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Due to the way the plot of Reorg shook out, we never actually got to show the PPC as it was before everything went to pot. I think the only "routine DIS behaviour" we see is a couple of glossed-over patrols, and Nyx's arrest of Palaver (which is also part of her 'hazing'). Everything else is outside the norm even for them, so you just have to take our word that even when not murdering Accountants in Escher rooms while singing children's songs, the DIS are bad sorts.

Similarly, I've always described it as the end of a deliberately-quotemarked "Golden Age", but what we see in Reorg isn't at all golden. But that's because Nyx and Tango are in really weird outlier situations - they are not experiencing the PPC's normal running mode!

Alex and Sam, and Kell, let me do that. Granted things are already into the downward slide - though there's another thing in the works that may pull things back even further - but by and large their situation is just normal. The DIS are intimidating, but (Twp aside) not actively hostile. Their free time is being eaten into, but they still get it. Their world may be on the verge of collapse, but they're not involved - they don't feel it.

Yet.

But yes, the DIS are just a crowd of bullies, with a few people who think of themselves as Good Apples thrown in. We'll see how that pans out.

(KPI is Key Performance Indicator, and is really obnoxious corporate jargon that still exists today. Given that I have to work with these people, I allowed myself one abstruse* Grown-Up Joke.)

hS

(*I have always thought this word was "abtuse", like obtuse. Apparently there's a whole two letters I just completely missed!)

Those sequels might be worth reading, but not sporking. Besides, I like reading (some) badfic. If it's funny in its badness, but not squicky.

The badfic from which these agents are recruited (a.k.a. That Bakara One) has all the unlikability and none of the funniness.

Oh well. Maybe the coin is actually orange blossoms? Then I'd have both a pov and mini for the same character. And the pov can hoard the mini-Gold Sand Dollar. When I do get my agents, I can pass it along to them. That coin makes a great plot device!

Apparently you have to download the app in order to use Google Docs on an iPad. And guess what? Mine doesn't have the right software. Aagh!

So..if you could get another beta, or if you'd prefer email replies, that'd be great, until I sort out the technical difficulties. I have a few constructive criticisms I think I could give.

Twilight really doesn't seem like a book series I'd like, so I'm going to just not read and not judge.Not that I wouldn't read any missions in the continuum. Of course, I like Eragon, and it's probably not a good idea to go around telling PPCers I want Permission from that the characters they think are Canon Sues are actually well-written. Though, maybe I could ship Eragon and Bella? :)

Fifty Shades, though - yuck. That's all I need to say.

Anyway, you can still keep the coin.

That's a character type that's very commonly seen in video games as player characters.

[Spoiler description](#s "A spoiler")

This becomes: Spoiler description

-kA, who Did Not Expect That To Work

(Edit: Forgot sign-off :/)

If someone could help me, I'll implement it when I get off work.

(Just to sorta break the chain on people saying they hadn't read Twilight :P)

That being said it's been a While since I did. I do remember book Edward being a bit more clear about how he'd stop if Bella told him to stop. (It's interesting because I've also read Fifty Shades, and book Christian is worse about explicating the boundaries for BDSM than the movie one, but that's a different, not worksafe can of worms.) That being said, he does have his moments where his impulse for "chivalry" harms Bella psychologically, notably when he tries breaking up with her in New Moon because something something he's ~too dangerous~ for her. This causes her to do some pretty drastic stuff in order to hear his voice in her head again, which most well-adjusted people would probably realise is actually a sign that he's bad for her, but a lot of teenagers don't necessarily share that same understanding.

I do think I know where the appeal in an Edward-type character lies, though. The stock 'silent brooding protector' is like catnip for romance. It's just that not everyone knows where to draw the line between protective and smothering, or protective and possessive. A non-abusive person would be understanding of those boundaries, and respect their partner's space. Edward claims he would leave if Bella asked him to, but Bella being bad at setting boundaries isn't a free ticket to be creepily possessive. I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting a strong silent protector-type character -- heck, LSY has some of those characteristics! It's just that he's interacting with people who know when to put their foot down about his brooding mother hen instincts :P -- but when that type of character is written wrong, they quickly become abusive. (See: the Dark F*** Prince characterisation of Thorin and Lan Wangji in fanfic.)

Honestly, for me, Twilight has more pressing issues like its depiction of Native American culture and (BL10, 11). Writing-wise the side characters are more interesting than the main characters, and the final "battle" in Breaking Dawn really was anticlimactic. Bella has no particularly interesting character traits because she's a meant to be a reader-insert. And the fact that her having babies and becoming a vampire is the way in which she really gets some agency for herself is... kind of a disturbing message to send to young readers. Edward's characterisation is definitely part and parcel with that disturbing message, but I do find that a lot of people focus too much on him and not on the other themes in the book that are subtler yet no less problematic.

Disclaimer: I am not good at this. I make no pretense of being good at this. ^_^;

Let's do it anyway!

1. Ursula becomes Grawegil: graw "bear" + -eg (diminutive suffix) + -il (feminine suffix). That was fairly straightforward!
2. For Maleficent, apparently there are some convenient words already attested: ogron n. "a wicked or evil person" or rhugarol adj. "wicked, doing evil." I like Rhugarol.
3. For James Hook: To my surprise, I couldn't find words meaning anything like "usurp," "supplant," etc. Nor is there a word for the heel of the foot. There is a word meaning "after-born," though, and that word is Abonnen. Works for me!
4. For Jafar: sîr means "stream," but it's not very name-like all by itself. Perhaps he's the opposite of Sirion, the Great Stream, and is instead Sirieg, the Little Stream.
5. For John, I looked at the elements fael adj. "fair-minded, just, generous, 'having a good fëa'", hîr n. "master, lord", and te pron. "he is". We could string them all together to get Hírthefael "the lord he is gracious", but to get something that might work as a widely used name, it might just be Tefael "he is gracious".
6. The Queen of Hearts... is boring. I'm skipping her. {X D
7. For Tremaine, Stone Town, we have a wealth of options for once: ost "town with wall round" and gobel "walled house or village, town"; gond "(great) stone" and sarn "(small) stone". Sarnost sounds pretty good to me, but Sarnobel, Gon(d)obel, or Gon(d)ost could theoretically work, too.
8. For Mother Gothel, first I must note the similar-sounding word Gódhel that means "'Deep Elf' or 'Gnome', one of the Wise Folk". Gothel continues to be the most amusing villain name. {X D Actually translating it, I get Eithelwi "person of healing". Actual persons of healing who live in my brain would like it known they are deeply offended. ^_~

Aaaand that's it, I'm done. I've tried my best, and I shall try no more today!

~Neshomeh

Another spinoff, another agent team ambling onto the scene through confusing corridors (and, I note, bad cafeteria food).

The Last Word is Always Goodbye - Forced to Love, by AnyAmy

I have literally no idea if the badfic still exists - "Love" is not a very unique string in FFn titles.

hS

Even knowing that the PPC was very different before the Somebody was ousted, it still feels so bizarre to see agents in an actual narrative structure talking about week-long free time, or saying that the cafeteria is good, actually! I'm starting to get the vague itch to set an extremely interlude-heavy spin-off in the pre-Reorganisation period . . . but no time to plan such a thing out right now!

Poor Penny! I kind of hate seeing her like this. The event definitely has a different weight to it here, compared to Nyx and Dassie talking about it after-the-fact in Reorg. For all their rigid structure and semblance of authority, the DIS really did just become a bunch of bullies, didn't they?

Is Joe Bob an established character? I'm not familiar with that name. (I'm assuming the "Mort" there is Mortic.) I can't find "KPI" anywhere, either; is that "Kills Per . . . Intel?"

CAR. CAD. CAST. CATS.
Not sure what the first three are about, but it sure was thoughtful of the Ellimist to give the agents 20 years' advance warning not to watch the Cats movie.

Oh my gosh. I somehow feel incredibly dumb for not seeing the Disentangler coming, in connection to Kell's investigation. We really never learned why she was imprisoned, did we? Not that most of the DIS's prisoners were there for valid reasons, but still. But assuming Dis is innocent . . . will Kell ever find the real murderer? D : (Not fishing for answers here, just musing out loud, please do not spoil.)

—doctorlit promises he hasn't forgotten about betaing the next part, he just has very packed to-do list, and the free time only comes in spurts

I also Haven't Read the Thing, though I did see the first movie. Regardless, when it comes to analyses of Edward's behavior, I choose to trust a licensed relationship counselor over a random article-writer. {= )

The article-writer does have a point that what's attractive is subjective, and what a person finds attractive in fiction doesn't necessarily reflect what they find attractive IRL. People like the Phantom of the Opera for similar reasons: yeah, he's a dangerous monster, but if he love me, he'll be my dangerous monster, and only dangerous to people who would hurt me. It's fine for a fantasy.

But, I think the writer doing exactly what scares a lot of us by ignoring or excusing Edward's negative qualities to paint him in a positive light, which is exactly what people trapped in abusive relationships do. It's self-defense: We aren't wrong to love this person, we didn't make a mistake, because look, there's XYZ. That makes up for ABCDEFG, because that's not who they really are. We can see the truth and that actually makes us special. If we're just patient enough, we can help them overcome those negative things, and then everything will be fine. Right?

Except, no, real-life abusers will not stop being abusers just because someone loves them hard enough. They have to make the choice and do the work to change, and if they're getting everything they want by being abusive, why in the world would they do that?

TL;DR it's fine to like Edward as a fictional fantasy, but it's very dangerous if you get mixed up with his ilk IRL.

~Neshomeh

I don't personally have much of an opinion on Twilight. Never read it.

Probably a repost for visablity.

Personal opnion: I still find it stalking, but I probably also shouldn't really say anything because I haven't read Twilight and the entire series is banned in my house (alongside Stephen King novels) and I've tried reading it but had to stop after... some point. Maybe when Chief Charlie got introduced (is there a chief Charlie? I remember there being one and I couldn't get the image of Chief Burns stuck in the rain and wet outta my head). I don't exactly recall. Then again, romance isn't my genre, so...

-kA, who's trying to say that they can't have an opnion because they haven't Read The Thing.

This week on eyebrow-raising articles, I found this interesting one, dated 2022. Since it's so recent, I'd like to see comm reactions to this.

And yes, I like ballet.