The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I still mostly know your guys through the PPC wiki, so "Saranados" has been linked to them in my head for a while now . . . didn't mean to misrepresent your setting!

It would be great to have you back, though!

—doctorlit, regretting his signature in the earlier post now

Erica gave Jenni a wry smile. "We didn't realize who the other was when we met. He invited me back to his place—I'm sure you can imagine what happened next." Her smile widened. "Not that it's stopped us since, mind. Though half the time we're together we end up squabbling. Don't get me wrong, he's great, but he also makes me wish I could strangle him."

Always nice to see people return after a time away. ^_^

I wouldn't worry about an account, if you're referring to the Board. We've never noticed any particular benefits to logging in over just entering your username every time. Though, if you see any, let us know!

~Neshomeh

I do wish the Serene Republic of the Committee much luck and wisdom, and I appreciate their dedication to not making it worse. Truly, they are models of respect in that regard.

"I'd ask if you want to talk about it, but I reckon I should leave that to Parwill." Jenni gave a sardonic smile. Resisting her hardwired urge to delve in and try to help was difficult, but over the years it had finally sunk in that interfering with someone else's patient was heavily frowned upon. "So, uh. How'd you meet Jacques? What was that like?"

First, there's been an agreement to temporarily open the government (for three weeks), and the border wall isn't part of it. I'm going to say that this is a win for sanity (and the Democrats). Hopefully we won't be doing this again come mid-February.

Second, Roger Stone, a senior Trump campaign official, has been arrested for lying to Congress and witness tampering. He allegedly lied when he said he had no emails related to Julian Assange or the hacked DNC emails. Turns out he (almost surely) did.

Other tangentially related facts about this guy: he supported Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal and apparently has a Nixon tattoo on his back.

- Tomash

...So, this is a blast from the past (he says, following the pingback off his Wordpress account) XD

As a note, the story Sabbat and Archer hail from is called Argentum in Aqua now, though Saranados is probably sticking around either as the world or as the series as a whole.

Speaking of sticking around... I know it's been a while, but some stuff's happened that means I'm happier being around here again, so - hi! (Should probably remember my login/get a new account, I guess xD)

By that time the Serene Republic of the Committee will occupy nineteen Departments of the Protectorate of Plort. Every year the delegates, thousands strong, will march to the vast Palace of Definition decked out in the tattered pages of previous meetings' minutes. Assembled, they will sit in utter silence for three full days, then depart in the knowledge that at least they haven't made anything worse.

hS

I predict that the committee will have officially defined "woman" in about a thousand years.

Loving the clerics!

But first: Oh! The Color Out of Space! That's a really good choice to adapt. It should be pretty easy to turn into a script without all the uncomfortable classism against rural people . . . Also, I like that simplistic, old-style movie poster! Not a fan of Nicholas Cage, but oh well.

Former Boarder News
Fynn, the author of Agents Archer and Sabbat, has finished his degree, which means he'll be able to dedicate more time to working on Saranados, the planned fantasy trilogy that his agents hail from. He's also returning to work on Seventh Son, a series he began on deviantART featuring a band of gender-binary-non-conforming adventurers. Snippets from Saranados and the so-far complete chapters of Seventh Son can be found on Fynn's Wordpress account; just be aware there's swearing in some of his stories.

—doctorlit, keeping tabs on our previous members, but not in an uncomfortable way, or anything

Yep, three weeks in a row... look, as long as I keep making 4 Clerics art, you're going to keep having to endure these. ^_^

Fandom News



IO9

They're making an adaptation of H.P.Lovecraft (yes, the Cthulhu guy)'s The Colour Out of Space, apparently starring Nicholas Cage. I'm not... really convinced you can make a film about an unimaginable colour, but judging by the teaser, the 'space' in question is Guardians of the Galaxy, so I'm sure they'll be fine.

Old News



Yesterday in 1966, Indira Gandhi (who, no, was no relation to Mahatma Gandhi) took up her post as first and - so far - only woman Prime Minister of India. She was a fairly controversial figure, and was ultimately assassinated (by her own bodyguards!) in 1984, during her second period in office.

New News



BBC

The US government shutdown continues to drag onwards, with two separate Senate votes to end it failing. Apparently the Republicans in the Senate are starting to fracture, with six voting for the Democrat-proposed bill, but that still hasn't been enough.

The entire shutdown is pretty much an attempt by Trump to hold the USA to hostage until congress does what he wants, which I'm pretty sure isn't how government is supposed to work, and is also absolutely crashing his poll ratings. But that doesn't help the nearly a million people who aren't getting paid because of it.

PPC News



Inspired by various events, the Board of Department Heads has convened a committee to provide an official definition of 'woman'. The Thistle's initial proposal, based on humanoid biology, quickly ballooned to enormous size under caveats and details insisted on by Doctor Fitzgerald. Before the Lichen's plan to expand it to include non-humanoids could be started, the Sub Rosa pointed out that she is most definitely a woman, but not for biological reasons.

The Hippie Sequoia undertook to craft a cultural-based definition, but was stymied by the wide variation even between human societies. The Flowering Leek's option of 'a living thing' was ruled out, first on the basis that it was trains-exclusionary (Joan of DAS-AWAY was very put out), and second by a visit from former agent Fëamintë, who claimed that 'thing' was material-focussed and neglected non-corporeal beings.

At present time, the committee has over 50 members, and is deep in a debate on whether the indefinite article 'a' is offensive to hive minds which could be classed as women. The Fern, acting as chairflower-in-absentia, is reported to be 'optimistic' and 'laughing a lot'.

Clerical News



DeviantArt

The Holy Order of the Bumblebee has encountered a creature first seen in one of the PPC Hunger Games: the arabesque, filigreed, Kaladesh-inspired dragon!

WIS: "It's working, ladies! Stick to the plan!"
CON: "Given that my part of the plan is 'bore it into submission', I'm not optimistic. Also slightly offended."
INT: "I need -- to learn stronger -- binding spells!"
CHA: "I need to get levels in something less kinky…"

(With stained glass windows inspired by this, and by Tolkien.)

hS

1)I'll explain more about Bradbury and Gibb's previous exposure to the bizarre in later works.

2)The text-in-fic thing is standard PPC formatting for showing stuff like notable misspellings.

3)Yes.

The only things that I have to say are that your characters seem really unperturbed to be in this crazy situation, they could probably show more reaction and emotion, or at least Bradbury could. I also wouldn't use text from the fic in the middle of your sentences, it's a bit jarring and confusing. Also, just out of curiosity, is Bradbury a reference to Ray Bradbury?

"Kinda. Sorta. I guess." Erica twisted a strand of hair around her finger. "There are some other differences, too. I'm from some superhero game or other—my version of Rose could control plants. We had supervillains thrown in with the aliens. But yeah, I'm yet another Jack clone running around the multiverse."

She settled herself in her seat at the bar as the familiar interior of Rudi's took shape around her. Whether or not Erica noticed, she wasn't sure, and it wasn't important. Now she could go back to forgetting about the fourth wall and getting on with normal things.

Well, as normal as things got in HQ.

As Erica talked, she nodded and sipped her butterbeer (the most alcoholic thing she usually drank). At the other woman's last words, she tilted her head.

"Now that you mention it, yeah," she said, meaning it quite literally. "So you're like—I don't know if you've heard of Agent Paddlebrains, but she was a genderbent Sirius Black. You're a genderbent Jack Harkness?"

I'm having fun playing around with 'stuff that could only happen in HQ' as my theme; hopefully I can keep coming up with new ideas!

hS

The girls wouldn’t tolerate any boy roaming through their lair, “drunk” or not. I might write a follow-up if there’s another prompt that fits it, but I think that might involve the usual theme of “everything goes horribly wrong”...

I don't have too many comments other than that I liked it and "Wow, Lotte is a lightweight."

- Tomash

THe ending is leaving me looking forward to the followup story (and the "get captured" part of the plan wasn't something I was expecting).

You've done a good job describing the action, from what I can tell. I can generally imagine what was going on.

- Tomash, whose reviewing streak was broken by grad school but might start up again maybe

It seems like the sort of thing that would happen in a bar somewhere in HQ.

(The bit at the end with the sixteenth agent was funny, as was just the increasing parade of old agents.)

For the record, Peregrin would like to slide in at the low end of that contest, at 24(8 or 9) (seeing as he was 242 when I got Permission)). The rest of my agents are all definitely not even in the running.

- Tomash

It always amuses me to note that the Continuity Council is so young. I think I'm older than the lot of them combined.

-E

"Nice guy, and I mean that in the neutral sense of the term," Erica said, swirling the contents of her drink. "Doesn't mind me coming in and staring at the floor for half our sessions. Sometimes it takes a while to get things out, you know?" She grinned, a little wryly. "And I'm not an evil ex. Evil twin might be a more accurate description. Minus the evil part, I hope. Can you see the spinoff resemblance?"

((And it looks like we're in Rudi's!))

It seems we have a friend in common. Or will have... the meta's still sorting itself out. Anyway, that's cool as long as you're not an Evil Ex or something.

Who're you seeing in FicPsych, since it's not me? The author wants to know, too.

... Speaking of... Hey! Typists! If this is gonna turn into a role-play, can we get a setting and maybe some quotation marks, please? Undefined white space gets old fast.