The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

It’s just a few days until my own five year Boardiversary! I’m definitely glad you decided to stick around. :)

Has technically been and gone five days ago. But no matter!

Six years and five days ago, I became a Boarder! Not as impressive as fifteen years, but still a good chunk of time. Tremble all ye masses--! I mean, uh, this is my polar bear army for giving hugs ;) *

Anyway. There have been some good times, and some bad times, but overall it's been pretty cool to be a part of the community that I grew up reading stories from, and it would be both difficult and ridiculous to deny that I've benefited greatly from being here. So here's to more good times to come!

~Z

*I wink, but, uh, that's kind of their primary function. Must be to do with having spawned from jokes about Canadian stereotypes.

Maybe you'd better swing by here, though--RC 5242. Just in case. I'd like to think most of FicPsych knows me well enough by now to recognize me, but given what just happened, it seems a better idea not to tempt fate...

-J

((Amazing! I'm absolutely still interested as well :) Let's talk ideas over email or whatever chat service we both use that's convenient? For me I think that's currently Discord, but I still have Gchat available for all I've barely been using it. And technically also AIM, but, uh. I haven't used *that* since I was talking to Araeph on it in 2013--oh *drat*, I forgot my own Boardaversery! ~Z))

At least this way my last memory before some poor agent justifiably murders me will be a good one!

~Also J

(( And yes, still interested in writing some sort of interlude sometime, with or without this having anything to do with it. ^_^ ~Neshomeh ))

Sounds like a fun time all around, apart from the...consequences. What do you say we go for that coffee after all, and you tell me all about it? I'm a very good distraction from things like No-Drool Videos ;)

-J

((So that was a fun thread+ficlet :D glad I checked the Board! ~Z))

Once more unto the forum, my friends...

Fandom News


US Trailer | International Trailer

Trailer time! We got our first trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home this week, and it looks good! I'm continually baffled that Disney, of all people, have managed to mostly-consistently turn out good comic book movies, but... there you are.

Old News



On January 16th in 27 BC, Octavian was granted the title Augustus by the Senate of Rome, inaugrating the Roman Empire. Also on January 16th, this time in 1707, the Parliament of Scotland passed the Union with England act, uniting England and Scotland under the Scottish-descended Queen Anne, as the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Meanwhile...

New News



Brexit deal rejected by huge margin

On January 15th this year, the Parliament of the United Kingdom (formed from the English and Scottish parliaments back in 1707) handed the government its biggest defeat in history. By voting down Theresa May's Brexit deal, parliament baaaaasically set the stage for a catastrophic shambles two months down the line. There's no majority in parliament for a) staying in the EU, b) leaving under this deal (which the EU says is the best they'll offer), or c) leaving with no deal, but no-one is willing to d) just stay in the EU.

In an ironic turn of phrasing, on January 16th the government defeated a vote of no confidence, indicating that Parliament does have confidence in Theresa May's leadership. Apparently.

PPC News



Reports of a bleeprin shortage have been greatly exaggerated. By which we mean there is categorically no bleeprin shortage; rumours that FicPsych has been restricting supplies come only from a few agents who were far exceeding safe limits. There is no shortage. Everything is fine.

Please take your placards and go back to your RCs.

Not News



The Holy Order of the Bumblebee - Doorways (DeviantArt)

Well, it didn't raise any objections last time... further adventures of the Party of Four Clerics, this time trying to get past a guard. Their signifiers are what they'd have to roll a check against; a CON check for out-waiting someone amuses me quite a bit.

Obviously no Cleric would ever rely on STR to get in. And none of the Order are terribly dextrous.

hS

And, now that I'm home and can track it down, here's the piece I was talking about: Chopin's Funeral March.

~Neshomeh

Phantom of the Opera and Pirates of the Caribbean are my only real fandoms at the moment. I love Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Star Wars, but refuse to read fanfiction for those continua because I don't want to see them desecrated. There's also a handful of things I'm fond of, but I'm not really in any of the fandoms, if that makes sense.

Thanks for the notebook! *goes off to set basilisk on unsuspecting Mary Sues*

Thanks! I'm sure I will!

That was excellent. Poor Jenni.

If Jack ever remembers, he is so looking her up in the future. :P

... since I saw someone go *wibble*.

This was fun. ^_^

hS

As I hit "Post," I noticed the radio was playing that one sad, slow funeral processional. {X D

~Neshomeh

Surprisingly, getting into the department without being seen had been easy. Jenni had her suspicions about this, but seeing as it had been too late to back out gracefully from the word go, she surrendered to the moment. Why not? It wasn't like this was some sort of premeditated, lust-fueled plot to get into his pants. It was an accident. A happy, raunchy accident between two happy, raunchy people. No harm, no foul, right? And Jack was the British image of a cocky, handsome American fly-boy. He was fun.

Of course, the Powers That Be couldn't simply let them get away with it. Oh, no. Upon exiting Room B-9, slightly disheveled and grinning, they ran smack into Head Nurse Suzine.

Suzine narrowed her eyes in immediate suspicion. "Nurse Robinson...?"

"Uh-oh," said Jack. "Are we in trouble?"

Face frozen in its rictus, Jenni latched onto Jack's arm. "I found him!"

"What?" said Suzine.

"What?" laughed Jack.

"Jack, you naughty boy," Jenni said, shaking a finger at him. "You can't go wandering off like that! Come on, back to your room!"

"Um..." said Jack.

Suzine crossed her arms and didn't budge. "You... found him."

"Yes."

"In Section B."

"Yes."

"Wearing a cocktail dress."

"Totally random happenstance," said Jenni, wishing she'd gone with fewer sequins.

"Hey, I'm starting to feel a little sidelined here," said Jack.

Jenni made what she hoped came off as an apologetic grimace and not obvious guilt to both her date and her boss.

Suzine's skepticism was etched on her face like a stone carving. "Riiight. Captain Harkness, why don't you come along with me? I think there's an immediate release form with your name on it."

She made a curt gesture. Jenni let go of Jack's arm, and he, having the sense not to piss off someone who could get away with wearing those heels with that skirt, shrugged and went along.

"Nurse Robinson, I'll see you in the Kudzu's office in fifteen minutes," said the Head Nurse before turning away.

Jack looked over his shoulder, raised a hand with the thumb and pinky spread apart, and mouthed "Call me!"

Jenni waved. Once they'd rounded the corner, she slumped off to Section C and her impending doom.

About twenty minutes later, she stood in front of the Kudzu Vine with Suzine glaring at her from the side.

And you say this was a case of mistaken identity? said the Flower.

"Yes, Ma'am."

Why did you not say so and excuse yourself in the first place?

"Embarrassment and stupidity, Ma'am."

I see. And why did you not simply tell Nurse Suzine the truth right away?

"Panic, Ma'am."

The Kudzu rustled its many leaves, giving the impression of a disappointed sigh. I thought you were more mature than that, Nurse Robinson.

Suzine gave a cough that sounded suspiciously like "Yeah right."

Jenni pressed her lips together, but held her tongue.

Dear oh dear. What are we to do with you? Clearly No-Drool Videos will not be an effective remedy. Unless... If it were possible for a vine to smirk, the Kudzu was doing it. Perhaps, with your clear expertise in this area, you might be able to suggest some... improvements to the regimen?

Jenni winced. Ellipsis improvements. Dear oh dear indeed. "You want me to come up with something so awful it will put off the likes of myself? That... seems pretty cruel. To everyone else."

Oh, don't think of it like that. Consider it a public service. A small contribution on your behalf for the sake of a PPC free of wanton lusting. We will have to mount a plaque on the wall to honor your dedication. Won't that be nice?

Jenni went *wibble*.

Then that settles it. You're dismissed. I know you'll want to get to work right away.

"I hope it was worth it," said Suzine, who at least seemed somewhat taken aback herself.

Jenni muttered something incoherent and went to write her last will and testament.

---

Disclaimer: I don't know Jack's character especially well. I hope I managed not to throw him OOC in just a few lines of dialogue. ^_^;

~Neshomeh

...via bad translation.

This is turning out to be one of the most interesting dates I've had in a while!

... And that's how I got written up for egregious fraternizing with canon characters! Wanna get a jump on the No-Drool Videos with me? They're actually kind of fascinating. ^_^

I certainly hope it's a tradition. Though I assume part of the tradition is that a given writer can't do it more than once. (Otherwise, you understand, I will probably write a dozen more.)

Is it a human thing? I think it's probably a combination of two (well, three) things:

1/ A Human Thing. We've got a culture which places immense value on romantic relationships, to the point where people who aren't in one get asked why. They're seen as the end-state for your closest friendship, so when your writing consists of your characters getting to know each other, there's a tendency to slide that way.

2/ which actually probably comes first: writers in relationships teeeeend to have difficulty keeping their characters from falling into them as well. There've been a lot of couples in the PPC over the years, and some of them - Kaitlyn and I included - have written fairly prominent agents. It's not hard to imagine newer PPCers seeing at something that Should happen to their agents.

3/ which I think applies exclusively to me: some people just like making up family trees. ^_^

hS

Welcome to the board, hope you enjoy yourself here.

Have a self-inking quill, it saves a lot of time.

etc etc

(Which is actually evidence that 'coming of age' has nothing to do with drinking age - Pippin was only 28 or so during the Quest, and yet drank quite happily. Best guess, knowing Hobbits, is that it's the age you're allowed to sign contracts.)

If it helps, I always forget I'm younger than you, too. ^_~

hS

Am I shorter now? Am I losing body parts like Vader? Has my hair dramatically receded? Am I a Mintakan and have just changed sex? Are we gambling with body parts? Am I only allowed to speak in Iambic Tetrameter now? Is it New Year and I've lost my 'walking in with a lump of coal' privileges?

What's going oooooooon?

hS

(It's like the Age of the Dinosaurs: "Never before... has life on Earth... been this pretty.")

What you've got there is a pretty good estimate of Agent Dafydd's age: he lived through all of that stuff as Maglor. His age is actually going to be crucial to figuring out Agent Huinesoron's, so let's go over this piece by piece.

1/ How old were the Feanorian boys when the Trees died? Tolkien Gateway handily has a timeline of the Ages of the Trees, which tells us that Feanor was born in the adjusted Year of the Sun 11,201, and made the Silmarils in 13,894. Somewhere in that ~2600 years, his kids were born - but when?

There's several approaches to take here, but I'm going to take the simplest: Maedhros and Fingon were friends, which suggests they're about the same age. The timeline has Fingon's siblings born in 12,457 and 13,051, which suggests Fingon might have been born around 12,000.

That actually seems a bit early: Finarfin hadn't even gotten married at that point, and Finrod acts like a contemporary of at least the middle Feanorions. So perhaps we should assume Aredhel was a late birth, and take the spacing of Finarfin's children, who were all born in that same period. Dividing that up gives us ~150 years between children, placing Fingon and Maedhros in 12,300 (just after Finarfin's wedding), and Maglor in 12,450.

The Sun and Moon rose in 14,373, so your estimate of 2000 years in Valinor is spot on for Maglor.

2/ How long is there between the end of the Third Age and the present day? Tolkien estimated 6000 years (I wonder which Archbishop of Armagh he got that from... ^_~) so let's just accept that. That puts Dafydd's age at 15,000 years, but a different Third-Age-to-Now number would change that.

3/ Why do I keep going on about Dafydd? Because of the interesting fact that Agent Huinesoron had a friend who was friends with Maglor. That means they're about the same age; hS is probably a little younger, let's call it 1800 years before the Sun rose.

4/ What happened next? For 455 years, hS lived in the cities of Finrod Felagund. And then... he died. Yes, there's a story to that; it's in an upcoming mission.

(Running age: 1800+455 = 2255 years.)

How long did he stay dead? We know that Finrod was released from Mandos before the end of the First Age, and Glorfindel by the middle of the Second, but they were very special cases. There's no indication that anyone else got out by the end of the Third Age - which is when the last of the renegade Noldor returned, which would be a good time to reconsider things. So let's guess at ~100 of the Fourth Age for hS's release.

We don't count time while dead in his age (... obviously?), so he picks up at 2255. He pokes around in Valinor for a bit, indulging his interest in geology and archaeology - but those disciplines are kind of pointless when you can just ask the people who lived there - and the Power who made the rocks in the first place. How long could you handle that - 200 years maybe?

And then he steals a boat and leaves.

(That's not quite as bad as it sounds - hS is half-Teleri, so he had a hand in building said boat. In fact, let's add 50 years for that 'interest' to get him far enough for his plan to work.)

At age 2500, Huinesoron returns to Middle-earth. If we take Tolkien's figures, it's now ~3600 BC. Stonehenge has not yet been built, horses are on the verge of domestication in Russia, and what was once Middle-earth is about to enter the Bronze Age. It's about 400 years to the time of the Pharoahs.

Alternately, it's less than 130 years since the death of Eldarion of the Reunited Kingdom. Unless the New Shadow affair ended with the complete destruction of Numenorean civilisation, Minas Tirith should still be thriving. A quick speculation: maybe Gondor gets hit by a cataclysm around 350 years from now, wiping it from the map, and the survivors flee to northern Harad to become the First Dynasty of Egypt?

Anyway, that doesn't matter, for one simple reason: Huinesoron still uses Quenya as his preferred language. That's the act of someone whose most recent long residence was in Valinor, not someone who spent thousands of years watching mortal civilisation grow. I don't know how he wound up in HQ, but I estimate he did so within 100 years of landing on the Hither Shore.

Agent Huinesoron joined the PPC about 20 years ago (give or take 5). Adding everything together, his age comes to 2620. That makes him probably older than our Time Lords, but I wouldn't be surprised to find an older active agent among the non-human population of HQ.

hS