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With its own unused Flower, even! Seems like a very fun concept to flesh out.

--Ls

Extra kudos for having a to get through those toxically religious sermons, as well!

Bulldogs have slept more or less on top of me the last two nights, so I would say they are thoroughly scritched!

—doctorlit, cruelly ignoring the dogs right now in order to eat breakfast

Have a mini type, an adoptable/free-to-use character, a worldbuilding element etc. you want to promote to the community and give other writers cool new material to work with? Advertise them here! I have a few of my own:

• Mallas, a male Tolkienverse elf from Mirkwood, rescued in this entry.
• Spam, a food item with a double meaning.
• An entire herd of sheep spawned from a misspelling. The badfic is machine-generated and so are its misspellings (which I had no control over), but I still think this one is hilarious.

Qiu definitely is rethinking some things! I think she loves Cedric still, but she's realising how ridiculous it is to have tied herself down like this, at her age...

I'm glad you enjoyed the speeches. I actually looked at a lot of famous political/religious speeches for Gaunt and Regulus both. Gaunt's speech is referenced from Boris Johnson's Brexit speeches, Johnathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and Evangelical sermons about the rapture. Regulus' speech is from Obama's victory speech (here's a fun analysis of the rhetoric he used), David Cameron's Manchester 2015 speech, and some good ol' Winston Churchill. So those are the vibes you picked up on!

(Also I used to write speeches for Japanese high school students, so I guess there's some of my experience as a speechwriter in there too)

Give the bulldogs lots of scritches for me!

I was going to wait to review more chapters at a time, but this post is getting close to the bottom, plus I’m petsitting this weekend, and I’m kind of limited on what I can get done, so I think I’ll just review this one alone.

It’s a very striking chapter, with Naomi really confronting the nature of what she is and the effect she has on reality. The “multiple choice” dialogue of her mother’s voice (I suppose a symptom of the mom being an undescribed off-screen role?) is especially unnerving and frightening. It reinforces how completely alone Naomi has made herself by writing herself into this universe. Hopefully, that will make her more receptive to teaming up with the agents, now that they’re meeting up at last . . .

—doctorlit, sympathizing with the Suvian, but I suspect that’s your intent, yeah?

I’m glad that, in spite of the emotional trauma, Qiu is at least recognizing that the situation she’s now in after Cedric’s death is pretty ridiculous, and that she’s starting to deconstruct her cultural expectations as unrealistic and unhealthy. Now, she just needs to start bringing Marietta along on that journey . . .

Nice work on all the speeches! They sound like they belong in the setting, while having a familiar vibe that echoes the way politicians speak in the real world , making the positions feel organic and believable. And Regulus’ speech is particular is just so strong and lovely . . . I honestly want to vote for him, I wish real U.S. politicians sounded more like him. The possibility of a more hopeful future really is there to take . . . But I’m also dreading what Gaunt’s retaliation is going to look like, especially given that the Black brothers didn’t make it out so great in the original series . . .

—doctorlit, surrounded by drowsy French bulldogs (pet-sitting this weekend)

hey folks! if you’re in the discord server you may have noticed i left the server.

i decided to leave temporarily mainly for mental health reasons, nothing against any of you im just dealing with some personal stuff :b

i’ll rejoin the server eventually!! i’ll be back whenever i feel im ready to be back.

i’ll be around on the board and if you need to reach me, dm me! i wont bite!

take care <3 -HC

sorry if it’s too late :b

also do i have to write fic for this? i mainly just want to see any silliness that i get into :b

she/her

pretty much just don’t ship me with minors or scarlett (because we’re friends irl and that feels kinda weird to me lol)

there is pictures of me on the discord, but i prefer people to not refer to those, but if you have to it’s ok :b

Umbridge deciding the Restricted Section shouldn't exist at all is still horrible, though, because there's stuff in there that kids might actually need for NEWT preparation or research into higher-level magic! (I mean, I'm sure there's more than just the Polyjuice Potion recipe in Most Potente Potions...) She's hamstringing everyone's ability to study in order to satisfy her own moral imperative :P

Ginny doesn't want her brothers involved with her dating decisions, period, though!

Yes, there was an offhand reference to it in 2nd year, too:

Hermione sent her a pitying look. “I had no idea Luna had a different name put down for Hogwarts,” she said, as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

Ron shrugged. “I’m as shocked as you are. She’s always been Luna, even before she started growing out her hair.”

“Do you think she keeps magic in it like… like regular witches?” asked Hermione, curious.

“Dunno,” admitted Ron. “Never asked, and also, I’ve never grown my hair that long before.”

Harry grabbed himself some shepherd’s pie. “Well, she’s still Luna,” he said. Over at the Ravenclaw table, Astoria took a seat next to Luna, glaring at their housemates. “And it looks like she’s got at least one friend in her House.”

So yeah, Luna's in for a rough next couple chapters, actually, because Umbridge is about to crack down on nonconformity in November.

Thanks for catching the typo!

The Alternate Order Debate Association meets in Hagrid's Hut.

Any pronouns. No shipping me with minors or Linstar please. There’s pictures of me on the discord if you want to know what I look like.

I doubt I'll get many more replies, and while I know there are people who are interested in some of these (on the Discord, for example), I think I'll just make an executive decision and add the following fics as nominated unless there objections:

• Rise of the Drackens

• A Tangled Web

• Halflife: Fulllife Consequences

• Starfleet Magic

• How I Became Yours

• Light and Dark the Adventures of Dark Yagami

• Forbiden Fruit

• Rainbow Factory

• PAL Series

• Harry Potter: Dimensional Wizard

If you think one of the ones I left out should count, or you have any objections, approval, or further commentary on any of these, please reply. I won't actually add any of these until at least a week has gone by, so please make your opinions felt because I would rather not feel like I'm making any decisions for the community.

--Ls

“However, Charlie twisted on the ladder to face him . . .”
I immediately thought to myself, “Ohoho, is that my partner I hear behindst me, mayhaps I TWIMST aroumd and take an peep for mineself”

. . . I’m so sorry. Anyway, mission was definitely a fun read! I’m . . . still a little unsure about the vibes of writing what’s essentially a “spitefic” about another boarder’s spin-off, but it’s also true that you’re largely representing the writing quirks of Tawaki’s writing style accurately, so I can’t really argue this isn’t “honest criticism,” can I? And I did love how you animated Melpomene to be so unnervingly wooden and blank, contrasting her “talking head” dialogue with Jiwon and Charlie’s more fluid presence on the page. (Like, watch clips of how Cats gets performed, even in the film adaptation, and think how expressive and funny a Cats agent should be!
The humanoid cat lounged in the doorway, placing both hands on one side of the frame and bending her knees in a long stretch. “Behold, friends,” she said loudly, with a smile, “It is I: Propipants, the flapper cat! I love great big parties! I’m so friendly and outgoing, you could almost forget my culture is a super-weird death cult, with a confused idea of an afterlife based on overhearing humans speaking!” She pulled back up to a standing position, holding her hands curled up in front of her face and pouting. “I’m very sorry they brought me here from August 1929, because it’s been such a good year, and I’m certain the next decade was going to be even better for carefree parties and economic freedom!” She quirked her head cutely.
. . . This was a very long parenthetical aside, sorry.) And honestly, I feel a bit bad for Melpomene, too? Her outdated mindset, plus her experience with Big Brother during the Key to canon arc (great job, Spirit of Imagination!) have left her with such a hostile, antagonistic attitude, not just towards potential goodfic characters, but even against her own fellow agents if they don’t agree with her. It’s rather sad, to be so self-isolating in a setting as diverse as the PPC is!

You did a good job of showing off the fic; it really does sound like a lovely read, and a lovely alternate timeline for Harry! It stands in contrast to Melpomene’s insistence that any change from canon is automatically disrespectful, because what could be more respectful to Harry than giving him less bullying and more books? The kid deserves a little fluff now and then, even if the original version never knows about it, yeah? The joke about Harry getting into Ravenclaw’s dorm by shocking the door into asking an easily answered question was funny, and I like the mental image of the Ravenclaw students waking up to a dragon hoard of books! But I especially loved the final acknowledgement you gave the fic, repeating its title in your prose to reaffirm the fact that it really is okay.

I like the gag with the skeletons, too. The previous residents of the RC had some . . . secrets, did they? And the fact the skeletons “clock out” by just collapsing on the spot back into unlife is pretty funny.

New word you taught me: “syllogism,” though I’m not entirely certain I get it properly . . .

And typos:
Charlie snatched it out of the air and slammed into the wall.
“slammed it into the wall,” right now it sounds like Charlie hurt themself.

He walked over, but before he could get there, it burst open with a resounding bang.
I guess it’s pretty obvious that the door is what’s bursting open, but it’s been a couple paragraphs since you actually mentioned the door knocking, so I personally would specify the door in this line, Might just be a “me thing.”

The agents soon followed Dragon-Harry back to the Privet Drive as school ended.
I don’t think that “the” is necessary, unless this is a “British thing.”

Melpomene once again pronounced the misspellings perfectly.
I might have just missed it in my reading, but I feel like this is the first time Melpomene has pronounced a misspelling in this story?

. . . doesn’t wizard media also obsess over the ‘Boy-Who-Lived’ thing
“Does he truly,” said Melpomene . . .
I may be misreading here (there’s a paragraph in between that interrupts the dialogue), but if Melpomene is responding to Jiwon’s assertion about the wizard media, I think she should say, “Do they truly?” rather than “Does he?” But again, I may be confusing what she’s responding to here.

—doctorlit has been pronouncing “Melpomene” wrong! I’ve always assumed Tawaki had made the name up to sound like it would fit alongside “Bombalurina” and “Macavity” and the like, but I noticed while typing out this comment in Microsoft Word, that the name wasn’t getting the red underline beneath it. A search online turned up that “Melpomene” is one of the Muses from Greek myth, specifically the Muse of tragedy, who sang ". . . songs of mourning for people of note after they die . . .". That really is a 10/10 reference on Tawaki’s part; it links Agent Melpomene’s origin canon, with the cats selecting one of their number to enter the Heaviside Layer, and her current occupation as an assassin. (I know she’s DTO, but you know what I mean. She killin’ stuff.) Anyway, my point is, I’ve been pronouncing her name MEL-po-MEEN all the years, but it looks like it’s actually MEL-po-MAY-nee.

Hey, what if some bozo working in HQ kitchens decides to make some kind of suspicious sauce and sell to agents?

She/her, it/its

No further information. You can find it if you look, I'm just bored of describing my looks. Only so many ways to say I'm ugly, after all.

Don't ship me with cis men. Or anyone under the age of consent, which I would sincerely hope is obvious but apparently needs stating.

Especially since my sporking spirit's died a bit over four years (time flies, wow).

Had ideas for stuff like possible in-universe reasons for not doing things like using reality warping to just blip away the Suvians from arguably fitting canons, or not advancing tech so much more to make things incredibly easy, or not resurrecting dead agents despite so many in-universe complaints about understaffing, or not taking more advantage of the fact that they have access to tech and magic and such from just about every fictional world ever made. Granted, somebody else likely has handled this topic in the past, but I'm sure they're nothing wrong with another spin on it (if I ever get beyond the 'what if' stage of my drafting process haha)

You can kind of see a hint of this in Rest Well, but I kinda floated about the idea that there are unchanging Narrative Laws that may or may not take physical form sometimes and take action when their concepts are disrespected. Nothing concrete, of course, but it was a fun little one-off Interlude.

Cold.

}= )

~Neshomeh