The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

There's been flirting here and there occasionally, but, well, we do have a rating, same as the Board.

Scenario 1: The parents don't know about the signal and therefore can't warn the kids. The interesting cave is promptly explored.

Scenario 2: The parents do warn the kids, but don't tell them why. The interesting and mysterious cave is promptly explored.

Scenario 3: The parents tell the kids exactly why they're not to go exploring the cave if the lantern is lit. They probably listen—but their friends don't believe them. The interesting, mysterious, and forbidden cave that some kids are too chicken to explore is promptly explored.

Moral of the story: if you don't want to risk being intruded upon during private time, maybe don't have private time in a public place that anyone is free to wander into. {= )

~Neshomeh

I'm rewriting it to get it into proper shape, and since I still want the first thing Kaito steals to be one of those metallic-pink Rolex watches (which I described as copper), I decided to look up Rolex's collection of men's watches. Guess how they get those watches to look like that? A little something called Everose gold. As in, a copper alloy containing 76% gold and 2% platinum. As you'd expect, all watches made with this alloy go for prices in the tens of thousands. Kaito's find was a lot more valuable than I thought.

To use your example: "There is a cave in the cove which you can ecsplore if the lantun is not lit." It's still quite vague, so I don't feel like I'm locking in something people might want to decide for themselves. It could, for example, simply mean 'if you can see someone's in there (because the light's on inside), stay out'.

... I have to ask, are people actually roleplaying smut on the chat, or is this just worldbuilding?

hS

...I'm pretty sure there was a group like that in G1. I think they were called the Stunticons.

It could've been Peregrin's writing style, which, from a century or so of habit, comes out at least partially looking like mathematical research no matter what he's going for.

Anywho, I really like that!

Just one thing occurred to me, though: if there are kids exploring the cave, and also people using the cave as private space, it'd proooooooobably be a good idea to have some kind of agreed-upon "stay out of the cave for a little bit" signal. caves don't exactly have doorknobs to put socks on I'm open to ideas as to what the signal is; the only idea I really have myself is "another lantern by the entrance that you light if you want people to leave you alone maybe?"

Communal showers, I mean. Kaitlyn and Selene had a chat in them, and the Multiverse Monitor crew liked to hang around outside them to get photos for Page 3. Come to think of it, I think you could take photos in there in the PPC Computer Game (which was based on the Monitor, so yeah).

hS

I loved the rapid-fire references in the early 'scary stories', they were great fun to spot.

And the story itself... spooky. Very well done.

hS

I'm seeing a lot of assumptions about what I think and not necessarily correct ones. I was afraid I would end up making those kind of assumptions, so I asked you questions instead. Or at least, tried to ask rather than assume.

Do you want to continue this conversation/debate? I am willing to drop it if you ask.

--Ozzielot

Which I hope will help you keep track of who's who in our main cast, and also learn some background tidbits about my historic characters, Aelit's, and a couple of the new ones.

Includes never-seen before things like the truth on Corolla's "idiot hair" forelock! No, really.

https://rc1587.wordpress.com/2020/07/12/a-look-at-our-main-cast/

Being a short story anthology published either (depending on how you count it) two years after or one year before The Last Wish, it's reasonable to expect The Sword of Destiny to be more of the same, a sort of Last Wish Part 2, Electric Boogaloo.

Not so. In may respects, The Sword of Destiny is a very different book from its predecessor. Last Wish is a book, fundamentally, about a bunch of things that happened to Geralt of Rivia. Sword of Destiny is actually about Geralt himself. In a sense, you could think of it as a character study. Over the course of the books, we see Geralt deal with love, death, feelings, and fate. We see what he's willing to do... and more to the point what he isn't willing to do. What's against his code.

Of course, this is made all the more interesting because allegedly Geralt doesn't have emotions. After all, he isn't human. But despite their constant re-iteration by characters who don't know better, that's entirely untrue. By the end of the book, it's clear that Geralt is human. He's incredibly human. Which makes the dynamic between him and those who think that he's not more interesting. Racial tensions and prejudice were a theme in the Witcher from the start, and this book pushes that further to the fore, with multiple stories having it as the center of their conflict.

Also brought to a more prominent role in this book is Geralt's on-again-off-again love interest, Yennefer. They're absolutely perfect for each other and also (and I cannot emphasize this more) do not work. They're both idiosyncratic and dysfunctional and they both probably understand each other better than anyone else, but their relationship is a constant disaster that keeps starting and stopping, endlessly. I've never enountered a "will they or won't they" arc that provides such a clear and obvious reason why they don't yet. Or rather, they do, but that doesn't mean it works.

Finally, there's Ciri, who's introduced for the first time in this book. Well, sort of for the first time. But once again, Sapkowski's managed to setup another character that bounces off Geralt wonderfully well. But this time it's a kid, so... y'know. Adorable.

Apologies this write-up is a bit more scattershot than last time. But needless to say, I enjoyed this quite a lot. If you liked The Last Wish at all, I'd recommend it.

Yeah, I was taught that one, too. It's certainly one facet of racism, and that understanding of it worked well enough on its own when I was growing up in my mostly white, middle-class city, going to high school with maybe three black kids in the whole place.

Would you allow me to challenge the validity of that definition as the most relevant one for you, as I had it challenged for me?

Let me introduce a hypothetical situation that actually happens all the time: a young black man is arrested and goes to prison for possession of drugs. How certain are you that he does or does not deserve it?

This is absolutely a trap. I think you'll automatically come to the "simple" conclusion that anyone who breaks the law is a criminal and therefore deserves their punishment, regardless of skin color, because it's the conclusion I would have come to when I might have also been bothered about "reverse racism" of black people against white people. Am I right? If so, think carefully, and notice what you think, and consider why. If I'm wrong, then again, think carefully, and notice what you think, and consider why. This is relevant to points 4 and 5 both.

Regarding "reverse racism": I'm not saying it doesn't exist; I'm saying it's not equivalent. Black people on the whole have legitimate reasons to hold deep prejudice against white people on the whole, seeing as we're the ones who did the enslaving and the Jim Crow and the war on drugs and etc., on through today. I am therefore not offended by it on the whole. I obviously don't care to have anyone treat me like crap in person, but that's not usually a problem. Most people make nice in public, regardless of what they think in private. Especially if they believe the system will come down on them like a ton of bricks if they don't.

Oh, and re. point 3: I know those conversations take place in the Black community/ies, as they do in all communities. When the messages that emerge from those conversations are so strong they form a movement that sweeps the country, I cannot in good conscience ignore them. Nitpicking the words used to demand justice as an excuse not to address the need for justice is another form of oppression. This is something I've learned from the LGBTQ+ community hereabouts as well as from people of color.

~Neshomeh

That's as valid an ending as any!

Tia is sixteen, and my goal with her piece was to capture how a sixteen-year-old writes an essay. She's probably actually reading a bit younger than that, but I doubt the PPC schools spend too much time on essays, plus she's at least bilingual (possibly tri-, depending on whether she remembers Galactic Basic), so her word-use can be a little odd.

hS

... that line was written with the explicit intent of winding up Italy and everyone who knows it. ^_^ If I could have found a way to also annoy both sides of the 'thin or thick' argument in America itself, it would have been perfect.

I actually had a work trip to Rome back before, y'know... [gestures vaguely at 2020], and had some Real Italian Pizza for a meal or two. It was indeed very different to what we mere mortals use the name for. :)

Thank you for popping in; it means a lot.

hS

... technically it already finished.

I move that we accept Scape's ending as canon. It's pretty much spot-on for how this sort of thing would go in HQ.

hS

Looking at the original proposal, the plan was for the RP to be three sections:

1/ CHAOS. This part went really well; it's a huge sprawl of an RP thread, but I think we kept it fairly well threaded; someone could put it all together if they wanted.

2/ Device Hunt. There were meant to be lots of teams hunting, but mine was the only one that took off. I think people enjoyed the chaos more than the solutions. Let's see... the team was me, doctorlit, and Pippa's Ghost. Pippa is long since gone, but I have semi-adopted her characters (because Hild hangs out with Maethorwen and Jareth as part of Team Formerly Saruman's Minions). So we could theoretically finish up the Quest for the Aromatherapist or whatever was going on there.

3/ DoSAT fixing stuff. Assuming Team Kayleigh were the ones to find the Device, and somehow random-walked it to DoSAT, this could be written by anyone with DoSAT agents active in 2015, with some input from me, doc, and anyone who wants their agents to have been involved. It might even work as an RP? I don't know.

The big problems I can see:

1/ Even if the characters are available, their bodies might not be. Looking through Team Kayleigh:

-Kayleigh seems to be in her own body - fine. -Salamander is in JF's body - not fine, her author doesn't want her agents used at all. But... he also doesn't appear to be part of the mission. I think Kayleigh forgot about him. -Jareth and Kyaris are sharing the body of Bosh and Guk, a two-headed troll belonging to Darkotas - not fine, seeing as they were major participants -Yoof is in Aaron Hunter's body, an agent belonging to Tira - I assume Tira has left? I don't think I've seen them for ages. -Hild is in Printworthy's body, a pony belonging to World-Jumper - again, I think Jumper is gone? -bjam is in Maethorwen's body, which is fine.

Since both the troll and pony bodies are written about several times, it would be pretty obvious if we suddenly started ignoring them.

2/ The other issue... the RP was started by someone who doesn't want to be associated with the PPC. I don't know how the ethics shake out if we finish a story she started, even if we don't use her agents at all.

hS

This has to be one of my favorites of my own PPC writings. There are just so many possibilities with this setting - and I love the PPC urban legends and conspiracy theories a lot, so it was great adding my own to them.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!

It's one of the quintessential genius loci stories for me - a place that has its own mind, and is not so much haunted as simply "an evil shpxing room" (I think this quote is from the movie verson, which I also love). RC 1000 is meant to be less sentient than Room 1408, but the principle is the same.

I should read that story again.

And really, no need to apologize - I'm glad someone caught the reference. ^_^

Really enjoyed it, and completely understand what you mean about the desire to explore HQ setting a little more.

(No specific thoughts atm, just wanted to at least say I read it and liked it)

I just figured it out! Why did it take so long! Gods, I read that story. I knew I read that story. Why did it take this long?

Gods...

Answer, plus some spoilers about the answer

clears throat Sorry it took me so long. I knew I read the King story.