better way of describing us. We defend humanity, those with powers and those without, but when we do so, we don’t hold back, we do what we need to do when we need to do it to get the job done and to harm as few people as possible. But that doesn’t always mean we don’t kill anyone, especially when you think in the long term. How many times must someone break out of prison and threaten others lives before you realise that you should put them down for good? With us, that’s once if we’re being nice.

So yes, origin stories. Well I mean we weren’t bitten by radioactive animals when we were younger if that’s what you’re wondering. Each of us is a human naturally born with powers, and whilst we think we know where that’s from it is something I cannot actually reveal.

Some of us were friends long before we realised we had powers, hell James, or Tempest as you know him, and I went to the same pre-school together and worked our way up to Uni together. But university is where it all began, when our powers really began to come into their own, with the mysterious eighteenth birthday thing that couldn’t get more cliche if you’d tried, and a lot of student drinking.

Don’t ask why it helped but it did.

Now like I said, it was at university when it all started happening. We were all freshers and so were experiencing freedom for the first time. Hell some of us barely knew more than one person at first, and in Nick’s case that was because I’d somehow ended up in his bed one night after partying during freshers week.

I was studying Engineering at Imperial College, I can’t remember what everyone else was studying, but we all eventually started to mingle in similar sorts of societies and friendship groups that existed cross-universities, learning about our powers and how we could use them, in secret of course because when the government weren’t ignoring us like we didn’t exist, they were, like the rest of the world, trying to get us executed or whatever for being ‘unnatural abominations’ and the like.

So yeah, that may be where some of our hate and extreme tendencies come from, but it was necessary, or at least so we thought.

Our first real adventure together came about halfway through the second semester of our first year. We’d started actual discussion about whether to become heroes over christmas, using our social media stuff to message each other, bouncing ideas for everything from codenames to costumes between each other. But our first real chance to shine came around the end of February.

So I’m not sure if you remember, but right when this was all happening there were quite a few groups worldwide who were ‘discreetly’ getting rid of those humans with powers whilst paying, or sometimes even getting paid, as the government's looked the other way. Well we’d found one that had operated in London and decided to shut them down.

They weren’t the hardest prey looking back at it now. Probably about a dozen of them, they spent quite a lot of time spying on and researching their latest target before they struck and got out of there to a warehouse they were using as a base near Dover.

So we get a train and then a couple of taxi’s down into Dover itself, claiming to the taxi drivers when they asked that we were going to get drunk with some old friends who lived that way. And, once the drivers were gone, walked back out of town to get to our real destination.

Anyway, we find the rough area that the warehouse was in and Lucy and Nick, sorry Ghost and Spectre move forward, Spectre slipping from shadow to shadow and Ghost casually walking through the other warehouses, completely invisible and intangible checking each one as she went. The rest of us followed, Telath keeping us all linked up so we could ‘hear’ one another and talk telepathically if we needed to.

So we get to the warehouse to find it almost completely empty as it seems the group have gone to get another target. There’s a couple of guys left inside who’re meant to be watching the base but between an open skylight, Falcon’s flying skills, Clone’s transformations and Ghost and Spectre we were able to get three people inside without them realising and from there it was easy for the three of them to take down the two guards (and steal some of their pizza whilst they were at it). I never learnt the full detail, I didn’t want to know then and I’ve never asked since. All I know is that it wasn’t lethal.

But yeah, we have to sit down and wait for the rest of the group to arrive, not knowing where they’ve gone or when they’ll be back with just a single pizza to keep us entertained. Thankfully the nearest supermarket hadn’t closed and so a couple of the guys went off and bought a large amount of energy drinks which we used to try and keep ourselves awake.

Now it was about 4am when the rest of the group came back, they had a girl I remember who had the ability to control water. But they drag her inside expecting to be greeted by their buddies and instead find the nine of us half asleep instead. Both sides take like a minute to realise what’s happened and then we get into what had to be the most tired fight in history. We managed to win when Telath thought about sleep so much she broadcast it out at everybody and the group and half of us just collapsed and fell asleep.

So the group had cells on sight and so those of us who were still awake stuffed them in there before giving everyone who’d fallen asleep kind of comfortable places to stay before going to sleep ourselves.

We woke up about 1pm the next day, utterly confused, then elated at what we’d done… And then half of us realised it was a Monday and we’d missed at least one lecture, which caused a little bit of panic as we tried to work out what we’d say to our lecturers. Because “Sorry I missed the lecture because I was asleep after a hard night of fighting crime,” wasn’t going to cut it we figured.

Our second problem arose when we realised that we had no idea what to do with the group that we’d just beaten. We were still fairly idealistic at that point and the thought of simply killing them never crossed our minds. So we realised we couldn’t turn them into the police because they’d just be let out again almost immediately and our words would sooner get us all into trouble than get anything done, or get justice for all the problems the group had caused.

It was Cassie, the girl we’d rescued, who came up with an answer and so skipping the rest of Monday and spending it relaxing we headed out Monday night with the unconscious members of the group and managed to set it up so that they were all arrested for public indecency the next morning. The police didn’t believe their story about us, and so we managed to get away scott free. Not that we knew it until Cassie (who turned out to be a local) let us know because we hadn’t heard anything about it up in London where we had returned post haste.

So yeah, that was our first adventure together, our ‘origin story’ if you could call it that. Cassie is still a good friend and has helped a couple of times, most recently in the Normandy Incident, which I’m sure you’ll want me to tell you all about later.”

To read the first part of this exclusive interview turn to page 23 and make sure to get your newspapers for the rest of the week as Ward talks his way through the entire history of The Protectors.

---

Dahlia is so cute. I had a little bit of trouble figuring out who Miki is.

You do a pretty decent job of describing the two canons for those who don't know.

It's entertaining, especially when they start singing the Lego song.

Sorry, not a good review.

Except, are you aware that Miguel is TimeJumper's IRL friend? https://www.fanfiction.net/r/894267/

I do have tone problems, but I'm unaware about any name calling. And I have never done anything with malice.

I might have quoted someone else saying bullies, or talked about my high school bullies, but when did I call you bullies? Was it outside of this thread?

I admit to telling you that I felt harrassed. Other than that, I have never reacted in anger.

If you point it out to me, I'll try to correct it.

I cannot recycle the character to fit the prompts. Just one psychotic vampire with issues. She may not belong in the PPC.

I honestly haven't tried other characters with the prompts, except for once. I'm sure that if I played with my army of characters, save for the vampire, I'd come up with some good stuff.

I am sure that most of your characters will fit most of the prompts. Even if I get lucky, you could easily tweak the character to fit and I would not notice.

I would like to see someone pull a prank on your vampire and her partner.

I literally have no idea what you're saying in most of this post. Were you actually responding to me there?

But if I understand your last paragraph correctly, you believe that I can make 55 agents who can handle all 72 prompts with no trouble - while you can't even come up with 2 that can deal with 1.

That... is a very worrying admission.

hS

The last of the requests listed was also denied by JulyFlame, not just by the ban.