We hat cashewz soooo much!111111 Kashewz r la plus maliest!1111 But Glittter iz la meilur! It will mak u a Suu 2!!

((There’s some butchered French in there too. Seriously, who writes this? Oh, wait....))

... is that you're not talking about "several PGs happen to hang out together". You're talking about "this is the Official PG Chat, in which the fate of all seekers of Permission will be decided. You will never know what goes on there - just whether you pass."

Also, like... what if we get a really obnoxious Permission Giver I don't wanna hang out with? ^_~ Or, more seriously - one who doesn't use Discord. Which, actually, we have, since Kaitlyn is a PG.

Re: leaving a group - I'm sure you can! And if someone was actually quitting, they would. But people just drift away from the PPC all the time, and I'm not sure they'd recognise it was happening. They'd maybe wind up feeling uncomfortable in the chat without knowing why - but also feeling obligated to stay in, because it's The Job.

hS

OUR OFFICE IS FILLED WITH GLITTER AND IT IS MIXING WITH THE CASHEWS PLEASE WHY.

The Gossip Monitor

Legal disclaimer, why are the cashews ruined...

Also, there is a lot of talk about fandoms I'm not in and some of which I barely know exist, so I'm not sure what to say to them.

I apologize. I really do try not to ignore stuff but sometimes I genuinely can’t help, am too busy/too tired to formulate an answer, or saw it and forgot to write an answer. So my apologies, I’m really not ignoring just scatterbrained.

The ignoring bit hasn't happened recently (as in, the past 2-3 weeks?), but it has happened before.

-kA

I'm still for the idea of Permission invitations, just now am really against the idea of a PG chat group because of the worry of it becoming too much of a clique, but it is more towards the idea of not accepting new PGs into the group.

I can see (and have experienced) the cliquey-ness of the Discord server, although I usually see it more at my worst moments so I might be slightly biased here. And I don't want that to carry over to PGs as well. I don't want one or two (or more) PGs to feel unwelcome in their own space, to feel like they're being ignored, to feel like they aren't PGs, because, sometimes, that's how I feel on the server. But, again, I'm probably biased here, since I only seem to notice it in my worst moments or when I'm sporking badfic (the latter can be chalked up to "I'm just a terrible sporker;" the former could probably be chalked up to "no one wants to interact with whatever I was talking about" and that's okay!). I just don't want PGs to feel like they're being exluded, you know?

I can kinda see the other side of "waiting for a PG to request you try for Permission" as well, because people could be ignored again, but I feel like there are enough PGs to offset this issue. I could be wrong. It could be the same situation.

TL;DR: Against PGs chat group now due to fear that some PGs will be ignored like how I feel sometimes on the server, but my feelings are probably biased due to mental stuffs.

-kA

This is a valid concern.

I would offer a counterpoint: Any sufficiently large group will always have subgroups. They may form around shared interests, preferred method of interaction, personality types, or any number and combination of factors. The fact that subgroups exist doesn't necessarily mean there is toxicity present, and I don't think that's currently the case with the Discord or anything else.

Is the group chat between me, Zingenmir, and Lily a clique, or just a sensible way to discuss things that concern the three of us but no one else? I feel it's the latter.

If the PGs (all four maybe five of us?) had a group chat to run Permission-related questions by the other PGs, why would that inherently be worse than the above?

Re. people drifting away, I'm pretty sure you can leave a group chat if you want to.

Quick post at work, so this is not comprehensive and I apologize for anything that may be confusing.

~Neshomeh

Especially with worry for it becoming cliquey. One of the reasons why I left the Discord was it felt like it was becoming quite cliquey itself, especially within certain channels at least one of which I tried to participate in and felt left out as I wasn't really part of the 'clique'. The reason I didn't raise this and haven't really commented on it is, well firstly there were other issues I was having with the PPC Discord at the time but most of those were personal and I felt like this might have been a more personal one as well that wasn't intentional on other people's parts and so I left it as is.

I'm also not going to be looking at rejoining the PPC Discord in the forseeable future, so I would worry about the creation of a Board/Chat divide being a possibility through doing this kind of thing. And also, while I sincerely hope this will never become a thing (and I don't think it would at the moment), there could always be the chance of PG's themselves being a bit clique-y, with regards to who they invite, like "Oh I like you/get on well with you, I'll invite you to do a Permission request. But I don't like you, even if you do good writing so I won't offer it to you." and it becoming a case of who you know, not what you know.

But that being said, I can see the benefits of doing it this way, so I am not completely against the idea either.

Nova

It's a to a very old LOTR fanfic where it rains punctuation constantly, the spelling is bad, the spacing is weird, and I’m pretty sure Laicalasse, the main character, is a Sue. Laicalasse's Tale

Which is weird because I haven't had ideas for them since, well, forever (a year ago?).

My idea being that they don't want to appear as harsh as PPC, so they are like "any uniform except black" instead of requiring a certain color, due to the association of black suits with Men In Black and the CPP agency doesn't want that.

"So, you're wearing black?" O'Ryan Keys asked. "A black... trenchcoat?"

"It's a duster, sir," said James. "It was a gift. I figured you needed me to look professional since this is an official meeting."

"Er, no, we don't," O'Ryan replied. "I mean, I don't. We would rather you be comfortable. But you can't wear black."

"Why not?" James asked. "It's just a color, like blue or orange. What's wrong with black?"

"Well, it's against the official dress code," O'Ryan said, "along with Sue colors and glittery overcoats, for one. And it looks hostile. We don't want to disturb the canons we're-"

"What's so hostile about black that isn't show in suit, like the dumb one you're wearing?" James interrupted.

O'Ryan sat straighter in his chair. "Formal is not hostile. Black fabric is. It mirrors Men in Black, both the movies and the men in the UFOs. It makes several canons uneasy. It makes people in World One uneasy. Uryy, it makes Minecraft characters uneasy due to the similarities with Endermen." O'Ryan crossed his arms. "We can't have our agents wearing black."

"But why?" James asked.

"We're not the enemy," O'Ryan said. "We're not trying to cause panic. We're trying to fix the Sue problem and then leave. We cannot dress in black fabric because a lot of enemies in canons dress in black, or (at least) the more extreme canons characters wear it. We don't want to cause panic."

(I hope this isn't bad, and it's not funny (oops?) but it explains things, I guess?)

-kA, who doesn't know why they wrote a semi-serious segment, but they did

I really like this idea. I'll admit it's probably partially because my Permission piece was part of an original 'fic that I was writing at the time (that served as the background for one of my agent ideas) just severly polished with a lot of help from a couple of people (Irish and hS at least IIRC), but also because it gives a wider breadth of options for people who want to get Permission.

I think 5-10 pages is probably a good length for the writing samples, maybe leaning more towards the lower end of that range but allowing longer if that's what's needed? But allowing excerpts of potential missions or even maybe changing it so that it's missions with hypothetical badfics in them so that actual badfics aren't tied up in people who are trying to write Permission Requests if people with Permission want to mission them? I don't know how much people actually use the badfics on the Unclaimed/Claimed pages of the wiki anymore.

Nova

And you can't steal our cashews.

Nyeh.

We were Multiverse Monitor until the return of the Old MM, then to differentiate between our editorial teams, we switched to New Multiverse Monitor. You specifically named your publication the New Multiverse Monitor, ergo infringing on our existing claim to the name.

Nita Incog, EIC New Multiverse Monitor

So that's what gets me a bit eeeeehh about "PGs will approach newbies and offer an invitation to apply for Permission". Reminds me a bit too much of the whole ~elite group invites you to do this initiation~ trope so prevalent in boarding school/university experiences. It gives me a hierarchical vibe that... well, I mean, PGs are a little bit like that, since y'all are the ones with the keys to the sandbox, but it would feel more like it if Permission was done by invite, you know?

We changed our name when asked politely! Also we are RESPECTABLE journalists who help connect the Agents with one another on a deep level and... oh dear, Jerry just got an overdose of Irony, someone get him to Medical, I don't think he took writing that all too well.

Legal disclaimer: please do not blame us for the lawsuits and countersuits.

(TRANSCRIPTION START:)

"Mm... cashews..."

"Sarkan! What are you-"

"Cashew time."

"But-"

"Cashews."

"But you said not to be paid in-"

"When we run out of cashews I'll accept them as money again."

"But they-"

"We have too many right now. I'm fixing it."

(TRANSCRIPTION END)

In lieu of tree nuts, please fortify your will to live by alternative means, like screaming at your creator for making you unable to enjoy cashews.

Legal disclaimer blah blah blaaaaaah please don't sueeeeeeeeeeeeee it would really suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

That on-fire trash can of fake news have no connection to us. We are but a humble team of actual journalists dedicated to bringing actual news to the hardworking citizens of Headquarters. We pride ourselves on our journalistic integrity and actual utilisation of sources and research. Do not ever mistake us for them.

Nita Incog, EIC New Multiverse Monitor

((Nita might have high-minded ideals, but NMM is really a bit like Buzzfeed News in terms of fluff and clickbait with the occasional hard-hitting investigative piece.))

I'm just going to No Particular Order this:

• I don't think I will ever engage with anyone on the Board well enough that I'd think 'hey, they should get Permission, I'll offer'.
• One way to try and 'ask' for Permission would be to post non-PPC writings, so PGs could theoretically read them and go 'ooh'. (You did this with HG, right? Was it you?) This is a good thing. :) Also participating in RPs and cowrites, and even dropping ficlets. (Fill the Plothole would be great for this.)
• Counterpoint, people who did that and still didn't get offered might well get frustrated.
• We would need more PGs for this to work. And we'd need to make sure we didn't lose the numbers again.
• Is there a Board-Chat divide again? I thought that went away. Oh, well, back to knowing I'm missing out on most of what the PPC does.
• A PG Discord group sounds horrible. Firstly it's just explicitly a clique, and secondly, what happens when a PG drifts away from the community? Also, thirdly, me and live chats, you know this one. I'm not sure why it would be necessary anyway; I assume Permission would still be granted on the Board to allow people to raise objections if there was a serious problem.
• It would have to be an either/or with this and the time limit, unless it's a long time limit. Like, "if you've been here a year and haven't been offered" long.

I am on the fence. Convince me. :)

hS

No really, I am.

We guzz what ? We spex sponysih! Etas ben, 2!1111 Tu etes oribla!

((My French isn’t too shabby. I think.))

((THE SPAG! IT HURTS!))

Through the very scientific process of "searching 'Touken Ranbu' on the Board", I've noted that you're the only Boarder who's made extensive comments about it on here. And that's not really a problem -- I've frequently found myself being the only one contributing to missions in various fandoms (Battlestar Galactica and BBC Sherlock, I think, and more recently MDZS).

Like hS says, the possibility of contradictions and overwriting is part of the fun. Take Dr Niamh Tran, for example -- 2008 me didn't know Niamh was an Irish name, assumed it was Vietnamese, wrote her that way, and now Dr Tran vacillates between both ethnicities with absolutely no explanation as to why (besides it being funny, anyway). HQ is weird enough that most unexplainable things and noodle incidents will probably just be waved off with "oh, a plothole did it" or "must be Tuesday". Things don't have to make sense!

We wll sue you! Bcause we’re Suez! Geddit, cuz were suvain?

((Sigh. The pun. It had to be made.))

The Gossip Monitor

The finest in yellow journalism!

Inconceivable! It seems there are at least THREE MARY SUE publications within the halls of our very own Headquarters? Is this a silly gag perpetuated by some pranksters, or is this something DEEPER and potentially RUINOUS!?

Here is Agent Joan, whose words are being transcribed without any editing whatsoever:

You see, I told you! I told you all! It's the Flowers! They're doing this! Making us think we're crawling with rats, making them, ooh they make them all, they're responsible for all of this! They think they can get away with it, but a new day, a Crisis, a REVOLUT - OW! PLEASE! NOT THAT! I WAS KIDDING I SWEAR! OH PLEASE NO! ANYTHING BUT THE UNCOMFORTABLY WARM AND MOIST PILLOW! PLEASE! PLEASE I BEG OF YOU-

(TRANSMISSION TERMINATED)

Fascinating! Who did this? Why would they? Was Joan right? Has my microwave casserole finished cooking? All will be revealed in our pages eventually! Keep your eyes peeled, Agent! We'll follow this story as it develops... as soon as we can find Agent Joan's RC.

SEE YOU AT THE NEXT ISSUE OF

THE GOSSIP MONITOR

The Gossip Monitor makes no statement as to the validity of anything published on these pages. The Gossip Monitor has no responsibility for any consequences that may come from you publishing your stories in it, whether it is libel suits, hangnails, or getting your door kicked down at three in the morning by an angry mob. Contact Archivist Sarkan if you have a story you'd like to share - the Monitor would be nothing without YOUR input! A small fee is requested for our publication of your stories, we will accept payment in any good or service except for cashews, both because the "cash-ew" joke is old and because one of our new interviewers is allergic. If someone can find the Mary Sue publication sources, a cash prize of all the cashews we were given will be awarded. Please. There are so many cashews, we don't even know how they got there. Please do not sue us for libel, we can only pay you in cashews if we are found guilty.

Wait, are you the same as the other guys saying to be the Monitor? We changed our name already in accordance with the prior Cease & Desist.

We tried asking Legal about all of this but they just screamed and threw eggs at us.

We're very sorry for any inconvenience.

Gossip Monitor (please do not sue us; we would be very sad.)