The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

You have two other beta requests still on the front page. Adding new ones pushes other threads off the front page prematurely.

I need a beta for my Permission Attempt.

So far, the main issue I can see is that it needs to be pared down and unnecessary passages have to be removed.

Is anyone willing to volunteer?

That is such a speshul name. They both are.

When we claim badfic, we don't usually announce it on the Board, otherwise the Board would be spammed with this kind of thing. As you can see, with each post you make, another post drops further down, which may hide a potentially interesting conversation from view. Therefore, we ask that you be a little more conservative with what you make Board posts about.

Of course, the converse is true: Every post you make pushes a controversial post or big mishap one step closer to the Point of No Return, otherwise known as the second page. And it's not like we discourage Board activity, either. Just... this is not the subject for it.

Don't worry; everyone makes mistakes. Just remember that for next time and it will all be fine.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9926237/1/The-Shadow-Chronicles

I mean, Tungsten-Tritium-Fluorine?

And I like "plotprotectors" being used for the new Board, to match the "Lost Tales" domain.

—doctorlit, supposing we could go with "continuumcrusaders.*" instead

Very nice pictures. :)

I'm very pleased to hear that you have access to the arcane technology known as "rue ler"; it saves me trying to make all my lines straight. ^_^ Free The Pencil!

I did actually go ahead and redo the landscape on a larger sheet; I think I've actually got the slopes and stuff in the right places now. At least one alley has a staircase section, which is a mite inconvenient if you're heading from the TARDIS dock to the ice cream parlour, but you can always take the road on the other side of the docks and get there almost as quick.

hS

Or at least to re-imagine the scenario with less specific requirements.

If what you want is a situation where "badfic" + "logic" = "boom," there are any number of ways that could happen without introducing super-specific chemistry into a fantasy world, and with the premise loose enough, you might even find something that works to set it up in the wild. Just don't force it.

Or, if what you really want is "super-specific chemistry goes boom," the PPC has a science department and people who are happy to tinker with dangerous substances at the expense of their eyebrows. If you can think of a reason why someone in HQ would be doing this specific thing, having it be something that happened in HQ is another option. But, again, there's no reason to force this into existence. "Chemistry goes boom" works as a premise without necessarily getting into the exact formula.

OTOH, I can see someone in HQ taking a chemistry joke and trying to make it work, with hilarious consequences. Anyone know any good chemistry jokes?

~Neshomeh

My general MO is to trace over the original sketch with black lineart, then color after. I've got a nifty little ruler tool that will help me keep the buildings looking straight as well. :)

Here are some of my WoW characters, here is an updated drawing of my favorite D&D character, and here are ones I finished just last night of my and Aegis' new agent duo.

Whatever you end up going with—and for the record, I thought the last one you did was super cute—I'm sure everyone will love it. :)

Swashbuckling from the Golden Age of Hollywood

I don't know how many other Boarders know or care about swashbuckler movies, but it's a fun little compilation. I particularly appreciate the video credits at the end, in case you don't know who the actors are or don't recognize them. My only complaint is the absence of Burt Lancaster from this illustrious lineup, but I guess you can't have everything in life. (Yes, I left the one comment on the video, in case you're wondering.)

Firstly, ooh! That sounds great, and not just because I was dreading having to work out a decent-looking colour scheme. ^^

Secondly, I didn't know you did digital art! I'm pretty unobservant though, so no surprises there. ^~

Thirdly... now I've got spiralling concerns about the quality of the drawing. I've wound up with five screenshots attempting to figure out the exactly layout, and am seriously considering redrawing the whole thing at double scale...

hS

...murder is in no way fun. Apologies for anyone having psycho alarms set off by my last post.

...lure them to a airlock, shut the door on them, and vent them into space.

Or...

...deliberately decompress the entire module they're in, by sabotaging the nearest airlock and sealing all the hatches.

Or...

Drill a hole in their spacesuit, or weaken a stress point significantly. While they're in a pressurised environment, the suit won't pop. However, if they're on a spacewalk, and you've put the weak point near a joint...well, they're screwed.

Hell, you could even just club them with a sufficiently blunt object, then drag the body to a airlock, and vent them into space.

Then there's the joys of poisoning with a lethal dose of painkiller (though I doubt contemporary space agencies provide stations like the ISS with enough dosage of painkiller to deliver a lethal dose), sabotaging their EVA pack to thrust them into deep space, sabotaging the oxygen supply in their suit, or just gourging out tbeir eyes with a fork, shoving the said eyeballs in their mouth, forcing them to swallow, and then stabbing them in the gut until their die.

Murder is fun!

... our biggest archive taking over the misssandman role of pseudo-homepage. :) As YpsiFang says, you're already hosting TOS, so you kind of are the home page.

hS

Trip is the chief engineer. Reed is actually the tactical officer. He's in charge of the things what go boom.

I was right about Mayweather being the helmsman, though.

~Neshomeh

The extended pilot/first episode and eps two and three, anyway. I noticed it's on Netflix, so I started watching. I figure I owe it to Nume to check it out so he can have a properly informed negative opinion. {= )

I, however, think it's fine so far! The only thing I really hate is the opening theme, so I'll get that out of the way up front.

"Where My Heart Will Take Me" doesn't sound like Star Trek at all. It sounds like they wanted to be the first to do what Firefly did really well the following year with "The Ballad of Serenity," but instead of using a cool, original steel-guitar folk ballad of defiance, they used a preexisting song that goes on about "faith of the heart" and reminds me of the blandest, safest, most boring type of Christian pop rock. (I'm not slamming ALL Christian pop rock here, please note.) I want a soaring, majestic trumpet fanfare in a Trek theme, and not only is this not that, it's not even an original song. BLAH.

... If I were a pessimist, I'd say that probably sets the tone for the show. See, I could forgive them if it seemed like they were really trying to set a tone that makes them stand apart from the preexisting Trek series, but they're really, really not. They're playing it very safe so far, and all the other music and effects sound like what you'd expect. Therefore, I will continue to hate the theme song with a passion and be extremely glad Netflix lets me skip it.

But, again, I'm actually enjoying the show so far! I like that it feels like Star Trek; I consider this a good thing, especially for the earliest eps. It has room to grow into its own identity down the road. For now, I'm cool with it following a lot of the same beats.

I even think they're doing a good job with the adventure-of-the-week formula. They're really leaning into the scientific exploration thing in ways that I dig, such as having one of the main characters be an exolinguist. ENT is set before TOS, so a lot of the tech we're familiar with is relatively new and untested here, including the Universal Translator. That means it doesn't always work, and sometimes the intuition of another living, feeling being is better than machine logic. I do raise my eyebrows at how quickly Ensign Hoshi seems to pick up a new language from a very limited sample; even though they acknowledge that she isn't going to get it right, it's a bit of a stretch that she gets it within the time shown at all. But, I make allowances for the limitations of the medium, and I think it's pretty cool that they build a conflict around a language barrier at all. I give it a thumbs-up.

The only problem is that, so far, they've kind of depended on Captain Archer being an excitable idiot to get the plots rolling in the first place. I want to like how keen Archer is on getting out there and exploring those strange new worlds for the first time, because that IS part of what I'm here for. However, he has a bad habit of ignoring the advice of his Vulcan science officer, T'Pol, basically to spite the entire Vulcan race for telling the Humans they weren't ready for the last hundred years.

I hate to tell ya this, Archer, but you're still not ready. Not if you won't even wait a week to do standard scans of a new planet to make sure it's safe before bopping down there for a camping trip. No, I don't care that it "looks fine." This is your basic responsibility to look after the safety of your crew. There is no excuse for not doing this, you goober.

Ugh. I don't hate Archer—yet. But I might if his character doesn't go through some major growth that involves the show acknowledging when everything that happens is his fault and him learning when to listen to good advice even if he doesn't like it. From what I've heard, I fear I may be disappointed, but please don't tell me. I'll find out on my own.

I like the rest of the cast enough to make up for him, anyway.

T'Pol fills the role of Vulcan science officer. She gets there more or less by accident, but it's a happy accident that (I think) directly leads to the position being standard by Spock's time. T'Pol is a full Vulcan, so she doesn't have Spock's baggage about having the occasional emotion or being uncertain where she fits in. Her deal is that she's here half-unwillingly babysitting these idiot children and trying to keep them from peeing themselves in public, setting themselves on fire, or accidentally starting an interstellar war. Her frustration is palpable, and her patience with their bullshit is admirable. Like a good guardian, she gives her charges the tools they need to succeed, but also gives them room to do things their own way even if it means they'll fail sometimes, and she's there to help if things get too bad. Also, I think she likes exploring more than she wants to let on. I like her.

We've got our Kirk analog and our Spock analog. We also have a Bones analog in Chief Engineer Trip. I'm not sure how I feel about Trip yet. They're leaning a bit hard on this familiar dynamic, right down to the good ol' Southern boy accent, so I'm not too sure who he is besides the token "guy who doesn't like Vulcans very much." He's as keen on getting out and exploring as Archer; he's loyal; he has a more or less level head... but I dunno, I just don't have a strong feel for him. At least they're working on getting him over his issues with T'Pol right away, so I hope to get to know the real Trip better soon.

Dr. Phlox is the other resident alien on the Enterprise (which they insist on referring to simply as Enterprise, again anticipating something Firefly pulls off but somehow making it weird).

Er, right, Chief Medical Officer Phlox. He's fun. I haven't caught what his species is, but the few hints we've gotten about his backstory is that his people are more restrained than Humans—no talking allowed during mealtimes being the main example. He's very cheerful, very interested in everything new, occasionally to the point of being a little inappropriate for Human mores. "I think they're preparing to mate! ... Do you think they'd let me watch?" Uh, no, Doc. No. ^_^; But he takes his job seriously. He's passionate about it and he's good at it. I like him.

Let's see, I talked about Hoshi, so... the other two main characters are Chief Engineer Reed and... Mayweather. Who I think is the main helmsman? I dunno, they're more or less O'Brien and LaForge redux. They're both fine. Mayweather is a "Boomer," meaning he grew up in space flying around on starships at low warp, which is cool. He tells a good ghost story.

Ooh, we met an entomologist in episode three. She didn't really have anything to do besides collect bugs and I don't remember her name, but it was nice to have her and the other low-ranking away-team members treated as more than just cannon fodder. I hope we see her and the other guy again.

Final point on my mind: I don't think the Prime Directive is a thing yet? If it were, I don't think they'd have let Hoshi pick up a slug-critter from one planet and let it go on a totally different planet when it wasn't thriving in captivity. If that's not interfering with the development of a pre-spacefaring species, whooo-ee, I don't know what is. I chalk it up as another count of Archer being an irresponsible goober and setting a bad example for his crew, and I hope his butt has a good kicking coming to it.

More on this later if I feel like it!

~Neshomeh

P.S. Archer's pet beagle, Porthos, is pointless, but cute. I prefer Data's pet cat, Spot, though. {= P

hS, if and when the thing is finished—I’d love to convert this to digital art and color it in.

plotprotectors is the closest thing we have to an associated domain name. So if we're going to put the board under something, it makes sense. Then again, there is the suggested confusion... I dunno.

By the way, regardless of out domain name, if we have our own domain, we can mirror Lost Tales on there. And probably should. But that's neither here nor there.

I think using that site as a landing page would work nicely, given it has links to other PPC stuff already. Doesn't hurt that it hosts the Original Series and a good number of spinoffs.

Plus, I'm just partial to plotprotectors, as domains go. :P

I didn't want to presume so much as to ask, but I thought you might get the sketching bug for this. I always like your architectural drawings, and this is so great to see. Forget my work; I've just been clicking around and running my keyboard. THIS is real work, doing the actual conjuring of the visuals. Thank you! {= D

I love the idea of Abbot's as a mini-church. I presume that the "bell tower" is actually the chimney for the ovens. ^^

I also love the "art installation." And the Hospital. And, well, everything. ^^

Guess I might have to stop moving the buildings around on a whim now, eh?

~Neshomeh