The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I wasn't around when you were—I joined about six years back. Always good to meet one of the old guard! Have a plate of fresh SPaGhetti on me. :)

I remember you! Your screen name, anyway. I think we might have had a conversation about your namesake agent re. her medical condition and not magicking it all the way away for missions? OTOH it would have been ten years ago(!) and I've definitely had a similar conversation with someone else since, so who knows how accurate that is? ^_^

... I'm going to resist the temptation to go dig through the Board archive and find out. (We have one of those now!)

As a welcome-back present, have some Bleepolate Chip Canon Cookies! They're freshly baked!

~Neshomeh

I hope you have just a good a time here as you did before.

I think I remember you! I was Techno-Dann at the time.

gives an Eldritch Oldbie bumper sticker

Wandering happens, glad you wandered back our way!

Welcome back! I hope that you can eventually write a permission request. Have this question mark shaped notebook to write! And yes, I am technically a newbie. I have joined last year.

I have deleted the previous section, since you were a returnbie. I’m sorry for accusing you of being Bram.

~SomeRandomPersonAccount

Here, have a triple chocolate cupcake (chocolate with chocolate chips and chocolate icing)! Don't forget to blow out the candle and make a wish!

Here, have a triple chocolate cupcake (chocolate with chocolate chips and chocolate icing)!

Hi, everyone. I'm not exactly new, given that I first discovered the PPC years ago (probably close to a decade, at this point), but I never completed any missions, despite having gotten permission, and eventually wandered off to other interests.

I was recently reminded about the PPC and decided to go find it again, since I remember really enjoying it before.

"Anyway, I don't believe in Caroc cards," he muttered. "All that stuff about it being the distilled wisdom of the universe is a load of rubbish."

The first card, smoke-yellowed and age-crinkled, was...

It should have been The Star. But instead of the familiar round disc with crude little rays, it had become a tiny red dot. The old woman muttered and scratched at the card with a fingernail, then looked sharply at Rincewind.

"Nothing to do with me," he said.

She turned up the Importance of Washing the Hands, the Eight of Octograms, the Dome of the Sky, the Pool of Night, the Four of Elephants, the Ace of Turtles, and - Rincewind had been expecting it - Death.

-Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

(Part of a not-quite-complete art project, but it just felt necessary to share this one now.)

hS

((Crossposted to Dreamwidth & Livejournal))

Congratulations! Hype! Confetti!

Here, have these question mark shaped staples for you first mission.

~SomeRandomPersonAccount

. . . It's funny. A lot of agents I talk to say that Headquarters is stressful and confusing. But I always find it rather peaceful, compared to being on a mission. Especially times like this." Tabitha gestured around them. "Do you know what I mean?"

((No problem! We can always take a break and pick this up another time, if you need to.))

—doctorlit

"I'm Dawn, in the DMS. Nice to meet you!"

((Sorry for the long delay, doc--it's been a bit hectic, and I've been a bit low on writing energy. Figured I should get moving before this drops off the page, though!~Z))

Yes, you heard that right! It's a continuation of my very first shipfic, which wound up being posted in 2017. This is the continuation, which seems to have been started in 2018, and has now expanded interestingly. (For historical context: Maedhros was originally Delta Juliette in this. She hasn't opted in this year, as of when I checked a few seconds ago, so I've left out her name this time.) And yes, you can absolutely blame hS for the sequel :P

*

It was a strange time in Middle-earth.

The beautiful half-Elf, half-Maia Tinuvion, otherwise Phobos by name, had come to steal a Silmaril from the crown which the Dread Kaitlyn had taken with her in her flight to the North.

The human Neshomeh, Phobos’ beloved, had previously escaped the Dread Kaitlin's dungeons with her life, if not her hand or the companion she had arrived there with.

Huinesoron, elven Lord of Netilardo, was​ dead. This was sad news for Neshomeh, who had called him from Netilardo in the first place. It was also sad news for the inhabitants of Netilardo, who began to chafe under the rule of the two of a certain well-formed Elf’s siblings, who had earlier turned their minds from Huinesoron.

It was wonderful news for the Dread Kaitlyn: after all, she had stolen Huinesoron away with her to the North, and was more than pleased to discover that there would, in fact, be no one attempting his rescue.

*

“Someone will come for me eventually,” Huinesoron said mildly. His hands were bound in front of him; of course, the Dread Kaitlyn's choice of binding had been a silk scarf, which might have influenced his state of mind. “You won’t be able to keep me here forever.”

“Forever and a day,” said the Dread Kaitlyn. The not-so-keen observer might have spotted a note of glee in her voice. The keener observer might have realized that it was far more than a note. “You see, I’ve had word. They think you dead.”

“I’m not dead, though,” Huinesoron said after a moment. He shifted, stretching his legs out on the...well, it couldn’t really be called anything other than a bed. Maybe a couch, if one had never seen a couch before. It had sheets and was actually fairly soft. “Someone will figure it out eventually.”

The Dread Kaitlyn leaned towards him, bending one knee upon the bed. “Not for a very, very long time. If ever. No, Huinesoron—you are mine.”

“Am I?”

The Dread Kaitlyn waved a hand. Her pointed look took in his bonds, and the general fact that she was the one in a position to look down at him.

“Hm,” said Huinesoron. “I suppose you have something of a point.”

“I am going to keep you here until the Last Age of Arda comes to an end,” the Dread Kaitlyn told him. The gleeful note grew stronger once more. “No one shall steal you from me even then.”

“I should think we might come to desire a change of scenery, in all that time,” the Elf pointed out. “Another room, perhaps, or a field…”

As if in answer, the room began to rumble.

The Dread Kaitlyn looked over her shoulder; Huinesoron glanced around, frowning.

“What—?”

The rumble paused, only to return, louder than before.

“What is this?” Huinesoron called, pitching his voice loud enough to be heard.

“I do not—aah!”

The floor shifted and buckled, sending the Dread Kaitlyn stumbling. Huinesoron pitched forward, cursing the scarf that bound his hands; the Dread Kaitlyn’s flailing hand found and latched onto his ankle. Together, they pulled her up.

“We ought to—” Huinesoron began, and the room...

...vanished.

*

When the blinding light faded, and their vision cleared, a new room came into view. It was small, with dingy white walls and a single window, through which could be seen—

Well, very little, really, considering it was night and there seemed to be a wall some small distance away.

“Where are we?” Huinesoron asked. His bright eyes examined their new location, and found much for the Elf to puzzle over. “What manner of place is this?”

The Dread Kaitlyn raised herself into a sitting position and frowned at the room. “I...have no idea.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Was it you who brought us here?”

Huinesoron laughed in her face. “I do not have that power. Was it you who brought us here?”

“It was not,” said the Dread Kaitlyn. Carefully, she tested the floor and then got off the bed. Soon after, she glanced over her shoulder, mischief glinting in her eyes. “There appears to be a door. Perhaps I should open it.”

Huinesoron raised his eyebrows. “If this is a new torment, it seems an ineffective one.”

The Dread Kaitlyn appeared to be keeping herself from rolling her eyes; then, she turned the plain metal knob and opened the painted door.

Beyond was a larger room, sporting some furniture and a mortal woman seated at a plain wooden table with her back to them. At the sound of the Dread Kaitlyn taking a step forward, she turned; the Dread Kaitlyn stiffened in place.

“Oh, hey, nice costume,” Neshomeh said, with every appearance of friendliness. “It’s a little early, though, isn’t it?”

“Early?” the Dread Kaitlyn repeated.

“Mm,” said Neshomeh. She turned further, revealing the presence of her second hand, wrapped around a spoon. Huinesoron leaned precariously to one side to stare. “Halloween isn’t for another few months. Still, it’s nice to iron out the details...early…” Her eyes caught on Huinesoron—or, more accurately, on Huinesoron’s hands. “Uh.” She cleared her throat. “Listen, if you two want to...be alone, I’m actually planning to go out soon—I could speed it up—?”

Huinesoron was trying very hard to come up with a response that did not simply point out the return of Neshomeh’s second hand (!) when another door opened.

-- A/N: This twist courtesy of roundabout inspiration from the "Elves don't get sick" exchange below. Onward to silliness! Or drama. One or the other. We shall see (hopefully sooner than 2022)!

Thank you, Nesh! I’m looking forward to shenanigans with Ollie and Marie, and I’ll be sure to look over all of the tips before I post anything.

Hooray!

So I like nearly everything I'm seeing here. There's a clear sense of humor, I can tell you're having fun writing these characters in goofy situations, and I think they'll make an entertaining team to read about. On the strength of that impression alone, I'm happy to say Permission Granted!

However, caveat: make sure to read up more on other PPC works to be sure you understand the setting. Related to this, be sure to make it clear what your setting is in your writing. The second piece had me a little confused at first, since it starts off talking about how much Marie likes World One and its technology. It goes on to say she's in her RC, but I still had to give it another read to be sure she was supposed to be in Headquarters—which, for the record, is not in World One. First impressions matter!

Also, I don't see why an air duct would reliably get Marie from her RC to the World Tree in (I presume) the Magnus Chase universe and a portal wouldn't. I can only guess that there must be a plothole in that duct... but portals are stabilized plotholes. That should work better than a random, unstable plothole. If it leads to Comedic Shenanigans anyway, so much the better!

There was something else, what was it... Ah, paragraphing. In general, be sure to start a new paragraph any time you change characters. This paragraph is a great example:

> “Alfson it is, then. Mine’s Cheon.” Cheon - or as we will call her, Marie - raised a cocky eyebrow. Ollie’s smile went from cordial to merely pleasant, though his proffered hand showed no sign of wavering.

The two characters are in a dialogue here, so dialogue rules apply even though Ollie's response is non-verbal. It needs a new paragraph.

Same deal here:

> “OllieAlfsonPee-Pee-SeePartner says, i am stuck in the Tree.” Tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth, Marie tapped out a response.

Ollie's message and Marie's reaction should be separate paragraphs.

And a last, very nitpicky point: make sure your punctuation is consistent. You've got spaced hyphens instead of dashes in one line and a pair of hyphens instead of a dash in another. Since you're using Gdocs, you can get proper n-dashes (typically – spaced) or m-dashes (typically—not spaced), depending on which style you choose, by going into the Special Characters menu. You can also add an auto-replace function so it changes what you'd normally type into the style of dash you want. It's nice! ^_^

That fic looks quite silly. You could probably find something worse, but I reckon it'll make a fun mission anyway. Plot tension? What's that? {X D

With that, go forth, young writer, and spork!

~Neshomeh

I've been wanting to submit for a while, and I finally got a document together!

Here it is: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TBC3uEhYn6Rmj1MNRf1OsBw1-79xLmY_xZPdJ4ItnCE/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you to FourMoonsWatching and SomeRandomPersonAccount for Beta-ing.

• "Clerical errors" by FourMoonsWatching (tw: allusions to warning)
• "You weren't supposed to push that" by WolfQuill (editor's note: this one's really funny)
• "Grimdark and Gunpla" by Grundleplith
• "A push too far" by Thoth
• "Wrong Number" by Granz
• "First day on the job" by me, Tomash

... and eatplaylove will be sharing something tomorrow, her internet was having a rough time.