The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

Just putting more things that my characters say. Here’s to more healthy fun.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that there is a bit of the Discord server’s bl9 at the beginning.

Aulhar: Well, looks like I've still got it!

I'll admit I'm a bit surprised Mr. O'Ryan didn't hear me coming at all, and so I went for a kill instead of a trade because I actually had a chance to pull the kill off. I don't think I'll get that lucky again.

And wow, these Escher rooms are a headache ... at least they make decent hiding spots.

Shame about my friend from last night dying this fast. I liked them.

Farah: I thought this was going to be super bloodthirsty, but I've gotten to know people and, like, made friends! And I found a car!

Kkukttak: [bowing slightly] I am grateful to the hatchet sponsor for their gift and will endeavor to put it to good use.

This is a really nice slice of life in HQ (though some of the handwriting is wonky enough that I'll be holding out for alt text).

I also agree that I want to see what Lux was getting at ...

Minor typo: "you only see that because you haven't seen the crate"

I'd also like to congratulate Postal on their successful unionization, though I suspect Legal had a hand in it.

Thalia, grinning as usual: “Someone needs to get me coffee! Am I allowed to get myself coffee? Or does that interrupt the flow of the story?”

Doom, looking grumpy: “Yes, Quinn, that would interrupt the flow of the story, not to mention the plot continuum if a duplicate of you appeared out of nowhere.”

Found it now; I'll try and work it in over the next couple of days.

hS

That way it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the piece, but if anyone does happen to be using a screen reader or the images aren’t loading there’s at least still a fair chance of them being able to follow what’s happening.

O'Ryan: Dang. But, that's okay. I sincerely wish my competitors the best of luck, especially the one that killed me. I hope you, dear friend, get to at least the top 5.

David: What, did you expect me to [censored] kill her? It's only the second day. [Censored]. I'm not an idiot!

Matt: Okay, never driving a dang car again! That was freaking scary, I hated every minute of it!

(Aaaa! Can't spell! Whelp, hope these responses are okay enough?)

(-kA)

Kaitlyn: "... why am I doing this? I thought it would be fun, but I'm spending the entire time either being chased around, or chasing others with a group of people I have no reason to trust. I must have been mad to sign back up."

(("Kaitlyn questions her sanity". And hooray for the Hatchet Sponsor! :D :D :D ~hS))

"I actually didn't find Hiromi, only his stuff, so I set it on fire. Then I got lost. This is a lot more boring than I hoped, I thought we'd have massacred each other in like 30 minutes tops."

Winfrey heard the voice through the speaker, idly stuffing beans, herbs and garlic into a food processor, blending the mixture into a smooth paste and smearing it on a cracker, which she proceeded to eat slowly.

"Uh huh, sure, Noman. Your only facial feature is an eye and you missed him?" She said into the mic.

"RNG! It's RNG! I'm not at full power! It's like hacking! They're hack-"

Winfrey turned the speaker off.

A bit shorter than last time, but still, here you go!

By the way, feel free to fill out the interviews for previous days if you missed them and still want to reply! There's really not much of a time limit, and better late than never- wait, I already said that. Ah well, point still stands.

-OrangeFox

I love how many references you've made here, different time periods, different departments/locations, different events—I especially enjoyed seeing the nod to the Pantheon!—and a lot of seldom-seen flashpatches putting in an appearance. The different styles of handwriting really add a lot to the genuine feeling of these postcards!

I feel like I should be clever enough to puzzle out who T and C are . . . but I seem to be not very clever at the moment. : ( I'm going to be thinking about that all day . . .

—doctorlit, about to be honored by going to sort a friend's bookshelf for them

The reason I didn't do it is that the text is often not the point - the postcards are an art project that encompasses the picture, handwriting, and only then the text. In at least one instance, puzzling out the handwriting is part of the experience. How do I transcribe Oleander''s card, for example, in a way that actually conveys the concept? I could do a description, but it would probably double the length of the document, and kind of wreck it for anyone who /can/ see the pictures.

hS

I see that this is the hard-hitting journalism worthy of being published in the old Multiverse Monitor. Is it not enough to feed a diet of fake news and lies to the reading populace? Must you also invade their privacy in such a manner?

Nita Incog
EIC New Multiverse Monitor
RC 2536

((Incredible!! My one quibble would probably be to provide text transcripts of the postcards, just in case it's hard for people to read the handwriting/the photos don't load/someone is using a screen reader. I love the variety of handwriting and postcards in general! And E/C are obviously not going to give any interviews, but I'm sure that won't stop Estelnar or Starwind from digging through their bins.....

~Lily))

In which Nikki, Sergio and Ami keep piling up mistakes, and all the others also pile up mistakes trying to correct them. Their author isn't very impressed with it.

Wordpress and AO3 links available!

As we all know, there are several publications laying claim to the name "Multiverse Monitor" in the PPC today, but only one brings you the hard-hitting journalism of...

[Checks notes]

... infiltrating the Postal Department and taking photos of everyone's mail.

Postcards from New Caledonia, a very special issue of the REAL Multiverse Monitor

With thanks to Neshomeh, Lily, and my family for their various helps with this really quite bizarre little project.

hS

*offers the mini-Boarder bacon*

Also, -grabs mini-Boarder Lilly-

Let's see how Agent Noman is handling things...

Kaitlyn: "First kill! Sorry to Boadicea, it must suck to accidentally go out first... but still, first kill!"

Holo-Acacia: "...

"...

"..."

[Holo-Acacia has logged off]

hS

So, first up let's look a couple of things up. I can see you've joined up just over a month ago, that's not a long time ago really before asking for Permission, especially as it was only just over two weeks between your Introduction post and your first posting of your Permission Request. I know you mentioned following us before, but looking at the stuff from recently I can see you popping up now and again, and I've checked and you appear to be active in the Discord as well, so while you've not been with us that long you have been interacting with people, which is good. But maybe just a bit more interaction would be nice too.

Right, now that's out the way, let's get to the fun part. The Writing: Agent Noman: Well that's a canon I had no idea existed, and one wiki dive later, I think I like the idea of Agent Noman (even if I do keep reading it as Norman...). I'm thinking it will be interesting to see how well he interacts with the chaotic-ness of the PPC. There's just one things that I'm not 100% sure about/I'd like more explaining for on Noman, so his recruitment into the PPC, you mention that he'd discovered technology from the PPC that'd been abadoned during a mission and then it seems to be implied that because he died while in posession of said technology instead of, you know, dying, he's instead dragged into the PPC HQ? As recruitment methods go that seems both needlessly complicated and also weirdly careless on the Agent's behalf given that odds are if it can teleport a dead/dying OC to the PPC HQ it'd be needed to teleport the Agent to the PPC HQ when their mission was done. Also am I correct in assuming that this first partner that is mentioned is also the Agent who dropped the equipment, it's not actually mentioned (althought it is kind of implied, and I do feel like it is something the Flower's would do).

Agent Winifrey: I've got to be honest, I don't know how I feel about this character, the personality that you set up for them in the first paragraph seems fine, and the extra information in the start of the second paragraph backs this up. My problem comes with the last sentence as for me it seems to contradict some of what is said earlier, for example (in my mind at least) someone who is haughty and pendatic might not be as agreeable to most people as the guy who's just trying to follow all the rules (which is more of the feel that I get from Noman). Just as a couple of other observations, you mention that she's trying to teach Noman's 'the classics' and that she's less learned in 'culture' than she looks, is this Star Fox-verse culture/classics? World One? Madness Combat? You don't really explain it throughly and personally I feel like I want more clarification not just on the what, but on also what you mean. Is she trying to make Noman like the things she likes? Is Noman willing to do this? Is there a reason behind this? My problem is that I feel like this can have some uncomfortable implications. I would also point out that in your first paragraph of Winifrey's personality when you're saying about Noman's technological level there is quite a large jump in technology between 'opening a door' and 'gun' for Noman to use (do you mean just firing the gun or looking after it as well for example's sake) and that could do with some clarification I think. Finally in this part you mention Winifrey moving the two through the Word Worlds, there's normally only the Word World singular per mission and it's not really moved through as much as observed.

Appearance: Interesting aside, if she has the head of a parrot, how does she wear a Welding mask? Either it's a small beak or a large welding mask. Is there a reason why she smells like ozone all the time? Feels like an interesting point to bring up. I also worry about her constantly carrying a gun around, weapons are normally only carried while on missions or in special scenarios, so even if this is Noman's influence I still feel like it's a little non-PPC like.

History: OK, so not a massive Star Fox person, but I think I've got enough of an idea of what's going on after another wiki dive to get a good idea of the canon. My question is, why is Winifrey a non-canon bit character, is she from some Star Fox badfic (real or made up) that's just not mentioned? Is there another, valid, reason as to why she, and she specifically, is non canon and why the alternate timelines in the game would cause this 'superposition of death' that causes her to be flung into a plothole? I know this is semi-answered in the prompt, but I feel like this would be better answered at this point.

Something I feel I should just point out with both characters, PPC Agents are extraordinary in what they do because of the fact that they are, for the most part, pretty ordinary, especially when put against Sues. They do not need superpowers, and if they do have them it should not be something that they need to rely on to overcome a Sue. I don't feel like you are at that point, but it was mentioned to me when I wanted an OC Superhero from an old fic of mine to become one of my first Agents, and I feel like it is something to always bear in mind when you are introducing Agents with Powers beyond the ordinary.

Moving on from this, let's go to the Prompts.

So the first thing that sticks out to me immediately is there do not appear to have been any beta's for these, or if there have been they are not being recognised. I can see your post requesting Betas, but I can't see if there was anyone who said they would. I would always, 100% recommend having Beta's for this sort of thing, they can see things that you might miss and they will help you improve. That being said, no Beta's isn't an automatic fail to me, so let's see how things go.

Prompt the first: So just from having read the first few paragraphs I can tell that this would have benefitted from being Beta'd beforehand. There are a couple of comma's before ands where they don't need to be, a couple of bits that I feel need the wording sorted out "She was in a uniform grey void" should have a comma between uniform and grey unless you're meaning the colour 'uniform grey' (which, yes, does exist), "or where others were" I think needs a 'the' between 'where' and 'others' and "She slammed into a wall the moment as soon as she did" doesn't quite read right, something like "She slammed into a wall the moment she did" or "She slammed into a wall as soon as she did" just as examples. Going over the prompt as a whole I feel like the writing, with some Betaing will be good to go, I'm less sure on the content. The way Noman is, for all intents and purposes, like "Oh I need a partner for this, you'll do." is a little weird, it's almost like he either wasn't meant to be missioning this badfic and is trying to cover that up (which doesn't really fit with his character) or he lost his partner at some previous point in the badfic, which I'm slightly confused as to why and how that would happen in a way that would keep Noman in the badfic. Also you specifically mention Noman's uniform being green whereas the PPC Uniform has to be black. I'm also not a fan of the way the Stu is killed in this, it almost feels too cold and clinical for something that is meant to be relatively lighthearted and funny as the PPC is. And actually talking about that, while the prompt is told from Winifrey's point of view and that level of confusion about what is going on is actually quite a nice idea (IMO) it doesn't feel like there's any real level of humour in this piece at all. I'm not saying that every piece about the PPC has to be played for laughs, but knowing that there's an undercurrent of humour there makes the PPC what it is for me.

The Second Prompt: Personally I'd like to see this being either on something different or to swap to a different POV, we're still following Winifrey here in a limited 3rd person POV, and I'd like to see this either written from a more general third person POV or to swap to Noman's POV (either in 1st or limited 3rd person), just to give us a bit more diversity in how you write. In the writing itself, I'm assuming “THE DUMMY’S HANDBOOK TO BEING A PPC AGENT” is essentially the PPC Handbook (it still exists!) don't know if it needs to all be captalised though, I know it is on the 'for Dummy's' books but generally when typing it out it isn't. I'm also assuming in this prompt that the explanations that Noman gives for some things are either due to how Noman rationalises things or how things have been explained to him rather than how they actually work (for example in the halls it is concentrating on where you're aiming for that means you'll never get there, while having a distraction like reading a book is good, focusing on the hallways themselves doesn't stop you from going where you're aiming for). Also RC's have numbers, as far as I can tell neither SOM167168 or BEES are numbers, and while I recognise the latter might be aiming for humour (or 5338 written like it's on an old school calculator and then turned upside down) I don't get the former (and searching it on Google gets me nothing either).

OK, I like the Dummy's Handbook to Being a PPC Agent. I wonder if I can get a full list of contents ;)

So this Prompt seems to try and clear up one of the problems I had with the first Prompt, but I'm not sure if that makes it better or not. Shortly after Noman and Winifrey enter the Floating Hyacinth's office we get this: "“Well, ma’am, after… uh, after you took my last partner away, I went on a little mission without a second. I heard the alarm and just started going." Does this explain why Noman was in a mission alone? Yeah I guess. Does it explain why he got Winifrey to become a PPC Agent? Personally I wouldn't think so, but I guess if he's been made to think PPC missions have to be done in pairs then I guess it does. Although it does raise to me the slightly-too-serious point of "how did he know Winifrey would be there?" And also "What happened to his other partner?", in the Agent Bios it sounds like Noman's previous partner cracked and went to Medical/FicPsych but here it almost sounds like the pair were split by The Flowers. The one other point I feel that should be made is that it is generally the Marquis de Sod, as the Head of Personnel that new recruits go to, so is there a reason why Noman and Winifrey don't go to him first? Or that the Floating Hyacith doesn't send them off to him to finalise things?

As a whole I do like this second Prompt, but like the first I think it could do with a bit of a polishing up with the help of a Beta.

So, final thoughts. For now I think I would say Permission Denied, it's good and it's almost there but I think I'd like to see the whole thing Beta'd and I'd like to see a bit of tightening up on some of the PPC-related bits to make it more in line with the rest of the PPC. I'd also like to see Winifrey more as she is described in her Bio, I think while she isn't badly written in either of the prompts how they have happened have put her on the back foot and seem to have left her quite confused and overawed and I would like to see how she acts/reacts in a more normal situation/one she has more control over.

Nova

Well, hope no one minds that I’m using Google Docs in this. I’m having fun writing why my characters are doing things they normally wouldn’t do, and I hope you have fun reading this as well.

Thalia: -grins- “I stole a car? Wicked! Maybe I can blow it up later!”

Doom: -stares her down- “Not wicked and you’d best not blow it up later.” -shakes his head- “I seem to be doing well, but knowing the IO and it’s love of tormenting me, it probably won’t last.”

Camera moves to Zara (who is not a contestant) “What? I’m just here for moral support… and to watch Doom chase after Thalia.”

Doom: -frowns- “I’m glad someone finds it funny.”

Thalia: -waves at the camera as it comes back-

David: Look, listen: I haven't been in it for about three days. I haven't really exercised worth a [censored] like I did today. shifts the bag to the other shoulder And this bag is [censored] heavy. So stop teasing me about nearly passing out.

Camera pans to somone, who is holding back laughter

David: Okay, you can stop, now.

O'Ryan, holding a chair: I think a Sue used this as a weapon once. I could pull this off.

Matt, curled up under a table, holding the kit to his chest: Try not to die. Try not to die. Try not to die.

Paye, not a contestant: I think Matt and Mr. Null are doing great. I'm really proud that Matt hasn't died yet, although I can't wait for Mr. Null's reaction to his own death. It'll be funny. Hopefully.

Kittyauthor, also not a contestant: O'Ryan, why did you eat cafeteria food?

On a meta note, you have done a wonderful job writing this up, and thank you for putting all the work in here! Also, (bearing in mind the typo might've been my fault), Aulhar's last name is Tauran.

Now, as to what my characters think of all this:

Taq: Tha' was stupid. I shoulda watched my drink. Least I didn' die first.

[He sighs.]

Maybe next year.

Farah [holding her chair in front of her]: I've seen people use chairs as weapons, I think I've got this. Thanks to whoever that was for giving me the idea.

Kkukttak: I'm glad I could figure out how to hotwire this thing. And no, I'm not telling you what the plan is. Do you really think I'd fall for that?

Aulhar: This could be going a lot worse. I've got water, and Ocotillo is quite nice company, though I can't help feeling I'm being used as a pillow.