The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I'm up for it! 4k words doesn't sound like too much, I think I can help with it.

--Ls will help with the co-write, too, Soon (tm)

Hello! Sorry it's been a minute, been busy as of late (real life kicking into overdrive). However, I did manage to scrounge up energy and finish a short, 4k word Interlude now ready for a second pair of eyes. There was an attempt at writing Makes-Things in a major role, but unfortunately due to a combination of being unable to find good sources for the specific scenario he reacts to here, it being based on a one-off joke from a different spinoff, and me being generally rusty when trying to push through this, I worry that I didn't quite get his character vibes right.

As usual, I'm available for contact via email or the Discord.

Well, now! This was unexpected! I saw that simple little drawing, and the creature’s mannerisms while inspecting Kaguya, and was expecting something cutesy, or at worse, some mischievous helper creature, like Kero-chan from Cardcaptor Sakura. I wasn’t mentally prepared for that shriek, or the anger, or the general grouchy personality. You caught me well off-guard! I take it the little guy is an incarnation of the “rabbit in the moon” from Japanese culture? I guess he has a lot to learn about real humans!

In the sentence, “Once the rabbit fell to the floor, he cackled menacingly, his blue eyes started glowing,” you’ll want an “and” in between “he cackled menacingly” and “his blue eyes started glowing,” since they could stand on their own as full sentences: “Once the rabbit fell to the floor, he cackled menacingly, and his blue eyes started glowing.”

—doctorlit is starting with the rabbit in the moon; he’s asking him to change his ways

Nice to see you around, Ekwy.

--Ls

Well, I’m glad Oshimo at least kept her word, even though she was rather misleading about the process. It was a fun adventure to read, though probably less fun for the agents to experience!

How ironic that once their original appearances were restored, their employer immediately made them cover up with character costumes! Can’t get away with anything, in the PPC universe!

And that was a sweet little mini-interlude at the end of the final story! It goes to show how far the relationship between Kaguya and Momoka has developed.

—doctorlit would find it easier to interact with strangers, if he were hidden in a costume

Working. Just celebrated Midsummer with friends, it was pleasant. Managed to be in the countryside without a single mosquito bite, which is rare! They usually flock to me. And also there were cats there. Cats are nice.

Am about 8000 words into an interlude that will heavily feature Psychonauts-related elements, am pretty excited about that even if I'm not even close to approaching an ending. It's trucking along though! It's just got a lot of notes that go "AND THEN MORE OF THIS TYPE OF CONVERSATION HAPPENED BUT WHATEVER ON WITH THE STORY WHO CARES" which I will obviously have to, uh, fix. The number of hours I have spent on this interlude is frankly insane.

I remain present on the Board. Just imagine me peering in through the door occasionally to see what's going on.

/Ekwy, waving

Oh yeah, the vibes were bad going into this one. I’m pretty sure Vablatsky is seeing the Basilisk in her early vision, and I had an inkling the “hierophant” from her second appearance was Gaunt. Peeking at the Potterverse Wiki, I see that Basilisks are also referred to as “the King of Serpents,” which means Trelawney’s prophecy is likely also alluding to it; in fact, I rather hope she is, because “the crown pierced with a sword” could then mean Slytherin’s Basilisk is going to meet the same fate as its canon counterpart, though apparently “at a heavy cost.” (Side note: this was an amazing way to introduce Trelawney for the first time! Having her unexpectedly drop a full prophecy on live spellcast in the middle of a fraught election is a seriously powerful scene, and I love it, both as a paragraph to read, and when picturing how much of New Avalon just heard it live in their living rooms! people must be freaking out!) Ultimately, I guess I knew at some level that Gaunt winning made the most sense from a plot standpoint, but I still didn’t want it, and I was still reading each new set of vote counts with my stomach hanging below my knees. And now that Gaunt is in a position of governmental power again, the protagonists are going to have to do a lot of fighting to—Oh no, hang on, “Temperance’s sacrifice will go to naught” . . . I need to look up what “temperance” means real quick.

. . . Dang it, Lily. Don’t do this to us! Temperance is Regulus, isn’t it? I’m going all out of order for how I wanted to write this comment, but I can’t pretend like I’ve forgotten the plot of Order of the Phoenix. That dream sequence of memories, wonderful as it is, didn’t really come from Lily, did it? Harry didn’t practice his Occlumency properly, someone’s planted memories in his head to trick him into going to the Ministry, and we’re going to lose Sirius a second time. The future is bleak!

(And for a significantly more unhinged prediction, I still haven’t let go of my semi-joking comment about Astoria carrying out Harry’s Act of Contrition, in the form of bringing him Gaunt’s head. Looking at this line in Trelawney’s prophecy: “A Pureblood of wild heart and immense power, bearing the crown pierced with a sword, shall bring forth the new Camelot and rescue their fallen House from perdition.” That does sound an awful lot like Astoria; she’s Pureblood, she’s wild for her fundamentalist religion, she IS powerful, in spite of her blood curse, as I alluded to before, since she was able to overpower numerous uncursed students, as well as two adult men, one of whom had no curse affecting his magic. Her House could be viewed as “fallen,” in the sense that she and her aunt are both criminals. If she’s the one “bearing the crown pierced,” my theory at the moment is that she really is going to behead Gaunt, only for the Basilisk to be revealed as a Horcrux, allowing him to resurrect as a more “traditionally Voldemort” figure, and seize greater control, “bring[ing] forth the new Camelot.” As you can see, I am engaging with this story at a completely normal and healthy level!)

Excellent writing in that opinion piece in the Prophet; it gets across the sheltered attitude of the privileged sort of people whose lives don’t change when the reins of power change, and have no recognition for the suffering that a bigoted, controlling authoritarian can cause people in marginalized groups. I also love that “Encombrer” spell, because of course Hagrid has been learning French spells from Maxime, and of course the French have a literal barricade spell! And, of course, I have to acknowledge your reference to one of the most highbrow pieces of literature ever produced from the Harry Potter zeitgeist, the mysterious ticking noise!

One question on this line:
“Sev, please, begged Mum, cradling a wailing Harry to his chest as the agony of a snapped Matrimonial Bond burned right through her.
I’m not sure if that “his” is an error, or if it’s an acknowledgement that Harry is experiencing his baby self against his own chest, since he’s in Lily’s point of view in that memory?

—doctorlit is filled with dread for the future of this story, and for another upcoming election . . .

If you haven't read Children of Time yet, I'd recommend it - the spiders are a fun look at non-human people. (Well, and, also, a solid chunk of everything C.J Cherryh ever wrote)

I can't say much on the audiobook/physical book question since I don't usually go in for printed books because my eyes aren't up for that sort of thing these days, though e-readers still work for me.

I love robots, and have been hoping to find some fun books with robot MCs for a while. This sounds perfect (and, as you said, very relatable) for me, and probably for a lot of other robot lovers too.

There are so many books/stories/narratives out there that treat human experience as the only "important" or "relatable" type of conscious experience (some of which go so far as to elevate human emotions to cosmic significance), and I feel like even those stories that prominently feature non-human characters rarely stop to examine or celebrate the nuances/realities of non-human lives/conscious experiences. The well thought out depictions of non-human entities is one of the main reasons I liked Watership Down, Good Omens, and Becky Chambers's books so much. Someone can be a Person without being a Human. In other words, I'm glad that The Murderbot Diaries exist, and I'll definitely read the series.

I think that second paragraph got a little more philosophical than I intended. Sorry.

I've been traveling a lot in the past few months, but I finally arrived home a few days ago. I'd like to work on both personal and PPC related writing projects, but I haven't been able to find the motivation as of late. For now I'm just focusing on recovering from my long trip, reading, listening to Night Vale, educating myself about the internet, and gaming. I have plans to learn 3d modeling and printing soon, so I might have more to do with my time in the future. Oh, and I finally finished the PPC original series.

Yes, there wasn't much of a fight in the books. I just wanted some Yakety Sax, Benny Hill-level chase between the Inquisitorial Squad and the Debate Association! The Patil Twins weren't raised to oppose each other; Padma is just more for propriety than Parvati is. She supports Umbridge because of that, while Parvati joined the DA to make friends.

Fred and George's portrait exit is a hint about how they ended up upstairs at the Hog's Head back in October ;) And keep an eye on Neville's plant spell!

To get into the mood to parody evil!Dumbledore, I parodied John Oliver's "Eat S***, Bob" song! It was very fun to write. :P And you may be onto something--those potions were not cheap at all!

I mean, I'd also argue straight-haired Pureblood with big boobs and bigger ballgowns Hermione can't hurt me either, and yet here I am...

Yes, see, it's a bit of explaining Umbridge's background and humanising her to show why she's such a stickler, but also trying to remind everyone that she chose to be heinous about it in order to try and claw herself some status. I'm glad you liked the namedrop of HSoP&M because that was one of the very first jokes I wanted to crack for this rewrite and I finally got to do it :D

I'm glad you liked the rebellion, and the students uniting, and Dobby's backstory for G.R.U.E.L. There is magic in a union!

I picture coven schooling to be like homeschooling pods, in a way, and I think it's a reasonable alternative to Hogwarts... in a world where Purityworld isn't a thing. :P Though there was an offhanded mention of a Healer coven run by Veela in Bulgaria! It's not all bad, I swear!

FÖRVIRRING was introduced earlier in the year as a "potion that'll make people stupid", or rather, a confusion potion.

Thanks for reading!

The O.W.Ls and the 1996 Ministerial by-election take place.

Warning for a depiction of a panic attack.

Okay, that was funny. I love Mr. Usuasagi now.

--Ls

Set in March 2023. During Doll Festival, Kaguya is assigned to meet with a strange rabbit-like creature

Oh, this was an excellent action scene to open on! I was trying to wrack my brain on how the scene had gone in canon, and checking just now, it was really just Harry taking the Trip Jinx from Draco. So yes, I love your fight scene, awful though it is to see the Inquisitorial Squad attacking other students. (Seeing the Patil twins on opposite sides of the conflict is particularly painful, despite how little page time they’ve had in both canon and Heirs of Avalon; I guess I hate to think that twins have grown up so ideologically opposed to each other to wind up in a fight like this?) And speaking of twins, I love the quick detail that Fred and George have become so knowledgeable of Hogwarts’s layout, that they even knew of a secret passage in and out of the Room of Requirement. And Neville learning a form of spell he’s proficient at, involving a magic plant, of course, is quite satisfying to see!

Dumbledore goes so hard in the scene in his office. It was one thing in canon, where he saw his name on the Dumbledore’s Army paper and seized on it as an opportunity to take the blame. But in this chapter, he just goes for it, absolutely concocts his own evil!Dumbledore fanfiction plot on the spot. And cramming that last bit of, “Draco, I totally bank-robbed you, mua ha ha” was so unexpected and random I could barely move past it, it was just too funny! (I guess that was Dumbledore giving Draco an excuse to Lucius for all the potions he had bought for Luna throughout the year?)

The argument and break-up between Harry and Qiu was inevitable, and I’m glad they finally reached that point and got it over with. It was an excellent fight, they both got their digs in, they made the other people in the room hilariously uncomfortable (have fun falling asleep thinking about Draco’s moisture level, Ron!), and they left the room on equal terms. Well done, kids! And the apology before the Quidditch game was just as good, both offering some thought towards the other’s friend who had led to the fight, both keeping their distance without turning mean again. The kids are all right!

Nice try, Lily, you can describe “beardless Hagrid” as many times as you like, but Hagrid has a beard. My brain is incapable of picturing him any other way, and neither you nor I have the power to change that. There is only one Hagrid, and nothing can change that. My therapist says beardless Hagrid isn’t real, and can’t hurt me.

Umbridge is the worst, that’s always been clear. But this chapter really gets across what a pathetic pick-me witch she is. The new info revealed about her family: she paid her own father to leave the country? It doesn’t matter how much she does to conform to New Avalon, because she will only, ever, be allowed and welcomed to blend in at the bottom. “I’m not like those other Muggleborns, I’m one of the good ones!” But never good enough to be accepted by her own Inquisitorial Squad as Headmistress, never good enough to take on the “priest” role at dinner, never good enough to climb where her ambitions reaches for. Because the Purebloods will never see her to be as good as them. That’s just not how a hierarchical society works; the people at the top will only ever allow those below them to disappear into the mass of commoners. Now, to be very clear, I am in no way feeling bad for Umbridge here, just pitying her for all the worthless effort she’s going to, to get absolutely nowhere. She really does seem to want that “priest” role, leading the prayers, simply because she wasn’t allowed to when she was a student. (And yuck, prayer in school, maybe the Catholic and Hindu and atheist/agnostic students don’t want to thank your deity for the food? Amazingly unexpected name drop for Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles, though!) And that detention session was way beyond the pale, flexing on a fifteen-year-old that she had the power to hurt his friends . . . She is pathetic and sick and disturbing.

So, viva la revolution! There was something so empowering and energizing in the moment when the newest Polixenes pamphlet appeared on the front page of this culture’s biggest newspaper, for a student publication to receive such a mainstream and high profile level of distribution . . . it just feels so right and vindicating, after everything Hermione has gone through this year! And I love that the ensuing state of rebellion even goes beyond the changes that Umbridge enacted, because why do the students have to sit at assigned tables for meals? Maybe the houses wouldn’t develop grudges so easily if they weren’t basically segregated from each other! I hope that particular behavior doesn’t relapse after Umbridge leaves! And Dobby is out here speaking deep truths: as I think I mentioned in a comment earlier this year, keeping the students bickering among each other, and shattering connections between different friend groups, was an explicit goal for Umbridge to help keep control over the student body. Authoritarians are allergic to a united lower class! And I love that Dobby was able to push the elves to strike partly through the story of the friendship that had grown between Draco and Ron.

I love the detail that the centaurs use a lot of spider silk in their tools. It makes sense they would take advantage of the acromantula colony’s presence in the forest as a resource. And silk is underappreciated for its strength! And also, it’s just a cool thing to exist, that a group of animals can produce their own, organic building material! Wow, I’m rambling . . . My last note says, “coven schools are charter schools oh god,” which is all that needs to be said there, I think!

—doctorlit kind of wants to ask what FÖRVIRRING actually is, but then again, maybe he really, really doesn’t

The comic version of the fourth Wings of Canon mission, An Awkward Exorcism. The differences are fairly minor, mostly dialogue being revised since a good decade passed between the two versions and my writing improved. The most glaring change being Corolla saying a line that was originally Sergio’s, while casting some shields that weren't mentioned in the original version but ended up being not needed.

So, the two timelines (3.001, the Canon PPC one, and 3.005) can be considered to have merged back just a few hours into the split and, as I said already in the commentary accompanying the comic, if in The World Without Authors we have, say, 3.001 Sergio and 3.005 Nikki they would never notice that they are from different timeliness!

I started playing around with timeline-mapping various bits of unpublished fiction I have lying around, and figured out how to make GraphViz give me a multiversal timeline. It's a bit weirdly oriented, but it does show the links quite nicely:

A proper multiversal classification system would have to look at whether those various points where many one-story timelines branch off (there's one forming a little spider in the bottom middle) should be counted as full timelines, or whether a lot of those timelines would merge back down afterwards. Are "I had a sandwich" and "I skipped lunch" really different versions of me, or are they just variations which smooth out in the wash?

hS

As far as the PPC goes, absolutely nothing. I think it's partly post-NaNo burnout, which gets worse every time; but even replying to this thread has taken days to work up the energy. I don't know.

I haven't done nothing with my time, though. I've been very slowly working on a translated Middle-earth musical that I started over on the Barrow-Downs back during lockdown; we're only about three songs from the end, but everything just keeps slowing down. And recently Kaitlyn and I have been playing around with board-game design: we have two which are broadly complete apart from coming up with understandable rules, one of which should be suitable for print-and-play (or indeed scratch-in-the-earth-with-a-stick-and-play).

I also did some family tree research earlier in the year, which. Folks. Do not dig too deeply into family tree mysteries unless you are in a very stable state of mind, because every single person in them dies. I ended up writing two of the most depressing biographical pieces I've ever seen and inflicting them on my parents, because frankly they're descended from these people and they should suffer too.

(Which backfired massively, because my mother forwarded it to my, um... half-second cousin once removed, who asked her to ask me to look into her husband's grandmother, who it turns out may or may not have died of the freaking Spanish Influenza.)

And the usual menagerie of writings-for-the-drawer that makes up my general background state, but which I don't think we really mention. I have loads of little stories that I just turn out and bounce to Kaitlyn for our entertainment, because ultimately, I'm a writer; that's what I do.

hS

After they get cured, they return to their part-time work at the maid café…