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And I hope you show us the rest of the essays when they're done, too. A few people have done similar things in the past, and it's always interesting. ^_^

~Neshomeh

Clara Oswald put the phone down at last, and leant pensively on her console. Kate Stewart had been sceptical at first, mostly due to the fact that she knew Clara was supposed to be dead, but had eventually agreed to help. That had led to her call being bounced around UNIT, over to the Foreign Office, up (briefly) to the Prime Minister (who hadn't been at all helpful), and finally all the way up to Geneva.

From there she'd been passed back down to the Israeli government, where the whole process had been repeated. She'd grown hoarse with explaining herself to what seemed like hundreds of different functionaries - all of them asking different obscure questions, most of which she couldn't answer - before finally, finally reaching the army facility where Desdendelle claimed to have originated.

Clara's sigh of relief on hearing that "Desdendelle" had been behaving so oddly that he'd been physically restrained managed to completely baffle the man on the phone, but after a few more transfers up and down the chain of command (and why couldn't any of these people take a message, good grief!) she was able to convince the Israelis that Ashildr was no danger. Strictly speaking, that wasn't actually true... but Clara was sure she'd behave herself. For a while. Maybe.

"Ohhh God." Clara groaned and let her head fall to rest on the console. "I just wanted to explore time and space and have a good time. I didn't ask for all this complicated rubbish."

There was no reply. But from deep within the wardrobe behind her, Clara heard a highly disturbing sound: a giggle.

She straightened up, eyes wide. "Aaaand I have guests." She turned and looked into the vast wardrobe. "Aaaand I can't see them. Aaaand that sounds like trouble."

The bizarre trio weren't in the first open area of the wardrobe. Clara followed the sound of laughter deeper into the labyrinth that her TARDIS apparently felt was suitable for clothes storage, until eventually she began to make out speech:

"... so tight!" That was Kaitlyn, her voice filled with admiration. "I don't know how you got in there, it's amazing."

"Practice." Iximaz sounded distinctly smug. "I like them tight, so I've got incentive to put in the effort."

"I can see it was worth your time," Kaitlyn said. "Wow, if I could-"

"Seriously." Desdendelle's voice was even flatter than before. "You must know how you sound."

"You're just grumpy because yours is so loose," Iximaz retorted. "I did offer to help you sort yourself out."

Desdendelle groaned. "Do you even listen to yourself?"

Clara paused at the last corner, shook her head, and stepped round. "Please don't tell me you've made a mess of my wardrobe."

"Eee!" Kaitlyn beamed, and Iximaz had to grab her shoulder to stop her bounding over to Clara. "Now we all match!"

Clara looked at the trio, and they did indeed all match: every one of them was wearing a corset. Kaitlyn and Desdendelle had paired theirs with trousers; Iximaz had followed Clara's example and gone for a skirt. As their conversation had implied, Iximaz had drawn the laces so tight it was a wonder she could breathe, while Desdendelle's corset was loose enough that it practically fell off.

"Uh." Clara held up a finger, then pointed it at Desdendelle. "I thought you were a man. I mean, whatever bakes your cake, but-"

Desdendelle sighed and flicked a hand towards the other two. "They insisted."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Iximaz planted her hands on her hips and winced. "Ow, that actually is too tight. Hang on." She fiddled with the laces on her corset for a minute, then straightened up. "Right. Where was I?"

"'That's not fair'," Clara reminded her.

"Right." Iximaz pointed at Kaitlyn. "She insisted."

Kaitlyn tossed her hair (which would've worked better had it not been tied up in a braid). "And I was right to do so," she said. "Four women hanging out in corsets? When you're given a shot at this level of hotness, you grab it and run."

"Uh. Right." Clara shook herself, and resolved to change back into her everyday clothes at the next opportunity. But first… "I've spoken to someone at your army base," she said to Desdendelle. "They have your body - and Me seems to be in it."

Desdendelle winced slightly, but nodded. "Excellent. And Iximaz has a plan to return me to my proper form."

"I'm not sure I'd call it a plan," Iximaz demurred. "I just think if we get you two close together-"

"That's it?" Kaitlyn demanded. "You think if they just touch hands they'll swap back? Aren't you even slightly genre-savvy?"

Iximaz folded her arms. "And I suppose you have a better idea?"

"Well… no." Kaitlyn sighed and tugged at her corset's lace. "But mark my words, this is going to end with us fighting a giant corset beast or something. There's no other option."

((There will be one more part, but this one needs a timeskip, so I ended it here.))

hS

I support a non-published, non-canon PPC mission being used for curricular purposes. Calliope got to get that grade, y'all!

—doctorlit, student for life

*SNIFFFFF*

Beautiful.

In all seriousness, though, I love flowers, and I love light colors. You did well, Matt. *hug*

Happy birthday

Not about whether it's okay to write a mission for essayish purposes - that's fine, of course. Just be aware that the reason we have a Permission process is to make sure a) you can write, and b) you can write the PPC. So writing without it means that you might produce something that wouldn't be acceptable in PPC canon.

(This is why 'I've written my first six missions and now I'm asking for Permission!' would be a problem, by the way. If you're writing before getting Permission, then you're writing before getting confirmation that your style+knowledge fits into the PPC. If you get turned down, you'd have to scrap everything you wrote.)

But whether it should be a mission or an interlude... depends on what you see the PPC as being about. Is it about the weird and wonderful world of HQ - or is it about criticizing badfic from an in-universe perspective?

Everyone will have different answers to that. But if The Triumvirate writes six essays about the criticism side, then a HQ story wouldn't fulfil the role it's supposed to.

hS

Especially considering you're not planning on publishing it. I mean, at that level, you can do whatever you want!
Anything. Anything. Aaaaaaanything. Long as it's not published.

And, I mean, I'd say it's a good way of practicing writing and practicing for the PPC setting so, I mean, seems more than good, to me!

Larfen's origin story! Peter Parker has his spider, Superman has his sunlight or some bollocks, Batman has his parents (or, er, doesn't,) Half-Car-Man has his half-car, and Larfen has his Granzy-wanzy-banzy-kins <3.

And you got my terrible sense of humour across perfectly, along with my terrible habit of laughing at my terrible sense of humour! It's so similar to the real event, I could probably sue you!

CHEERS!

I wasn't aware I was stepping into your territory - your old territory. That's all creaky and dusty and old-smelling.

Didn't mean to get all my youth on everything, old man!

*skateboards out*

Also, cheers! Old maaaaan

Grocers are the most reliable sources of information in this untrustworthy world we live in, other than magic eight balls and coin flips!

And I'll try my hardest to live longer than that impressed rock! It'd be really embarrassing if I didn't, considering that all rocks have been alive for totals of zero seconds. I'd look a right dope!
But, yes, cheers!

It shall know my power, my strength, my cunning! I shall carve a bloody swathe through all the lands, leaving nothing behind but corpses and conquest!

*blows out candles in three tries*

AURORUS
Role Identification: Choiced Special Wallbreaker
One thing worth mentioning is that your team is very, very light on Special Attackers. This isn't your fault, there aren't that many special attacking dinos around, but it's a weakness. Luckily for you, Aurorus has some pretty serious chops as a wallbreaker - which means someone who's very good at getting rid of stally, bulky Pokémon, but lacks certain attributes (usually Speed) to be used as a sweeper.

The idea of a special wallbreaker is to either force out the opponent or kill 'em dead with a powerful STAB move. Give your Aurorus the ability Refridgerate - which transforms Normal-type moves into Ice-type ones and gives them a 20% boost in power (and anyone making a pony reference will be SHOT) - because your other option, Snow Warning, doesn't really benefit anyone else on your team. Having Hail up would give you a perfectly accurate Blizzard but not much else, and it would also mean damaging your team slightly while the effect was on the field. You'll want to run a Modest nature to boost your Special Attack more, with the following EV spread: 252 points into Special Attack, 252 points into Speed, and your four leftover points into Special Defence.

For moves, you want Hyper Voice, Freeze-Dry, Earth Power, and Frost Breath. Hyper Voice is the strongest Normal-type special move you can use every turn, which is fairly important to stop you being revenge-killed by the next Pokémon to switch in; it benefits from Refridgerate, becoming an Ice-type move with 108 Base Power. Because it's classified as a sound move, Hyper Voice is also able to ignore Substitutes, which annoys a lot of wall and stall Pokémon to no end. Freeze-Dry is another Ice-type move, though lower power. Why do you want it? Because it's super-effective against Water-type Pokémon, which normally resist Ice, and bulky Water-types are very common walls (for example, my team runs a Toxapex, which is the dictionary definition of an evil Water-type wall). Frost Breath is another Ice-type move, but this one is special because it always incurs a Critical Hit, meaning it does 100% extra damage AND ignores defensive stat boosts. Users of moves that boost Special Defence (like Iximaz's Reuniclus, which tends to run a Calm Mind set) had better watch out. Finally, Earth Power is there as Ground-type coverage, which will hit a lot of your threats exceedingly hard - Rock-types, Fire-types, and Steel-types who might think you an easy switch-in would be on the receiving end of a very rude awakening. I'm aware there's no Rock-type moves on this list, but Rock as a typing is not known for its special attacks - the highest Base Power move Aurorus knows is Ancient Power at 60BP, and it's simply not enough.

As for the item, go with Choice Specs. They boost the user's Special Attack by 50% but lock it into one move. However, since Ice and Ground is such a brilliant offensive combination, generally you'll be okay whatever you pick.

BASTIODON
Role Identification: Utility Lead
Bastiodon... isn't great. Sure, it's got huge defensive stats, but it doesn't have reliable recovery outside of the Leftovers item and its typing gives it two 4x weaknesses to the very, very common Ground- and Fighting-types. Its offensive presence also leaves something to be desired, like existence. Oh well. Let's make this work.

First things first: give your Bastiodon the ability Sturdy. This means that, as long as it's at full HP, it cannot be killed in one hit by direct damage. Think of it as kind of like an inbuilt Focus Sash. You'll want a Careful nature to protect against special attackers - nobody with a 4x weakness to Fighting wants to be on the receiving end of a Focus Blast, and it's fairly common as a coverage move. As far as your EV spread goes, you want 252 points in HP, 4 in Defence, and 252 points in Special Defence. This means you've got more of a chance to survive what your opponent will throw at you.

As for your own moves, you want Stealth Rock, Toxic, Roar, and Magic Coat. Stealth Rock and Toxic form the core of this set, with the former setting up chip damage for enemies when they switch in and the latter being its only reliable way to cause damage to its foes. Roar is a phazing move - it forces out the opponent and drags in another, allowing you to rack up more and more damage from Stealth Rock, spread more Toxic where applicable, &c. Roar has a Priority rating of -6, meaning you're guaranteed to go last, but since Bastiodon is outstripped by passing glaciers this is not a huge concern. Finally, Magic Coat allows you to reflect status moves like Will-O-Wisp, Thunder Wave, and Taunt back onto the user. Status isn't a huge concern for Bastiodon, but it's never pleasant to deal with, and Taunt shuts this set down completely. Finally, give it Leftovers for some vital, if meagre, HP recovery.

HAXORUS
Role Identification: Physical Stallbreaker
Haxorus has a sky-high Attack stat and a very usable Speed, meaning it can maintain an offensive presence against a variety of Pokémon. The following set pairs very well with Minior, as it allows Haxorus to beat the living snot out of things that might counter Minior and let Katie B. mop up the stragglers.

First, select your shiniest, stabbiest Haxorus from the stable and give it the ability Mould Breaker. This allows you to ignore certain abilities when making your attacks. For example, let's say you're fighting a Weezing. Weezing has Levitate, which makes it immune to Ground-type moves - which you want to use against it, because Ground is super effective against Weezing. With the Mould Breaker ability, you can use a Ground-type move and hit the Weezing, something that in the competitive scene generally causes your opponent to have an enormous temper tantrum. They're always fun to watch. For the set we're running here, you want an Adamant nature to boost your Attack out of the blocks, with your EVs spread as follows: 252 Attack, 4 Special Defence, and 252 Speed.

The moves you want are Swords Dance, Dual Chop, Earthquake, and Poison Jab. Swords Dance boosts your Attack by two stages, meaning that you can then power through basically anything foolish enough to stand in front of you. Dual Chop might have a fairly low Base Power, but it hits twice and therefore deals with Substitutes, Focus Sashes and the like. Earthquake and Poison Jab are there to deal with the Steel- and Fairy-types that think they can come in on your Dragon-type attacks. A +2 Poison Jab will generally make any Fairy-type start having an extremely bad day, while +2 Earthquakes will make everything else have a bad day. Do bear in mind, though, that this set is walled by Steel/Flying-types like Iximaz's Skarmory and newbie SquidBoi's Celesteela, so you need to be willing to switch out with this set.

Finally, the item you want is a Lum Berry. This might seem a bit odd - why not a damage-boosting item like a Life Orb? Well, Haxorus doesn't like being on the receiving end of status effects like Burn, Paralysis, or Taunt. The Lum Berry lets you ignore that status effect and kick the opponent's teeth in unmolested.

MAROWAK-ALOLA
Role Identification: Utility Attacker
Ghost/Fire is an extremely difficult STAB combination to counter effectively, and Alolan Marowak has the attacking chops to use that gift effectively. This set is designed to maximise the damage you do with Ol' Boney here while still retaining survivability.

First, get an Adamant one and give it the ability Lightning Rod. This has a number of benefits. First, it makes you basically immune to both Burns and Paralysis, which would otherwise cripple a physical attacker like Marowak. Next, it gives you a free switch-in on Electric-type attacks, which is always useful. Finally... well, the other options are kind of bad. Rock Head has its charms, but I prefer not being paralysed. As for EVs, you want 252 Attack, 4 Special Defence, and 252 Speed.

Now let's get onto your moves: Shadow Bone, Fire Punch, Bonemerang, and Will-O-Wisp. Shadow Bone, Alolan Marowak's signature move, is great way of dealing reliable damage due to only Dark-types resisting it, and it also has a 20% chance to lower the target's Defence stat by 1 stage, meaning that if luck is with you you can hit a lot harder. Fire Punch is preferred over Flare Blitz because the recoil element is just too much damage on someone with no reliable recovery (unless one runs Rock Head, but then one may be Paralysed and it is a debilitating experience). This is also your big counter to Steel/Flying types that so plague the Haxorus set above. Bonemerang, which used to be a signature move, is an extremely able thing indeed; a Ground-type move with the same effective Base Power as Earthquake that can hit through Substitutes? Sign me up. Finally, Will-O-Wisp allows you to spread Burns across opposing physical attackers that might otherwise do you considerable harm.

Your item - and it should only ever be this item on a Marowak - is good old Thick Club. It doubles your Attack stat, meaning that Alolan Marowak's brilliant STAB combo now hits like a freight train. While this does make it Knock Off bait, you're able to put some serious hurt on Pokémon who don't run it - and there aren't that many who can.

KOMMO-O
Role Identification: Special Attacker
This is one of the times when I'm going to deviate from the Smogon orthodoxy - I think you can get more out of other moves in this context than you can what they prescribe, and thereby get more power out of your selection. Here goes nothing!

Select a Modest-natured Kommo-O and give it the ability Bulletproof. This is the ability that will render you immune to a wide variety of moves - a full list may be found here - which, by extension, makes you more survivable. For your EV spread, you want 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed, and 4 in Special Defence. This maximizes the benefit of your Nature and allows you to do more horrible things to people for longer. Which is always good.

For moves, you want Autotomize, Clanging Scales, Focus Blast, and Flash Cannon. Autotomize boosts your Speed by two stages, allowing you to outspeed most opposing Pokémon after a single turn, which is handy for a sweeper. Clanging Scales is your main STAB move, a reliable 110 BP special attack with the downside of lowering your Defence by 1 stage every time you use it. Focus Blast is your other STAB move, and really it's a do-or-die thing. It hits a lot of Steel-types for excellent damage, but that is predicated on it hitting at all - which, when the move has an accuracy of a mere 70%, is far from guaranteed. Flash Cannon is there to bait your foes; Dragon/Fighting has a double weakness to Fairy, and there's a temptation to throw out a Fairy-type like Iximaz's Togekiss or SquidBoi's Mimikyu to soak up your STAB moves. Flash Cannon hits them for super effective damage and can catch them severely off guard. Finally, give it a Life Orb to hold. You're looking to do more damage... so do it! Just beware that you're on the clock; Kommo-O has nothing at all in the way of HP recovery.

TYRANITAR
Role Identification: Physical Tank
Tyranitar is a brutal-looking kaiju of a Pokémon, and it shows in the design and movepool. Sandstorm benefits a large number of your team members, boosting Minior, Bastiodon, and Aurorus's Special Defences (as well as its own) to stratospheric levels. However, its role as a bludgeon requires some fine-tuning.

First of all, the ability: it is Sand Stream. Just... just use Sand Stream. Unnerve is insufficient for your purposes. It sets up the Sandstorm weather condition for 5 turns, which will allow you to put chip damage on the field for everyone who isn't a Rock-, Ground-, or Steel-type. This is useful for breaking stuff like Focus Sash, Multiscale, or Sturdy. Your giant stompy rock monster should have an Adamant Nature and the following EV spread: 4 HP, 252 Attack, and 252 Speed.

Next, we have the movepool of Stone Edge, Crunch, Earthquake, and Pursuit. STAB Stone Edge is a seriously meaty move; its accuracy isn't the greatest at 80%, but between 100 Base Power and an increased critical hit rate, it can dish out a lot of hurt when you do manage to land it. Crunch is just a good move; Dark-type STAB with 80BP and a 20% chance to lower the target's Defence, which is helpful. Earthquake's utility in combination with Stone Edge is well-storied; what one can't hit for at least neutral damage, the other generally can. Finally, we come to Pursuit, which is a very interesting move. It deals double damage when the target is switching out, allowing you to get kills you might not otherwise manage against more fragile targets. It relies upon a certain level of prediction, of reading what the opponent is likely to do... so if you want to swap it out for type coverage like Superpower, Iron Head, or Ice Punch, then I completely understand. =]

At last, the end is near. This is a Choice Band set, which is like the aforementioned Choice Specs but for the Attack stat rather than Special Attack. It allows Tyranitar to bulldoze its way through the specially defensive walls that might shut out Aurorus, paving the way for midgame wallbreakers like Kommo-O and Haxorus, as well as lategame cleaners like Katie The Death Malteser Minior. You have a reasonable team composition. Hopefully this little guide helps you use it to its full potential. =]

Have a birthday gif! (That's me eating the cake.)

"Who? What are you -- get that microphone out of my face!" She then sighed. "Are your parents here?"

I believe this to be the local vernacular for "We were greatly impoverished without his presence! Give him my best wishes!"

Therefore, here are best wishes, the grocers and my own. Happy birthday, you meteor, you glacier, you definer-of-a-geologic-age! Happy birthday! May you live longer than the rock you indelibly impressed with your presence!

--Key

(I'm a student; nothing would stop working if I wasn't there, I'd just get behind).

My plan was to break out my Starfleet engineering uniform and tape a sign to the back saying "Women Are Not Expendable". . . but I'm sorry to say that I lost my nerve (also, the shirt isn't, strictly speaking, mine).

But yeah. The world needs women. Treat us well.

--Key

One thing: is there any reason why the narrative has to be a mission? It would show off the PPC just as much--actually, probably even more so--to write an interlude. HQ is weird and exciting all on its own, and not everyone is in an action department. On the other hand, you haven't been with us too long yet, so odds are that that might take a lot more wiki/reading research than writing a practice mission would. However, HQ, with its large variety of species, weird laundry room, odd Cafeterias, Rudi's, Courtyards, and, reportedly, a Fountain of Bleepka (or was it the pool that's supposedly around and the fountain is findable?), not to mention the...unique ways of getting places that HQ residents have to develop...well, that's very far from boring and unrepresentative of the PPC, I'd say. And that's not even mentioning interesting places like DoSAT (good for showing off gadgets and grumpy techs) and FicPsych, and of course Upstairs...

On the other hand, re: a practice mission: I'm not really against that idea at all. It's also a good way to learn about your characters and figure out something about how writing missions goes. I just really wanted to point out that, unless you've absolutely promised your teacher a mission and there's no way to change the plan, an interlude where, say, some agents go about completing a bunch of errands that went undone while trying to avoid a new mission for as long as possible, would hardly be boring. You have options, unless you, well, don't.

~Zing

PS: Also, good luck with the seven written pieces! I think I had an assignment a little like that in Writer's Craft, though in my case the topic they shared was something along the lines of the theme of family (both biological and not). (So sue me, I was pretty into Supernatural at the time and the whole "Family don't end with blood, boy" theme really resonated with me for some reason.) Anyway, reminiscing aside, good luck!

Congratulations on your seventeenth anniversary having fought your way free from a bloody jam prison! On this most auspicious of days, repeat your momentous victory by slaying a cake, an entire cake, without mercy. Crush the delicious frosting beneath your heel, then weep, for there is naught left to conquer.

I mean, it would be a mission shown to your teacher only rather than the entire internet, and it could make for an interesting, unconventional way to get Permission in the future. People have gotten Permission by doing, well, Permission Missions before, if memory serves, so I don't see why the same can't apply here. :)

Of course, I'm interested to know what other people think, too.

Okay, so. Various people requested that this subject be brought to the Board. Namely, Ix, Des, and Tomash.

Recently, a new project was announced for my English class. To simplify it (because this is Necessary Information), we're all supposed to write seven essays revolving around a shared topic. Without really going through the proper official channel things, I submitted the PPC as my topic. The problem there is that I don't have Permission yet, and one of the essays must be a narrative.

Now, at this point, I cannot change what my topic is. So what I'm asking is: would there be too much objection if I wrote a mission for my English class? I could consider it a practice mission and never publish it anywhere else, if that would help.

Granz asked me for a random Boarder, and my first response was Matt. But he'd already written for Matt, so he asked me for another, and I said Badger.

And, ah. Badger is on Discord, I believe.