The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I was a Techno-Dann, once upon a time- some things have changed since then! But, still here, still kicking. Good to see you again!

Name's Linstar. I certainly recognize the name, from the wiki at the very least. Hope you're doing well.

--Ls

It's lovely to see you; always appreciate a fellow Elvish name. :D

Has it really been 20 years? That is actually completely wild. It's really good to see you again; how are you doing in this far-flung future?

hS

It's always great when people come home to visit. ^_^ What news from the wilds of Arell?

~Neshomeh

Delurking after a very long tìme away... Hi! Looking at some of the names still around here, I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised to see I still recognise a few, but I'm sure there's many who have no idea who I am. So yeah, hi. Elcalion that was, who first trod these Boards some 20 years ago, but for the last few years have been way too drowning in work and stress to recall my former carefree PPC ways. A lot has changed in 20 years but there's always a bit of me who is very nostalgic about the community and sense of belonging I found here. Finding your people is a thing to be celebrated wherever it happens. To those who remember me: hey again! To those who have no idea: well met, and have a mongoose!

Elcalion, reminiscent

that the write-off isn't supposed to be PPC-related. Oops.

write-off x

I'm sat welding a window back together and wondering what happened.

There's nothing on the outside. The aluminium compound crapped out at Flux 20.5, because the idiot piloting this tub was pushing the speed limit in a debris field. Deflector didn't pick it up because the shipwrights cheaped out, so a lump of mica the size of a walnut scraped the fuck out of the blast window. That blew outside and three people got blown out into space. No trace of them either.

All I've got is the welder and a plug plate. Nuclear bonding isn't great but it'll plug the leak at medium flux long enough for us to limp to a drive yard, assuming the stupid git at the helm panel doesn't drive like a teenager high on droid polish fumes again. Who trained him? Did they do it wrong for a bet?

Amazing that the prat even managed to kill three people on a garbage scow anyway. We're crew-light for a ship this big. Only, what, seven thousand? And that's including the droids, which you should, no matter what the Captaincy Board says. They're doing the bleeding jobs, they should get the bleeding rights, that's what I say. But oh no, Rear Admiral Twerpknuckle of the Corporate Whogivesatoss Merchant Navy thinks robot should still mean slave, so we're all stuck dealing with that. Ought to bloody strike over this. Probably only a matter of time before we do.

I'm a union member, me. United Federation of Spaceman Ranks, Astrotech Maintenance Personnel, and Allied Trades. I'll bring this up with the rep next time I'm in a drive yard, which won't be too far away assuming this daft lump of slop doesn't get me killed. Because it's not right, treating people like things. As long as there's an underclass there's no equality. Took me too long to realise that, for shame. Lots of droidist people about, and it's only getting worse. You've got to stamp that out. Otherwise you're next. No matter what the bilge rat at the top of the pile says, you can always be next.

One person can't do much. Twas ever thus. You've just got to do what you can to help. If we don't, the captains and shipmakers and rich slop buckets in charge of everything get to do whatever they want, and what they want to do is screw everyone else over in the name of a few grieving bob. You can't expect them to give you anything. You've got to take it.

They used to say the first thing to do to make things better was fixing broken windows, back when we were only screwing up the one planet. Taking a bit of pride in where you are makes it harder for the rich slops to use your own despair against you. The human gift for exploitation remains intact, even now, but so does the gift we all have - human, droid, whatever - for making things better for others.

So I'm patching up a second window over the broken one. Because we deserve to live.

The French Quarter was his favourite place in New Caledonia; he never tired of the sight of brick roads and intricate houses, flowering plants and resplendent shop displays. Alas, his enjoyment did not last: among the throng, he spotted a familiar man of mist blue hair and white robes. He tried to rush away, but the white-clad man blocked his path.

"Ah, if it isn't Munehisa," said the man in white, who could be no other than Usuasagi Arare. "I see the human gift for insolence remains intact. You spotted me, and yet you're not going to at least greet me?"

"I have one humble request that you would stop using my tea name," Kaguya replied. "If you will excuse me, I have business I must attend to promptly."

"And what shall you do if I continue to call you Munehisa?" Arare continued. "Are you going to hit me? Go ahead, kid, hit me if you will; I sorely want to be backhanded by you again."

Kaguya instantly slapped Arare with his palm; the smack drew the stare of all those nearby.

It's the last weekend of the month, which means it's time for another write-off! Today's prompt was "I see the human gift for ___ remains intact" - and several people filled in the blank with their ideas.

Popular Opinion, by Calliope
One Crummy Scavenger Hunt, by The Foolish Maker of Worlds
Skill, by Literature's Hanafuda
Moderate Damage, by Tomash
An untitled story about vampires, by Delta Juliette

It finally has a third chapter: "The Western Watchtower"!

Why so long since the last one? The fight with Mirmulnir was a beast to write. Plus, after I'd already started, I decided I wanted Farengar and Lydia there instead of Irileth, so I had to rewrite a bunch. But mostly, y'know, life and stuff.

Will it be as long until the next one? I wish I could confidently say "no," but I'unno. I have a lot of things I'm trying to catch up on. Finishing that scene, and chapter, was just one goal. When I circle back to this fic again depends on how I'm feeling about it vs other stuff, how busy/stressful life is, and so forth. We'll see!

~Neshomeh

Granted, I'm not sure it even would have been possible before Gdocs came along—but the beef was always with bad writing that made it to public sharing, especially if accompanied with entitled demands to read and review. Not with drafts never meant to be seen by critical strangers.

But yes, the community in general had less scruples about calling people names; that much is sadly true.

~Neshomeh

Mostly for the sake of linking to the FAQ: For Other People, which addresses pretty much everything in that post. Also seconding Linstar's recommendation to bring any further discussion here, where people will actually see it.

~Neshomeh

Sorry about the late reply, life happened lately.

So!

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede: this one has been rec'd to me by our fellow PPCer eatpraylove, and it's been on every single book rec list I've made since then. It's a very fun and very funny parody of fairytales, about a headstrong princess who goes to live with dragons.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro: this one is a mix of literary fiction, magical realism, and fantasy if you squint. It's very tender, melancholy and beautifully written.

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle: the one YA I will always recommend to anyone, about teens deciding to cast a spell that comes with huge consequences. It's beautiful magical realism, with complex characters and very interesting dynamics.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: the book that broke me in the best way.

(Also, this is a very hesitant rec, since I don't know if anyone on the Board is into this kind of story - I've been reading the 2011 Boom! Studios Hellraiser comics lately, and they're really, really good. The heroine is absolutely wonderful, the character dynamics are insane, and the art is just gorgeous. Plus, they were written by Clive Barker himself, so you know the characters are in better hands than they were in the movie series past the first two movies. Highly recommended if you like the original Hellraiser.)

To my TBR list it goes! Thank you for the rec. :)

So, uh, hello! No one really reads the Discussions section of the Wiki, which is why this took a month to be noticed.

There are, in view, two key things about this post worth noting: one, the PPC does NOT go out of its way to tell authors about missions. If we are going to give feedback on a fic, it'll be phrased as constructive criticism in a comment under the fic itself.

And, if we are going to mission something, many of us try to mission only older fics (5 years +) so that the author will hopefully be an adult, and more mature, by the time of the mission coming out. (13 is the usual minimum age to use on most sites.) We do not go out of our way to harass people or tell them to stop writing. The things we write are also creative expressions; "slaying" Sues is about writing a funny and interesting story, not making fun of the author (which is also discouraged). Me laughing at some other person's bad writing doesn't take away their fun or joy.

Um, honestly, if you are that upset over years-old negative reviews, you should not post your work publicly. People are going to criticize you. It's inevitable. People who don't like that should ignore people saying mean comments, or, barring that, find some kind of private way to express themselves. There are plenty of invite-only forums or places you can go like that.

Hopefully, no one will ever stop writing because of us. I can't guarantee that that's the case, but I don't know of any person who has stopped writing because of us. You don't seem to have stopped.

PPC missions aren't perfect either, and there's probably some older ones that have elements I would find distasteful. But they aren't, in my view, causing any harm either.

--Linstar

https://ppc.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000057819

Feels worth bringing up here, if only because there was clearly thought put into the post and it's the first meaningful post on that tab in a while, haha. Is it worth letting them know the PPC's already changed since the 2000's? They seem reasonable enough as far as 'hey this is Bad' folks go. Thoughts?

Isn't this the kind of tone responsible for the PPC's poor lingering reputation from years gone by? Not necessarily the idea of sporking itself - it's kind of funny how something considered 'mean' back then would be barely a drop in the bucket compared to what's seen on social media like twitter and reddit these days - but the general feel of it? The sense of 'wow, a twenty-year-old writing fanfiction? how stupid. what a clown for writing a crossover. how dare there be oc's!' that i sometimes got from older, late 2000's spinoffs that made binge reading hard at times. Genuinely how did you even get access to this. There's no mission that can be made out of this. The post just seems to want folks to point and laugh at an in-work project, and I do not understand what joy one could possibly get out of that. This is what TV Tropes thinks we are.

Dunno about any offers of my own, but I've been reading a lot of Brandon Sanderson lately and enjoying that.

--Ls

Red Lotus is a piece of feminist historical fiction set in 20th-century China, concerning women defying and escaping abusive people in order to find happiness. The story also avoids a lot of common flaws in feminist fiction. Saying anything more would be a huge spoiler 😰. Do note that the book is quite dark, it has frank depictions of abuse, rape, violence and murder.

Hi, everyone! I have no particular reason for starting this thread beyond "could be fun," but I've wanted to do something of the kind for a while. Basically, I only have a handful of Discord servers I'm active in, and one of them is a public book club with a few thousand members. I'm good friends with someone there, and it's generally good company, but sometimes rec requests and such can slip through the gaps of several discussions all happening at once. So basically, I declare this a Book Rec Thread - I'm taking any and all book recommendations from anyone who wants to share their favorite reads (I mostly read horror, fantasy and literary fiction, but I'll try anything if the premise is fun), and I want to give a few recs of my own, on the condition that you tell me what genre and/or vibe you're looking for. I have a few titles up my sleeve that I think some Boarders could enjoy a lot, so if you want to give or take book recommendations, please hop into this thread so we can discuss :)

-Oculus

My point is not to condemn them for not appreciating Helena's artwork or sensibilities. I'm trying to point out a reality that artists and other creators face: their works always risk going completely unnoticed and unrecognized, regardless of the amount of work.

Alas, some people just can’t appreciate good art! Or at least, appreciate the work that went into the art, right? Helena doesn’t need to bind herself to realism! I’m sure the painting as, as the young people say, “cool.”

Pearls for eyes makes me think of Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
In RC ripe Portavius lies
Of his school is canon made
These are pearls that were his eyes
Nothing of him that doth sane
But doth suffer PPC change
Into something rich and strange

Something like that!

—doctorlit, tempestuous