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I still haven't completely wrapped my head around the idea. I've been working towards this since I started Cub Scouts, which was easily in first grade, second grade-- twelve or thirteen years back, now.

It's a big pinnacle.

I'm still not sure when the ceremony will take place, but when it does you can bet I'll have pictures to post!

I know how much hard work that takes--my brother's an Eagle Scout. Kudos for sticking with it and working your butt off to get that final rank! Seems like just yesterday you were a Tenderfoot, eh? ;-)

I gift you with an egg whisk! It's shiny, gold-plated, and whisks not only eggs but spambots and those pesky author wraiths, too. Use it for good and not much evil.

Welcome to the insanity! Enjoy the ride.

That is so cool! I've been to one of the ceremonies before and I have brothers trying for the same rank, so I know how hard it is to become an Eagle Scout. Here's chips, soda, and pizza for your celebration party!

Welcome to the PPC! Here's a special battleaxe from the Raven Armory. It's good for killing all Sues.

Three guesses, first two don't count.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EagleScout%28BoyScoutsof_America%29

There hasn't been a nice ceremony yet, since the paperwork has to be shuttled through the channels of the BSA hierarchy, and I know firsthand just how big of a bureaucracy that is. But every requirement has been completed, and everything is signed off-- so it IS official!

... which is like a ha-ha, only deeper. :P

hS

Though an agent getting caught by their own logic would be an interesting twist.

~Neshomeh

And pretty pictures!

Isn't a ha-ha mentioned in one of the Discworld novels?

I must not say anything about the Balrog having wings. I will not say anything about the Balrog having wings. I will not ...

... this is sort of the continuation of that (if you want me to post the waking up, I can). I tried leading directly on from the prologue but it didn't work, so I set it a bit later and then had a flashback in dream form.

As for the comma, I don't know. I've always been taught that commas before ands were a stylistic thing and I don't do that. I'll try to reword the sentence. Thanks.

The guard wandering around I hadn't really considered as part of the story. I had pictured how he would do it, but not thought about actually showing it. She escapes in less than a day so it would be fairly moot and she'll encounter him later on one day anyway. I was thinking of having him tell her then that he couldn't find any paper trail about her at all and ooh, isn't that strange and all that stuff.

It does the job of showing what happens when she wakes up in prison, which I assume is your intent. I'd kind of like to follow the guard a bit now as he goes sniffing for information--it would give you a chance to explore his thoughts and his reasons for helping the main character--but if it's a flashback, maybe that doesn't work.

Also, I think you need a comma in this sentence: "Even she could tell that it seemed like a flimsy excuse for an escape attempt and she was actually suffering from amnesia."

It should read: "Even she could tell that it seemed like a flimsy excuse for an escape attempt, and she was actually suffering from amnesia."

Otherwise, it sounds like you're saying that she can tell she's actually suffering from amnesia, which is silly, because that's already established.

~Neshomeh

Don't touch those three, I need my Agents.
Whatever, Krisprolls and South are happy to welcome you and any Agents you might have.

Woozy, after getting Dalek'd? Oh well. At least we can see where Uncle Rusty gets these dodgy ideas from now, I suppose.

... that the Stolen Earth Dalek shot was a glancing hit, rather than a full-body strike. I have no idea how Dalek guns work, but it's possible that gave him time to start the regeneration process rather than killing him instantly.

Anyway, if we're talking about the sixties, I seem to recall either Ian or the Doctor getting Dalek'd in The Daleks and just being a bit woozy after...

hS

I’ve got a character in a story for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion who I’ve given amnesia to solve ten thousand issues with the pre-game story. This has the unfortunate side effects of a) having no name, making me constantly call her ‘she’ for the first and second chapters minimum (hey, it’s better than the first-person present tense prologue) and b) causing this scene to make me tear my hair out. After six rewrites, I still can’t get it right. Basically, she woke up in the Imperial City prison with no memory of who she is or what she did (and yes, it’s the later Champion of Cyrodil). She’s called a guard to get help for her, but no matter how I write this scene, I can’t think of any ways to get it more… well, interesting and realistic would be good. The guard is practically a plot device/mild exposition guy and I can’t really disguise that fact. He never appears again barring once later (later) scene where he re-encounters her long after she’s escaped from the prison and fills in a bit more of the amnesia checklist. Can anyone come up with any advice for me to rewrite this scene well? Or is it actually good as it is? If you think I could use a bit more description of some things, be aware that this is a flashback, so I’ve already described quite a bit already, but in case I haven’t, tell me anyway.

X

“All right, all right, I’m here,” the guard said, annoyed at being disturbed. “What is it?”

She leapt to her feet and promptly hit her head on the ceiling, only now realising how small the room was. She yelped in pain, a headache forming on the spot, but tried to ignore it as best as she could. “Please, I need to see a doctor,” she pleaded.

The guard frowned and looked her over. “Why? I can’t see anything wrong with you.”

“I…” She hesitated, afraid that he wouldn’t believe her.

“Out with it!” the guard snapped. “If you don’t tell me, you don’t get a doctor even if you do need one.”

“I can’t remember who I am,” she admitted. “I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember committing any crime, I don’t remember my life, I don’t even remember my name.” She paused and looked at him. “Do… do you know it?”

“I only arrived from Anvil this morning,” the guard said, frowning. “I don’t know what you did or who you are and, frankly, I couldn’t care less. You’re all scum if you’re in here.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” she protested. “Or, if I did, I don’t remember it. I just remember waking up five minutes ago. That’s it! Please, you have to help me.” She tried reaching through the bars to grip his hand for some measure of comfort from a law enforcer, but he drew back, his hand reaching for his sword instinctively.

His frown deepened and he looked into her eyes, seeing no trace of deception there. His experience, however, had taught him to always be cautious. “I’ll do some checking up on you,” he promised. “Who you are, who you stole from or killed or whatever… if I come away from that believing you, I’ll get a doctor to check you over. If whatever happened to you is curable, then you’ll do your time. If not, I would presume you can appeal against your sentence on the grounds of ‘you’ not being the same person.”

“Please,” she begged, her eyes watering. “I just want to go home… if I even have one,” she said to herself in a half-murmur. She looked up at him. “Help me.”

The guard hesitated before speaking. “Turn around. I’ll help you a bit as a promise to do more if you’re telling the truth.” She did so, not understanding his intent. After a second or so though, the guard approached her cell’s gate and put his hand through. A cooling feeling swept across her feet and the biting pain in her ankles was soothed away as they healed. She turned around, grateful, but the guard had already gone. She looked at the bars blocking her exit mournfully and returned to her bed, exploring her cell with her eyes, not wanting to actually touch anything in the grim chamber. She wondered if he would ever return despite his act of kindness. Even she could tell that it seemed like a flimsy excuse for an escape attempt and she was actually suffering from amnesia. The guard would be extremely doubtful. She wondered if she always had bad luck or if having a cautious guard come to her was just a blip in what was usually good luck. She looked around her cell again, spotting the rusty manacles hanging from a secure bolt in the ceiling. Guess I know the answer, she thought.

X

Well? Any ideas?

Oh, and on this note, I’m looking for a beta reader for the fic. While I would obviously prefer one familiar with TES lore (I’m not as familiar as I’d like to be, having entered the series with Oblivion), this is not a requirement in the least. I already have one TES fangirl helping me on that side of things (though that seem a bit of a mean thing to say, I mean it in the kindest possible sense because she’s quite wonderful (and very intelligent, too) and only gets fangirlish if I poke her by saying that BioWare can craft massively better RPGs (which they can and let no-one tell you any different either :P)). Therefore, even someone who can only help on the spelling and grammar side of things would be most appreciated (because, damn, I think I need it for the horrific prologue which, as I’ve said, is in first-person present tense). Thanks in advance.

I mean, the place does have a popular song that runs "Ankh-Morpork, Ankh-Morpork, So Good They Named It Ankh-Morpork", so there has to be some connection. But mostly it's just Ur-London. (And I know he claims the map's not based on any particular city, but with the Isle of Gods and Hide Park in there, it's hard to believe that)

hS

Welcome. :) Don't mind the poking; it's tradition. Lovely to meet you. Please don't bother trying to maintain your sanity - it is already doomed. Thank you.

Argue with the Sue that she can't logically have gone throught the rituals of becoming a Time Lord, therefore does not have the power to regenerate and thus is dead after being killed once.

Hello. I learned about the PPC from a link from TV tropes a couple of months ago and have been reading though old missions and the wiki since then. I thought the time has come for me to introduce myself. I am a fan mostly of sci-fi, but I also like some fantasy.

In my experience, hangovers make one feel like a corpse. But that said, I remember my first hangover, and I vaguely remember the post-drinking feeling before hangovers started. And my best advice is: quit now, while the going's good, because by Christ they get worse.

(You get drunken fun, which makes it worthwhile, but still.)

It the October Ale a drink in a book, then?

they have death-rays customized for preventing Time Lord regeneration

THIS.

Why the hell has everyone, RTD included, forgotten this is canon?

(Keep poking me on that one. I keep being lame and hungover, and I can't beta worth a damn when hungover. Prod me repeatedly?)

Dalek.

Unless it's Uncle-Rusty-verse. Time was, The Doctor couldn't regenerate if the Daleks got him, I'm pretty sure. Force the Sue into sixties canon, one extermination should do it.

My take on it, as an English reader, and bearing in mind just what he's playing off, is that Ankh-Morpork's got nothing to do with New York; rather, New York has its origins in the same city Ankh-Morpork does.

Ankh-Morpork is really nothing to do with New York. A-M is an evolved twist on London as was. But so, in fairness, is NY (or so Pterry says) - this is why so many Discworld cities have an A-M flavour while not being A-M; this is why so many Real World cities have a flavour of London. All cities, in a Platonic sense, are echoes of one city, Pterry tells us, and that city is Ankh-Morpork.

Or, if you'd rather, the man's not that familiar with America or New York, but he is familiar with London as is and as was, and also with the tropes surrounding fantasy cities. Mix the two, and you might get something resembling New York, but it's not actually based on New York. It's more a case of reality resembling the fictitious natural progression of that city.

(He also gets a lot down pat, because the man's an excellent satirist, and there's a lot of readily available source material.)