The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I know, I know, it's barely been two days since my latest mission, but I've gotta use the inspiration while it lasts. I don't always have my eye for badfic open, but this time I've managed to find some real headscratchers I'm looking forward to missioning. The one I currently need a beta for is the mission of a LotR slashfic; it doesn't have anything squicky or explicit in it for once, not even swearing - unless having an anthropomorphic horse character counts as squick, but it's played for comedy (and it makes sense in context, I swear). It's also the introduction of a new agent pair of mine (since I have a small stable of recruits and agents, I'll stop introducing new ones from now on, except for said horseman appearing in this particular mission), so feedback on the character dynamics would be especially appreciated. There's really not much else I can say, other than mission length - it's sixteen Docs pages - and that I'd be very grateful to anyone who agrees to check it out for me. If possible, I'd appreciate being contacted over the Discord because trading messages is easier over there (my current nickname in the PPC server is Mr. Cowboy), but e-mail also works. Er, thanks in advance?

I had a quick read over and I'm with hS on all of his criticisms.

Additionally: I do not like Kaguya. Perhaps I'm not supposed to like him, but I don't not-like him in a way that makes me want to read about him more, you feel? He's unpleasant in a way that is far too real and is not really delivered with much of a sense of irony or humour. This might be a little more palatable if not for the rest of his general dynamic with Chizuri.

The relationship between these two agents makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Chizuri has a sort of omnipresent fear/horniness for Kaguya that really makes her read as an abuse victim. That the power dynamic of their relationship is clearly balanced in Kaguya's direction, as the disciplinarian summoner guy, and that Kaguya himself acts--to be blunt--like an unhinged control freak, makes the whole thing just read very uncomfortably to me. I do get that you're going for a sort of bdsm-ey sexual tension kinda dealio here, but this is really not a healthy dynamic. Even if we assume that Chizuri is always 100% totally super into it and consents to all of it permanently all the time and feels safe and emotionally fulfilled (it does not read like that, to be clear), it still just... doesn't feel like it really fits the tone of the PPC?

This is one of the reasons, I think, Kaguya's freakout OOC rant thing feels so weird. While exaggerated rants are somewhat of a trope for PPC agents, Kaguya's rant is real graphic, not particularly funny and, alongside the rest of the context of his relationship with Chizuri, makes him look even more like an unhinged control freak. I know it's meant to be out of character and rare and that, but he really all around just feels like somebody who should like not work here. And not in a like fun way.

Chizuri I have much less to say about; I like her character more, but she seems to exist only in parallel to Kaguya. Both, uh, sorta literally, but also in terms of character. She has far less focus on her, and, like I said earlier, seems to spend all her time thinking of what Kaguya thinks of her. I'm willing to give more leeway with this due to the short nature of the prompts, but it's definitely something to watch out for in the future.

I dunno, sorry if I'm being a little rough; especially for being so late to this, but I really feel like you've gotta work on these two. You're going for a dynamic here that's sort of hard to pull off, so it's certainly worth going at with a real careful touch.

Thanks for including that detail, and go humanity for getting more stuff in space!

... fanficVERSE exists now. ^_^

All stories from both FFL and FfW are repaired and backed up, and accessible either through the new ffV Stories page or cleaned-up versions of their own home pages. I've also archived all the in-character Badfic Game announcements on the Stories page, because the battle against Liechtenstein should not be forgotten. [Dramatic teardrop]

Author pages are being created to a standard template; so far I have 15 up, with another 70(!) to add. The author pages have a ribbon with symbols for each year they've posted stories/chapters (+ the year they signed up). Just today, I finally got JayBird's bestest friend brandywine_baby89 added. ^-~

Everything's been stripped right back - the new story format (you can find one example at the very bottom of JayBird's page) puts all chapters and reviews in a single column. My hope is to go on to archive the missing games, and maybe even keep ffV running when the Games next roll round... well, I can dream!

hS admin@fanficVERSE

She’s got the characterization wrong, which is what I’m more worried about.

The bare bones, anyway. Everyone, feel free to add anything I overlooked. This was a "make it before work while scarfing down breakfast" job.

—doctorlit, watching the clock tick down

I'd use the original link if it was available, but all I have now is my own MST. 'Sides, even if it ain't new, unironically using them is still very much cringy, especially if it doesn't fit the setting and culture.

The Oxford English Dictionary cites "family jewels" as a euphemism back to the 1920 Historical Dictionary of American Slang. And "little [name]" as a nickname (which I see is how it's introduced) is... like... probably the most common form of nickname for it used in fiction?

Of all the hooks for plugging your MST, this was a very strange one to pick. O.o

hS

Making people laugh is always my main goal while writing missions. It's good to know that I've succeeded this time! And really, I can sympathise, I have a mission shouting at me to finish writing it too. I'm sure you'll get it done when the right time for writing comes. ^_^

Thanks for reading!

Since my island's renovation is (just about) completed now, I'm putting my dream address code up so anyone with the game can check it out at any time.

You can find it at DA-2211-1609-5502.

Pretty much the only area unfinished is the northwestern plateau! (And the tragic lack of flowers on the island, but that will come with time.) The house finally got a kitchen and basement overhaul as well, so I'm very proud to finally show off my island home.

I'm out of the Tolkien fandom since long ago and I barely skimmed the first chapter, but still.

Family jewel and lil' (character name), I kid you not. The sex scene is not a joke. See these godforsaken euphemisms in action (link leads to MST).

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9913708/1/Tales-of-Light-and-Ash

It’s a Thranduil x OC one, which is what first caught my eye. Thranduil falls in love with a human, who is described as having the hair of Silvan elf, and looks like his wife. The characters Areth (who I’m almost certain is a Sue) and Thranduil are mostly described by their eye color, and I’m fairly certain Thranduil’s changes multiple times throughout the fic. Also, Areth is made the king’s personal friend. There’s probably charges that I’m missing as I have not read the Unfinished Tales or the Silmarillion, but those were the ones I’ve caught so far.

Because Pandemic, it's rough to get a gaming group together. Most of us probably don't have many digital board games on hand, and it can be painful and expensive to get more. Fortunately, the Humble Bundle is to the rescue, and for the next 5 days, you can pay $10 to get a bunch of Asmodee's digital board games, like Ticket to Ride, Small World, Terraforming Mars, Blood Rage, Splendor, Pandemic, and others. I can vouch for at least some of these, and I do have them, so I'm now posting to widen the playing pool.

Link: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/asmodee-tabletop-2gether

looks at nearly finished mission of my own

sweeps it under the rug (that randomly appeared) while whistling

rug begins to whistle

Ugh, never mind.

Anyways, I laughed out loud at several points in the fic. I absolutely loved it.

The "landing zone" for the Discord - the place where you go when you first join the server - has the complete list of blacklisted topics in a numbered order that is clearly visible. I guess nobody really thought to update the Wiki with those blacklisted topics. I feel I should also mention that the topics themselves are not forbidden from discussion; rather, Discord users are obliged to put them in spoiler tags and tag them with a content warning, usually something along the lines of BL1.

For reference, the list is as follows:-

1. Suicide

2. References to people or animals being food and/or preyed upon, as well as food being presented in the shape of people or animals, or being self-aware

3. Body horror

4. Eyes being hurt

5. Stuffed animals being destroyed

6. Incest

7. Forced dunking

8. Apocalyptic thinking and plausible catastrophes

9. Needles

10. Destructive fires, immolation, burn injuries

11. Grooming of the abusive variety

12. Child abuse, kidnapping, or abandonment

Some specific topics have NSF[boarder] tags as well, generally related to the blacklists. For example, NSF4M - not safe for FourMoonsWatching - refers to blacklist 2, and could also be (and generally is) tagged as BL2. Their meanings are roughly equivalent, and in many cases predate the adoption of the numbered blacklist or the subject matter being added to it.

I hope this was helpful and useful.

Whoever maintains the blacklist (I'm guessing Delta and/or Maslab?), would you kindly do so on the wiki, too?

I'd still suggest a best policy of clearly stating the kind of content you're warning for, for the sake of readers who are new, infrequent, or using a device that makes it inconvenient to go looking for information elsewhere. To quote Willow Rosenberg of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a vague disclaimer is nobody's friend. But, if it's listed on the wiki, it can at least be linked to.

~Neshomeh

I sort of assumed it would be...

Apparently not; in fact the Wiki slightly implies there /isn't / a blacklist, by saying "The rules are simple: abide by the Constitution and don't be nasty." I assume it's written down /somewhere/, and that everyone's not just holding a 10+ item numbered list in their heads; can we get it put into the community information repository?

For the record, I have a vague idea what 4Moons stays away from, but not a clue about Cal(liope? Or do we have another Cal?).

hS

Not everyone in the PPC community frequents the Discord. If you choose to use warnings on your missions or your posts, please make sure they're clear for everyone, not just habitual Discord users. Thanks. {= )

~Neshomeh

I apologize if I'm flooding the Board with posts, but every so often the mission-writing enthusiasm returns. The other mission I'd posted was written a really long time ago, but this one last week, and I feel like it's a step in the right direction from what I've complained about in my older writing. I'll try to keep my mission-writing pace a bit more even from now on instead of posting three missions in a row once a year, especially because I don't want to start too many Board threads at a time.

Right, here goes. The continuity is the second Fatal Frame game, but as far as I can tell, the mission doesn't need a lot of canon knowledge. The appropriate warnings have been given at the beginning, but let's go over them again: NS4Cal and NSF4M jokes, a very brief bit of body horror, and some of the canonical horrors of Fatal Frame, although they're really downplayed in the mission for the comedy's sake (for those who don't know, it's a survival horror game). Many thanks to Cicada and GeniusGamer for betaing this.

Enjoy! ^_^

P.S. I've noticed that the font changes mid-mission because... (insert long story about editing this mission that's completely irrelevant). Formatting issues like that are one of the reasons I'm not that comfortable using Dreamwidth anymore.

I was trying to stop search engines from listing my site.

That clearly didn't work :P

So, let me re-enable the site profile.

Kittyauthor, about to be in a meeting.

I'd follow you, but... Did you disable your site profile?

~Neshomeh