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We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked.

It was nice.

You're mostly active on the wiki, as far as I know. Being active on the wiki is good, but only a handful of us pay close attention to edits, and it doesn't really help us get to know you as a person or how you'll write stories.

That said, for the benefit of my fellow PGs, I want to call attention to your most recent edit on the Mary Sue article, which may be viewed here. The previous version is on the left and the new version is on the right, with the addition highlighted in green (at least on my PC).

It's good that you cite TOS 22, "Elemental Crystals," for this. References are always good. My guess is that the relevant passage is this one:

Jay [in dragon disguise] eyed the sparrow [a shape-shifted Suvian]. "Looks like a tasty snack. Bet it tastes like chicken..."

"You know we don't eat Sues."

Your interpretation of the line, that "a Sue may not be eaten as an assassination method" as a hard rule, is plausible. However, that doesn't mean it is correct. Another possible interpretation is that Jay and Acacia have agreed between themselves not to eat Suvians because they personally consider it disgusting or unethical, not because it's a rule set by Upstairs. I favor this interpretation because it takes into account counterexamples such as vampires and other non-human agents who have been known to eat Suvians—not to mention human agents who don't consider Suvians human and thus wouldn't necessarily consider it taboo to consume them (though admittedly, most of them would still probably kill the Suvian before eating it).

I bring this up because it's relevant to Novastorme's point that there's more to the PPC than the Original Series. It's really awesome that you read and enjoyed TOS, but that by itself does not mean you understand the setting as it is now, twenty years later.

Grasping what it's like now, and showing the PGs that you do, means being involved. Might I suggest following along with the PPC+20 posts Huinesoron is providing? Chatting with other Boarders about the stories of then, and how things have changed since, would be a great way to get more familiar with the PPC and let us get more familiar with you. {= )

~Neshomeh

I'm sorry my writing sample was bad. Do you have any advice for a better one? Also, I'm confident that I understand now, but I'm not sure how to prove it to you.

I'll admit I haven't looked into things in too much detail yet but I do have some worries. Your writing sample doesn't look like it's going to tell me anything, it's a parody of a fanfiction of a continua that's not even where either of your agents come from. To be honest, that doesn't inspire hope in me. But I could be wrong.

I'm also worried as last time you mentioned getting Permission one of the main concerns raised was how well you would understand the PPC setting, and OK, you have now said that you've read TOS, and that's great. But I can't see anywhere anything that confirms that you understand the PPC setting beyond that.

Finally, personally, I'd prefer more flesh on your Agents Bios, from a quick glance you don't seem to be missing anything, but I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more.

Like I said, my PG Hat is firmly off at the moment, I haven't had the time for a good long look at anything just yet, so I don't want to make a judgement one way or another (and I'm happy to leave it open if another PG wants to swoop in here).

Nova

Happy Thanksgiving!🦃🍁🍂

Particularly the Thirty H’s mission.

—Ls, also alive. Unless he’s a zombie, which he isn’t... probably.

Done and done!

Is it possible to turn your links into actual links? There's a formatting guide linked in the posting page that can help you there if you don't know the html or the markup. I'm saying this because the markup has borked the link to your writing sample.

Thanks!

Okay, the last time I mentioned getting Permission, it was... kind of a disaster. But it was a few years ago and I think I've learnt from my mistakes. I've also read the Original Series now, and I actually found it entertaining despite not being that into LotR. My favourite mission was the one with the invisible yarn and the skinning of the blue unicorn. So, here goes.

Agent 1:

Name: T'Lai

Species: Vulcan

Gender: Female

Age: 32

Home Continuum: Star Trek

Appearance: Tan skin and black hair in the traditional Vulcan-style bowl cut. She's about one head taller than Alexa.

Personality: T'Lai, being a Vulcan, is pragmatic and doesn't do much in the way of emotional responses barring the occasional bemused comment or eyebrow raise. She's also very patient and willing to show the newbie agent Alexa Perkins the ropes. She's not that interested in pop culture, though she takes it upon herself to research the continuums she's visiting. She was in the PPC for longer than Alexa, so she has a bit of a "seen it all" attitude.

History: T'Lai was recruited by the PPC a few years ago and was keen to join when she learned that fanfic writers have a tendency to make Vulcans behave illogically. She started out with a different partner, but when he transferred to the Department of Mary Sues, T'Lai got assigned to work with the rookie agent Alexa.

Department: Floaters

Agent 2:

Name: Alexa Perkins

Species: Human

Gender: Female

Age: 22

Home Continuum: World One

Appearance: Red hair in a ponytail and heterochromia.

Personality: Alexa is generally a very cheerful young woman, and pretty animated. When she and T'Lai are on a mission together, she will often be having the extreme reactions (laughing, getting angry, etc.) while T'Lai reacts with stoic bemusement. In her spare time, she likes to watch cartoons and crochet. She also sings in the bathtub, and she's very bad at analogies. Being the eldest of four siblings, she has a maternal side, and thus can be quite protective of child and pet characters.

History: Alexa discovered the PPC shortly after leaving home, after falling through a plothole. At first, she was apprehensive about joining, but when she was told she could still visit her family and that she could save her favourite cartoon characters, she took to it like a duck to water.

Sample of writing: Story

I feel that it represents my ability to A.) write satire/comedy B.) recognise the traits of a badfic, C.) mock said badfic traits, and D.) write from the perspective of a character who is not me.

Story to be sporked: Story 2

I feel that this story makes for a good mission, since it has a number of malapropisms, such as Archer's face being "filled with furry". While it does have a sex scene, I don't need to worry about being biased because of my asexuality, since it's blatantly charge-worthy (captain-on-ensign) and there are so many charges that crop up beforehand that the story would be a badfic even without the sex scene.

That's all. Bye!

Because I am a writer, in a writing community, and writing is a thing I do! Have done . . . before . . .

Yeah, okay. I've been pretty devoid of free time for hobbies ever since I became a full-time zookeeper. That's partly out of my hands, with all the time I have to spend at work, plus necessary chores, plus getting a healthy amount of sleep, plus maintaining social obligations with friends and family . . . But it's also definitely partly my own weird psychology, where I feel that all hobby/free time has to be pushed back until every last chore is complete, and my absolute hatred for having to stop in the middle of a project, which makes me want to wait until I have huge, multiple-hour chunks of day before working on long projects . . . which never actually happens, after chores. If only there were some way to like, change behaviors and routines and be different. Oh well! Anyway . . .

Anyway!

Anyway, I definitely have stories I think about writing! Nearly daily! It's very healthy to constantly think about doing something and then never give myself time to do so, right? Write?

"The One With All the Character Introductions"
This will pick up in the middle of “Because We Like You,” but from Mollie and Ollie's perspective instead of Vania's. They'll start adjusting to Nursery life, and finally meet all the other Nursery kids I've used in short stories for years now. Honestly, I've become more focused on my Nursery characters than on Doc and Vania any more, although I’m not done with them, either. Speaking of which . . .

“A Fistful of Hs”
Yes, I’m still doing the “HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” mission, and no one can stop me. This one’s been sitting half-finished in a GDoc for literal years, and was IMMENSE fun to write. And I still owe Laburnum the Pokémon!

“The Garden Spells Trouble”
A very weird one involving my Cafeteria characters that no one likes or cares about, but it formed in my head after reading Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells. Tangentially involves Phobos’s Catastrophe Theory series. The rough draft is complete (years ago), but it’s really going to need at least one very dramatic rewrite. Will introduce a new Flower.

a contribution to the Blackout
Still want to write one, it’s only eight years late and counting, lol. Going to introduce a new agent who is very cool, and may become Vania’s romantic interest, haven’t really decided yet.

And I think that’s it for PPC stuff; I have some ideas for original novels, and I’m definitely going to write them, but I don’t know if they’ll ever be good enough to publish. But that would be far in the future in either case. Here they are, read the synopses and despair:

“Beneath the Gaze of the Sun”
A broken sword is stolen by embalmed zombies and taken to an island of sun worshippers, heavily coded to represent white U.S. suburban excess. The currently unnamed protagonist has to figure out who sent the dead to take her father’s sword, without alerting the zealous, light-obsessed inhabitants to the presence of a dark-skinned outsider in their midst . . .

“Lane Lines: A Life on the Road”
In an alternate timeline, the United States has been reduced to a population of mindless consumers. Houses are a thing of the past; the entire countryside has been paved over with roads, and everyone lives in cars. To maximize foreign gasoline profits, families take turns behind the wheel so that the cars never stop. Beneath the roads is an electric grid, with all the driving generating power for some nefarious purpose that only the vestigial remains of the U.S. government knows and profits from. Yeah, it’s a giant, anticapitalist metaphor for the relentless grinding down of the working class in the real world, so sue me.

Untitled small town paranormal story
It’s a little rural community somewhere in Appalachia, and it’s haunted, cursed, hunted, you name a supernatural thing, this town’s got it. As infrastructure and societal norms break down in the face of the constant danger and fear, individual citizens have to band together to care for each other, or face a slow, lonely march towards death. Is there a reason for one town to be so ridden with misery? Or is it all, ultimately, just part of being alive? Cripes, I didn’t notice all the thematic parallels with Lost until I sat down to write this . . .

So uh. Yeah. You probably will see at least some of the PPC stories out before 2030. If the novels ever actually happen, hm . . . I’m thinking maybe the 2050s? It’s just so hard to slow down this car, you see, I need to keep producing energy for my benevolent overloards . . .

—doctorlit, alive

We're all secretly cats, anyway.

I was thinking it might be helpful for other people to share in that context.

And, Yuki, I stand by what Ekwy and I said at that time: fictional characters ==/== real people. The only way crushing on a fictional character becomes a problem is if it becomes an obsession that hurts your quality of life. If you find that is the case—or if you're concerned that your preferences for fiction are tied to something else that could harm you or others—then I recommend following Scapegrace's advice: seek qualified help for the underlying issue.

~Neshomeh

...about when it starts being creepy to have a preference for youthful-looking characters? I really don't think the answer is to cut fiction from your life completely. That would mean removing 95% of all available entertainment for the next fifty years of your life; I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

I second what others have said about broadening your horizons and finding more types of characters in different genres. Young characters are not the only characters out there. (Nor is it always necessary to be attracted to a character in order to like them.) Surely this Board can help when it comes to tips on entertainment starring characters older than teenagers!

(As I grew up I kind of stopped crushing on fictional characters at all, if that helps? I can still have a nostalgic fondness for a certain type of character, but it is nowhere there the adoration I felt as a teen or even in my twenties. Not saying that this is what always happens, I suppose, but I am saying it did happen to me.)

You are still allowed to engage with content that you like. You can like whatever characters you want. You don't have to punish yourself. Fandom is for everyone.