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That is how he should react.

Thank you. :)

I tend to think of my characters through the lenses of my roleplaying background. I look at two sets of opposing factors: virtue/vice and merits/flaws.

Virtues and vices are a good way to broadly define your character. Virtues include Temperance, Hope, Faith and Justice, among others. Vices can include any of the Seven Deadly Sins. Giving your character these two elements should add a bit of imperfection, so long as you stay true to them.

Merits and flaws are more specific. For merits, any attribute that gives your character an advantage over other people: eidetic memory, ambidexterity, being unusually strong or pretty. Flaws are, of course, the opposite: addiction, cowardly, deficiency in a sense, having an embarrassing secret, aloofness. The most important thing I find is to balance the merits and flaws. If your character has a merit that boarders on mythic then give them a flaw that is equally mythic to balance it out.

These things will not only allow you to create imperfect characters, they will also help you create characters that are easy for a reader to identify with.

Just make them like regular people, I guess. Normal, real-world people are imperfect--they're good at some things and terrible at others; they make mistakes; they do things even when they know they shouldn't, they don't do things even when they know they should. Sometimes (often) things don't work out in their favor. And yet they also do good and right things, often when it really matters, and sometimes it works out for them. That's about it, really. *shrug* Maybe other people will have more to say.

~Neshomeh

How do you make characters imperfect? I mean, I do try, and some of them come out rather plain (which is good), but lots of them come out like - well, you really don't want to know.

I can't think of what to do. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
~Xanthia B.

If I remember class right, all women have four metamers - the usual red, green, and blue, plus a fourth that's a red-orange. Usually, it's so close to red that there's no visual difference, but in some cases, it's distinct enough that it gives them crazy amounts of color sensitivity.

Well, you'd better not read these fics then. Evangelion is a tight-knit fandom, which occasionally delves into that sort of stuck-up "I can interpret this highly ambiguous series better than you can" bit but otherwise is really devoted to the canon.

Unfortunately, even here lies badfic, and a lot of it is really, REALLY gross. I'm warning you, the following is NSFW.

http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/viewch.php/8741/16410#ficc

Okay, first up, we have "Obsession," and what a turkey it is. Shinji's all grown up and is Vice-Commander of NERV (oh, like he would agree to that), and has a cute little daughter, Eve, with Asuka. But Shinji has a dark secret involving necrophilia, Eve turns out to be Rei's, not Asuka's, through some lengthily-explained hooey that makes no sense, and child molestation, child abuse, reincarnation, murder, and Rei's real name apparently being "Kiboo" ensue. Easily EVA's most infamous fic; were it in a bigger fandom, it might even qualify for Legendary, or at least "famously disgusting" status.

http://anime.adultfanfiction.net/story.php?no=544216205

But compared to our second feature, "Obsession" is Citizen Kane. "Boys Will Be Boys" features the brutal "interrogation" of Kaji by Gendo, who's thrown his canonical magnificent bastardry to the wind to become an "Agony in Pink"-style kink torturer, whose repertoire includes hooks through the hands, anal rape, peeing in his mouth, and forcing him to eat his baby son. And no, I am NOT kidding about the last part. This author's other "work" includes a horrendous Warhammer crossover, a story about Rei finding happiness with a pet cat... which proceeds to die horribly, and a story called "Rape: It's What's for Dinner!" which I haven't checked out yet but, umm... huh. TVTropes postulates that if you read this guy's work in the right order, Hastur will appear.

So... yeah. Umm... enjoy? Can you really say that?

The lost tales are the best PPC's yet in my opinion.

Science is awesome. I've always been kind of intrigued by the idea of metamers -- that's the red, green, and blue channels that we use to perceive color, and all color is a combination of use of those three. Well, apparently there are people who have an extra metamer, and can perceive an extra dimension of color. These people are mostly women, who can perceive color changes in a person's face that most of us can't --changes that are indicitive of health alternations when you're getting sick. Pretty cool, huh?

Thanks! HAHA!!!

Light seems to throw scientists for a loop fairly often. It's fun that something that's constantly around us can still be so mysterious and difficult to study.

Yeah, it was a Scientific American. Specifically, that particular SA.

I was reading a Scientific American today, and it said something about impossible colors on the cover, but I was more interested in why humans don't have fur.

(WARNING: ACTUAL SCIENCE!)

I was reading through my latest edition of Science News lately, and I found out something quite interesting. You see, the brain receives color in two channels: R/G and B/Y. All colors seen are made by the brain mixing blue or yellow with red or green. However, no color can ever appear bluish AND yellowish, or reddish AND greenish, because the different responses of the color channels are in opposition. (It's like trying to flex your bicep and tricep at the same time: the opposing impulses cancel eachother out.)

However, recent research has shown that under special conditions, the opposing-color theory is incorrect. When two opposing colors of equal luminance are placed side-by-side, and the image is stable on the viewer's retinas, the border between blue and yellow will blur, and you'll perceive a solid field of Blello (or Reen, if you're using reddish green).

Sadly, Urple cannot be produced with this method (as pink and purple are not opposing colors) but it's kind of neat, don't you think?

Someone's gone and written a 'Suefic on the pit, with the 'Sue attempting to force a Legomance. The title is, and I kid you not, "Fair Wandered, Thou Makest Me Sick." A quote from the story -
"Then the sunshine burst out from behind the clouds, the birds sang, and five rainbows in previously thought to be impossible positions in the sky appeared.
Said unwelcome guest had golden hair that rippled down past her slender waist as she walked, her steps barely able to be heard. Her eyes were big and bright blue, shining as if she always had teardrops ready to fall (and for her sick purposes she probably did). Apparently she was lost – she was calling out in some foul language, presumably for help."

The story is pure genius-- and it has a sequel, with a 'Sue who has the unparalleled ability to mangle Shakespeare beyond recognition. Here's a link to the first one - http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4810725/1/FairWandererThouMakestMeSick
Just click on the author's link for the second. What a great present for Mardi Gras.
-HonuWahine(sorry for the fic-spam. It was just too good to pass up.)

I'm considering checking the Gorillaz section of the Pit for potential Sues, but it'll be a while if I do.

Hi ukitsu!
Welcome! Here's a bottle of bleeprin, and I have heard they have bumper stickers somewhere back there *gestures behind her*.

*pokes ceremonially*

Welcome! Also, please have this bumper sticker! *sticks on bumper sticker reading "Spell-check is my co-pilot."*

If you need even more material to read, may I point you to the PPC Lost Tales archive? It's still under construction in places, but there are some PPC stories there that you won't be able to find anywhere else now that Geocities is gone. Enjoy!

~Neshomeh

I'm pretty sure there was a decision made at some point that minis shouldn't just be randomly decided--it's the person who first writes an OFU for the fandom or, if there isn't an OFU, then the person who first writes a mission with minis in the fandom who gets to decide the type of the minis. Sort of like a discoverer's right to name their discovery. Also, it prevents a build-up of miscellaneous information that isn't connected to anything. So, if you're actually going to do something with this, then it's fine, but if not then leave it for someone who is, okay? {= )

~Neshomeh

Welcome! I offer to thee...a coxcomb! Which is a sort of silly hat. One can never have too many silly hats.

Since Real Fic takes place in the real world, it kind of messes up how Minis are supposed to work. Should we perhaps decide on one type of Mini to cover misspellings in all RealFic? The problem with that is there isn't really a "monster" for Earth, unless you count Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, which some people don't believe exist.

Or, we could say that misspelled singers make a Mini-Microphone, misspelled actors a Mini-Video Camera, or something like that.

Thank yuou! Well, I tire of waiting for the bucket so, I guess I'll throw it to the winds. My mind is already shot, seeing as I spent my morning weeding through the dreek at the Pit for my first assignment. I can taste the INSANITY!!!

Dance! Dance the dance of life!!!

Fair winds!

Since RPF is unlikely to have monsters we can use for Minis, what do we use if an actor or singer's name is misspelled?

Also, I think we need Minis for the Gorillaz (the cartoon band with the creepy character designs). I know none of their fic's been sporked yet, but there's an impressive number of ways to misspell the name "Niccals". Mini-Ravens? Or did Cortez arrive too late in the storyline? Mini-Zombies? Maybe the zombie gorillas from the "Clint Eastwood" video?

I comes bearing links. *drags out Big Bag O' Links and digs through it*

First off is the link to the Wiki, a veritable fount of information for a newbie to read through. Especially helpful for you if you want to write missions would be the page on Permission (note the capital P).

I would advise against reading any Legendary Badfic, unless you are of strong mind and stomach. Even the summaries have been known to give those of weaker constitution nightmares.

For your reading pleasure, not knowing what you have already managed to find, I have several links for you. The Original Series (not to be confused with Star Trek) is a good place to start, as the PPC did many aeons ago. What do you mean I'm exaggerating? The Department of Geographical Aberrations is another interesting place to visit, if you have the time and inclination. Also by hS is the Tangled Webs site, which contains backstory for the PPC as an organisation. If you would rather visit the Floaters, then July's site is the place you need to be. And last, but most definitely not least, Response Centre 45 is where Trojie and Pads' missions are archived.

Hope you enjoy your stay here. Please deposit your sanity into the container offered to you by another Boarder; you won't be needing it here.