The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I admit I originally read the vowels the other way and wondered why you'd gone for "SETTLE", but I got there in the end. ^_^ That's absolutely delightful.

hS

I managed to get a tattoo appointment from the artist for today instead of the one we originally had scheduled in April, and what can I say... I'm in love.

Behold!

I've decided to try a really tough task, and write some LotR fanfic. I mentioned before that I was having a rocky relationship with my own fanfiction, but I've done some soul-searching and a bit of relocation (I'm still active in my old fandoms that gave me so much trouble, just not nearly to the degree I used to be, and I have a different account for my readers to follow), and I have managed to come to terms with my skill level and my willingness to have my writing out there for people to see. The fic I'm currently working on is a small canon-compliant series of friendship vignettes following Boromir and Pippin from Imladris to Amon Hen, and the way their relationship changes on the road. I was hit with a severe case of heart eyes for the son of Denethor (I always have been Acacia levels of Not Sane about him as a character, and now it came back with a vengeance), and Pippin's POV is really fun to write, so this fic is getting somewhat longer than I thought it would be. Would anyone like to beta read it for me when it's done? I can't say anything yet about how long the finished product is going to be, but help would be appreciated either way, if someone has a few hours to spare.

(I know, the LotR heart eyes are getting severe. :P It's just nice to revisit a story that changed me as a person in so many ways, and the many, many feelings I had for it are coming back to me all of a sudden.)

Right now, I'm leaning towards the White Tree, admittedly, but that's mostly because the book cover would be insanely difficult to transfer to a t-shirt without a stencil, which I don't use. I did choose that one as a possible option because it was Tolkien's design, and I really appreciate the additional info because I do want to eventually paint it on something... but a t-shirt might be a little beyond my current skill level, now that I'm considering it more closely. You'll definitely know if I paint this anywhere, though!

On that note, who wants to see some fanart I made while I was rereading Fellowship and The Two Towers? It's not exactly good fanart because I haven't drawn anything in months, but a few friends in the Discord server liked the vibes at least.

It's good to see you again. :) I shan't say yet what tattoo I'm getting, but I'll just mention that you will be seeing it very soon. I'm already considering a slightly larger LotR tattoo as well (the current design is tiny, and more symbolic than decorative), but that will have to wait for a while. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to showing you this one... in a few days :) One of my closest friends has a tattoo of Andúril, and the larger design I'm tentatively contemplating will be in a similar vein, if I ever get that one done as well. Nerdery runs deep in our veins.

It has bonus geek value of being Tolkien's own design, but I just think it would look very cook - like a logo rather than a picture. I will note that the jewels on the Three should have their appropriate colours - per Tolkien's originals that's Narya (red) at the top, Vilya (blue) on the right, and Nenya (white) on the left - and that his preferred version was on black to make the gold and the gems pop.

Have I just made things worse? ^_^

hS

I said that elsewhere, but there it is again. {= )

I have a constantly worn wrist cuff that says "not all who wander are lost," and have often thought that if I ever got a tattoo, it would be that (except the proper quote, with the missing word "those"). I heartily applaud your shirt, and also doing what you like with your own body! What tattoo are you going with?

~Neshomeh

My apologies for precisely cancelling out doc's response and being cheeky about it. {; P

~Neshomeh

I appreciate that. ^_^

FYI, I noticed you're using links to the older version of my site, which is no longer updated. The current version is here on Neocities. Main spin-off stories are also mirrored on my AO3 account.

Also, welcome back!

~Neshomeh

Admittedly, this is kind of a silly thing to bring to the Board, but some of you folks might enjoy weighing in on it, or so I hope, at least.

Now that my LotR insanities are in full swing again, I'm making a lot of DIY stuff to channel some of my overflowing love for this story and this world into something. I have some plans for some fanart, and the debate I'm currently having with myself is about a t-shirt I want to make. I do a lot of custom work on cheap plain t-shirts to turn them into fan stuff, with embroidery, bleach painting, homemade fabric paint, or just plain old acrylic if I'm in a hurry. I made one a few days ago that looked like this... and this when I put it on. I have another shirt lying around that I wanted to make into another LotR-themed bit of clothing, but I'm kind of stuck on the design. The current contenders are:

• the names of the Fellowship in a nice column,
• the "One ring to rule them all..." poem in its entirety,
• the White Tree of Gondor,
• Andúril on the front of the shirt and the shards of Narsil on the back,
• oooorrrr maybe the illustration from this book cover.

Which of these designs should I put on a shirt? The materials used would have to vary depending on what color I need and how complicated the pattern is going to be, but either way, I'd love to hear your opinions and would also love to share the end result here, if anyone wants to see.

Some of my all-time favorites are not for this Board (I got super into the Saw franchise while I was away from the Board, which has a very active fandom and quite a lot of goodfic, surprisingly, but it doesn't exactly strike me as something my fellow Boarders would be into). I have a few from older fandoms that are still very dear to me, though, and which I'd love to share here.

• Three Stories, written by Gimli son of Glóin on occasion of his imminent passing: One of my Big Favorites. This is a short, bittersweet and beautiful Gimli/Legolas fic that rips my heart out every time and then makes me cry happy tears at the end :')
• downbeat: Kylux orchestra AU where Hux is an uptight conductor, and Kylo Ren is an insufferable but insanely talented piano soloist. I have conflicting opinions on the Star Wars sequel trilogy and was never very active in the fandom to begin with, but I love, love, love this fic.
• The Student Prince: One of the classics of the Merlin fandom, and for good reason.
• Particular Peculiarity: My favorite Sherlock Holmes/John Watson fic. (Classic Holmes, not the BBC series, which I absolutely loathe.)
• Veritas: I also have conflicting opinions on the Star Trek reboot movies (for the most part, I don't really like them), but this fanfic is epic and stays truer to the spirit of Trek in more ways than the first two reboot movies did.
• Aeneas, Orpheus, Pollux: A Coriolanus fanfic written in iambic pentameter. Yes, really. And a damn good one, too.
• And, as a member of the PPC (even if not a very active one now), I'd be neglecting my duties if I didn't mention my favorite spinoff works: Ring Child and Blood Raining Night by Neshomeh and Tungsten Monk, which have given me many moments of mirth and are still the spinoffs I like revisiting the most. :)

Hello, everyone! It's been a hot minute since I last posted here on the Board, but I hope to be more active as spring rolls in. I doubt many of you remember this, but back in 2021, when I was reading Lord of the Rings for the first time, I asked you for help with a LotR tattoo. I eventually decided against it (my family made tattoos sound like a scary commitment and I was accordingly scared). Now, I'm rereading the books and watching the movies again as a slightly more mature adult, and they hit me so hard that I decided to get that tattoo after all. I have two others and several piercings now, and I realize that I'd regret missing out on this more than I could regret getting it done. I've made an appointment for April. Would you folks like to see it when it's done?

Also, I wanted to say hello to everyone who still remembers me. How are y'all? I've been active in the Discord server, but I hoped to drop by at the Board too eventually.

I've not played it myself, but I've heard nothing but good things about it and now seems as good a time as any to pick it up. Thought folks here might like to know.

I don't think I ever finished reading HFA, actually, so this would be the perfect opportunity to do so.

--Ls

I started in January, I think. It started with just compiling lists of students, because I was curious about how many were also Boarders and/or agents, but there was so much text eaten away from the sequel, I had to try the Wayback Machine to continue. At which point I basically thought, in for a penny, in for a pound. {= ) It was a nice thing to work at a little bit at a time, when I didn't have time or focus for other stuff.

~Neshomeh hopes to have both time and focus for other stuff soon!

Congratulations on hard work well done! Crazy to think such a major work from the old days was starting to decay . . . but now both of them are safe and stored again, thanks to you!

—doctorlit bows to Neshomeh

Agent Kaguya does not have French ancestry. Just thought I should toss this out.

Check it out.

To copy my notes off the index page:

Although both The Hogwarts Fanfiction Academy and its sequel In the Keeping of HFA are both still accessible via Fanfiction.net, the latter in particular has suffered from terrible formatting decay and is practically unreadable. With the help of the Wayback Machine, I’ve been able to restore most of the original text of the latter. (Though sadly not quite all; a couple lines are still missing from chapter 14, “The Fanwriters’ New Clothes.”) Therefore, since I decided to rehost the sequel, I thought I might as well rehost the entire contents of Meir Brin’s original HFA website.

As usual in this archive, I have made conservative edits to correct indisputable misspellings and other errors. I have also attempted to standardize orthographic features across both stories, including the capitalization of special words, the use of hyphens vs dashes, and the placement of end punctuation in relation to quotation marks. Additionally, I’ve replaced asterisks denoting emphasis or internal thoughts with italic text formatting. If you spot any errors I’ve missed (or any I’ve introduced), please let me know!

~Neshomeh

Hello, hello! I've written a short fic with several sections in the style of some of the most memorable badfics over on the Asylum, it can be found here. It's very similar to a Badfic Games piece, though it's a little more specific in what I'm imitating. You can guess who each one is by, but if you're unfamiliar, the answers are at the end. It features me, Shoe, and epl, too. Hope you guys enjoy!

--Ls

Lily, congratulations on getting into grad school! I hope you’re able to get all the funding you need, and that your research projects are successful! You are extremely cool!

Ugh, I hate to say this, because I do love Hermione, but . . . I can understand Ron’s frustration with her a bit, too? She cares about her friends, but she expresses that care as a “mom friend,” enforcing rules and such. Hogwarts kids have enough adults in their lives; they don’t need more parenting from their own peer group! But . . . I’m also being a hypocrite, because that’s probably the type of friend I was as a child and teenager, too! We partly grow out of it???

Oh wow, the . . . Avalon cult is even more significantly worse than I realized! That hymn is dark beyond dark, like, the violence—the MURDER—is right there in the text! On the page! And they teach this stuff to children! (Yeah, I know the real Bible holds the record for “most characters murdered on page with an animal jawbone,” so real life isn’t really any better, but I’m still horrified.) Oh, and what a surprise, belief in Mother Magic comes with its own variation of rapture ideology. What’s the word for a religion that’s obsessed with the afterlife being more important than the living world, and looking forward to dying? Gosh, it rhymes with “breath tult,” what was it . . .

And speaking of things that were even more significantly worse than I realized, Cygnet Lodge needs to be, uh, razed to the ground and the earth beneath it salted? Because you are telling me, on top of all the troubled teens camp/gay conversion therapy coding, that the Carrows were also kidnapping Muggle children and telling the magic children to MURDER THE MUGGLE CHILDREN? And Draco refused, of course, but I’m betting some of the students actually do it? That is A LOT, wow. Now I’m scared to find out what happened between Draco and Lavender at Cygnet, because I’m scared it involved that Muggle boy somehow . . .

Little boy Gaunt isn’t quite as bad as his canon counterpart, in my eyes. Still malicious for sure, with his ire being focused on anyone “beneath” him, fitting with him growing up in privilege in a stratified society. But it’s also obvious that growing up with a parent has been good for him. He’s not a solitary figure lashing out with harm at anyone for any reason; he’s more calculating and indirect about what he does, with more concrete goals than “make others feel my misery.” It's also interesting that his name preference is chosen for a much more shallow reason: instead of Voldemort constructing a new name out of the old letters to forge himself a new future, Marvolo just wanted to “sound wizardy,” to fit in with (his perception of) his new culture. And of course, we know from Myrtle just how desperate he was to fit in . . . Oh, and Agatha cute, more Agatha please?

The ending scene was very lovely! After all the, uh, heavy? scenes between Harry and Draco this year, it was nice to see Harry just comforting Draco, and giving him somewhere safe to sleep. A nice cuddle for two tired kids!

—doctorlit is amused that if Harry had left Draco at the Slytherin common room, Harry would have been caught by Filch on the way back to Gryffindor’s

I got into all the grad schools I applied for, but now I've got to secure funding for them...

Gaunt is definitely hewing close to home, isn't he? And yes, he's gerrymandering--or, in UKpol terms, creating pocket boroughs.

Heck, Harry’s nightmare later in this very chapter confirms that following the heir of Slytherin is actually taught as part of the Avalonian “scripture.” Terrifying! It assumes that lineage will never produce an abusive monster!

Yeah that's a worldbuilding thing from the OG worldbuilder and it never ceases to give me the heebie-jeebies. Divine right of kings much? She tries to justify it by saying that if a member of a given bloodline with an attribute acts contrary to that way, there's magical consequences... but I'm sure Tommy could make anything seem just if he framed it just right.

Lavender does have her good points, and her Karen points, and I have to admit that at the time of writing this and the next chapter I was in the throes of having just watched the new Wicked film for the first time...

Nice, you picked up on the UHC shooter vibes :P

I suppose when your alternative is County Paris a creepy older guy pushed on you by a patronising family member, your better option is Romeo the local hotheaded teenager that you actually like...

Basilisk at lastolisk is so funny to the part of me that got exposed to Homestar Runner through one of my uni friends...

Nott is certainly acting shady in Harry's perspective!

Ron and Hermione have a falling-out over Lavender, while Harry and Draco get closer.

BL 9, 10, 11 warnings for this chapter. Please check the content warnings at the start of the chapter for more context!