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I mean, I don't exactly know when I found fanfic, but I think I got linked to the first fanfics I actually read through TVTropes. I am... struggling to recall what fics they were? I know I found PPC TOS there but I think I found a few others first?

But the twist you've put on it makes it so bittersweet, in the best way. It's nice to think there's somewhere like this to go when you're not anywhere else, for everyone. Cassie and Rachel (and now Iris?) are good eggs.

Thanks for sharing!

~Neshomeh read this on a bus a couple days ago, on the way to house-sit for a Pomeranian puppy. ^_^

...it's me it's me I posted my first piece yesterday for the wiki's RemixCon and people like it and it's getting upvoted and people are saying it's so good and and and and and and I wrote something complete in three weeks under a time crunch and it still has SPaG errors I need to go through and fix it read it read it READ IT

SCP-7814: Tell Me About Telekill

Or let you fight the forces of evil with the force of the rainbow?

Scape, you are incredible, truly, magnificent. You can take a small, simple concept and make it heartwrenching. You are a tropical storm of snark and satire, but you can also make any concept shine with gentle, loving, compassionate humanity.

This is a long period of time to reflect on now. ^_^; Way back in ye olden dayes of the late 90s, I was in middle school (about 12-13), and I got a PC game called Creatures 2. The game had a website, the website had a forum, and the forum had fanfiction. Inspired by the cool stories on the site, I started one of my own, but I never finished it.

I first published a fanfic in the early 2000s, on the Farscape fansite FaDoP (Friends and Defenders of Pilot) and later on Fanfiction.net. I think I even found out about FF.net via FaDoP. I know someone on there was the one to introduce me to the term "Mary Sue," because the OC in that fic is borderline at the least, haha. At the time I didn't quite realize it was something to be avoided, though.

On FF.net, I discovered OFUM, and OFUM led me to the PPC c. June 2003 (at which time I finished high school and then turned 18). It was a few years before I got up the nerve to write a proper PPC story on my own, but I got involved in co-writes (only one of which ever saw the light of day), joined the early archival effort, role-played with my characters, practiced with Fill the Plothole, and eventually got there.

I've typically been more into RP than fanfiction, at least in terms of time spent on it, so it's not surprising to me that I've written more stories for the PPC than any other fandom, or that a bunch of those stories are co-writes. The feeling of collaboration—inhabiting a shared reality, bouncing my bit off the other person's bit, with a goal in mind and/or just to see how it goes—is what I like best.

Apart from the PPC, the only fanfics I've written recently were inspired by Skyrim gameplay, which I guess is me "collaborating" with the game.

As for how it's influenced my life... I admit, I sometimes wonder if I'd have written an original novel by now if I hadn't found fanfiction, but given my track record, I doubt it. Long-term goal-setting and sustained effort are not my strong suits; neither is the sort of confidence in my own ideas that survives very long past the "wouldn't it be cool if" phase.

And of course, recent years have not been good for anyone's mental health, which is not good for creativity. (I am pleased to say I'm better this month than I have been for quite a while. Blog editing didn't work out despite seeming perfect on paper, which is disappointing, but now I'm a pet-sitter and way, way happier. Even an introvert needs to go outside and interact with people more than never! Plus, you know, adorable cats and dogs. ^_^ )

However! I got my first good job through a connection I made in the PPC. I've met lots of people I count as friends here, and would still even if we haven't spoken in years. (E.g., Araeph let me crash on her couch when I was passing through her city last summer, and I let most of a Gathering crash in my apartment!) I've read books and watched shows I might never have considered, because PPCers were into them. I've learned so much about other people, other cultures, and other parts of the world through my PPC connections, and I'm certainly a better person for it.

All in all, my only regret (if you can call it that) is that I haven't been able to write everything I wanted to write precisely when I wanted to because I've had to make sacrifices to "Real Life," whatever the frell that means. ^_~

~Neshomeh

P.S. I started reading Gloaming right after I got it, but got derailed before I finished it. >.> I'll give it another go once I've forgotten enough to appreciate it again!

I really, really like the imagery in this, and the way you give so much personality to the characters in such a short piece. The ending is so touching, too. I mean, I knew already that you're an amazing writer, but it's always a bit humbling to see it in action. I loved this very much. :) Thank you for sharing it with us because I probably would have missed it in the writing channel, and the thought of not reading this makes me sad now.

this was really good :]

I first technically got to writing fanfic when I was still in the single-digits. I would draw (very poorly) me and/or my family members as superpowered '''heroes''' going about and beating up fictional characters from series I didn't like - in shoddy checkerboard comic format, because I didn't know how to write.

This eventually led to me realizing I could make stories about things I like as well, so I ended up creating yet another poorly drawn comic, this one about a self-insert's adventures through the Pokemon canon. Granted, I was young and my only experience with the canon was through the trading card games (somehow) so looking back on it it's kind of funny how off base from the actual source material it is. In fact, I've had a WIP mission on a few of my old comics lying around for a while now.

Anyways, eventually I grew older, learned the very basics of creative writing, used it to make more 'beat up the canons'-type fics on random notebooks I had lying around. Then, while I was browsing TV Tropes in my early teens (I think I was looking up something on naginatas?), I ended up on the ol' classic Wiki Walk for a bunch of hours. I saw the Sue-Hunters page, which led to the PPC page, and I think it just appealed to younger me's "killing and mocking 'bad' things seems cool" tendencies because I got to reading missions. I read through Ix's (all of them in like two or three weeks, I think), Voyd's, Nesh's, and a bunch more spinoffs, and the more I read the more I felt I wanted to write like them, I wanted to write funny, snarky meta pieces in this shared universe. So... I ended up seriously stepping into the world of creative writing for the first time, and also learned about the actual widespread phenomena that is fanfic.

And honestly? Joining this group unironically changed my life. It made me realized that I could actually write decently (especially considering I had, like, almost zero training in it when I started), and that I really enjoyed it. I've been plotting out so many ideas for stories that may or may not ever get published, and this hobby as a whole has just brought so many experiences in my life that I don't think I ever would have had if I simply decided to skip reading this group's trope page that one random day. I think it personally helped me change for the better too, but that'd take a bit more detail than I'm ready to share on a fully public forum.

So... yeah, fanfic's definitely left some kind of impact on my life at least. Good memories.

Found the Evil Overlord List on Wikipedia, which led to TVTropes. I discovered My Immortal, and eventually the PPC. So most of my fanfic experience has explicitly been about the critique of badfic. As for affecting my life... well, I've met y'all! (And read Gloaming)

-Ls

It's a bit complicated in my case, 'cause when I was a kid (talking about 6-7 years old!) I already had an habit of imaginining and sometimes writing (with pen and paper!) stories involving me and my favourite animated characters... I was not aware of that being basically fanfiction, or that such a concept existed!

All of that remained "in the drawer", however, for another good 6-7 years, though, as while we got a computer when I was 9 years old (in 2000) and so I did start writing stuff on computer, and saving them as Wordpad then Word docs on floppy discs (There might be people here who never saw one... It's the thing the Save icon is shaped as, for the record), we still had fairly expensive dial-up here at the time, so we only used Internet very occasionally. It wasn't until we got flat-rate ADSL a few years later, when I was 13-14 years old (and by then I also had my own computer) that I properly started looking for stuff about the series I liked online.

I think one of the earlier sites hosting fanworks I stumbled upon was an Italian fanfiction archive called Italian Multi Fanfiction Archive - it's still up somehow despite no activity on the site for almost twenty years, though it clearly was meant for older computers, and it was notable for having very early Internet bright colored backgroudn pages for the various sections, with the one about works by CLAMP notable for being a very obnoxious magenta which I believe is the closest real-world equivalent of Urple - I would spend time reading the stories there, mostly Cardcaptor Sakura ones, only to end up raising my eyes afterwards and feeling that the wall had suddenly turned green... It was also where I had my first experience with bad fanfiction, and years later I took my first "fanfiction disappointment" from there as the subject of my first PPC mission.

The first time I truly got involved in fandom and fanfiction writing was not there on the IM-FA, though, but on the official forum for Moony Witcher's book series Nina, the child of the Sixth Moon, around 2005-2006. In particular April 13th 2006 marks the day I sparked the idea for a massiver crossover fanfiction from which several of my characters originated - including a couple of my PPC agents. Shortly afterwards I got involved in writing on other forums as well, mostly Detective Conan and Knight Rider ones, but it wasn't until 2012 when I began writing IrregularS that I actually posted anything on a "proper" fanfiction archive. Something I didn't repeat until I moved my stuff on AO3 recently.

Since then, though, I mostly focused on my own solo "big projects" and occasional collaborations with friends, with a small parenthesis around 2014 when I worked for some time with the team making the Italian reboot of the Battle Fantasia Project massive crossover fanfiction. Unfortunately, the thing fizzled out around 2015 before really going anywhere, with the sub-arc that I was going to write never leaving the planning stage.

I wanted to share it with the Board in general, because sharing small pieces of original fiction is fun and good, but I wanted to share stuff like this with you specifically because you don't use the Discord and why should you miss out? Plus it adds a bit more life to things around here.

Thank you for your compliments. I always appreciate them. I tried really hard to make the café a comforting place to stop and sit for a while, when you're going... somewhere else. And the slow transformation of Iris into her image of a primary school teacher was something I was proud of. I'm glad it was an enjoyable experience. =]

Title. I was thinking about this earlier today while reminiscing about stories I loved as a kid.

I discovered fanfiction when I was twelve, and went looking for information about the then-unpublished eighth book in the Sisters Grimm series. I ended up on the Pit itself, finding speculative stories about what would happen in the next installment. I was just trying to find out if the main character would smooch my fictional crush at the time!

But discovering fanfic got me writing fanfic, and obviously led me here! I've met some amazing friends through the PPC, even crashed on the couch of one multiple times (hi, Scape!). Fanfic and fandom became such huge parts of who I am I can't imagine where I would be today without them.

It was a doorstopper of a Castlevania fanfic that I finished writing that made me consider—well, if I could do this, why couldn't I do it for an original universe? Agents Ix, Charlotte, and Lorson got recycled into the protagonists, and those of you who were so kind as to pick up my first novel Gloaming know the result.

So I'm curious about what stories a group of fanfic lovers have to share!

But that was yesterday and I'm tired so I don't remember why it was good.

But it was.

hS

The First Task, and what happened after.

re: humidity: Just keep drinking water, throughout the day! Also, while I generally consider the electrolyte schtick that sports drinks advertise to be a bit on the scammy side (most foods also replace electrolytes), they can be a quick, condensed way to restore what we've lost to sweating, so use them when you feel like you need them!

—doctorlit, in the other end of the equatorial warmth spectrum, feeling rather dried out this work week

You can find a lot of things in the PPC Discord server's writing channel. From drabbles to dragon lore, from agents to angry supervillains, if the Discord users have thought it up then there's a reasonable chance it's in there. On the off-chance that somebody isn't feeling inspired, there will sometimes be prompts. Calliope of this parish was kind enough to post the one in italics below, courtesy of the @writing-prompt-s Tumblr blog. I was immediately captured by the premise and had to respond to it. Thank you for reading.

---

You run a café on the edge of life and death. Souls who have been departed from their bodies temporarily, such as in comas or near-death experiences, can relax in your quaint cafe for as long as they need before they can either return to their bodies or begin their journey to the afterlife.

---

"Hey, don't go through the pink door."

"What do you mean?" The soul looked back at me. I started to see fragments of who she was, how she thought of herself - softer and shorter than her body, in a comfortable sweater and a long skirt, curly hair and thick rimmed glasses. I couldn't see her eyes yet. That was when people moved on, when that happened.

"Staff only. Read the sign." I walked over and tapped a sheet of A4 paper. It said Thru Here in large friendly letters, each one a different colour. Underneath them was my handwriting. Staff Only, Absolutely No Exceptions. I liked my handwriting. Neat copperplate, even here.

"But I just saw-" She was cut off by a translucent orb floating through the front door, jingling the phantom bell above. "I'm sorry, I think there must be a mistake."

"Ma'am, we've only got three rules in this place. No order shaming, no leaving ectoplasm on the bathroom floors, and the pink door is staff only." I noticed the orb hover at the counter. "Er, excuse me." I turned my head. "Right this way please! Come along now!"

The woman's shape was getting clearer with every second. I could make out an expression as the orb bounced through the pink door, literally through it. Anger. Of course. "Well that's nonsense. Why can a - a ball go through when I can't?"

"You won't like the answer. Nobody ever does," I mumbled.

"I don't care about what you think I'll like, young lady. I care about what's behind that door you're so nervous about, and I'm not leaving until I find out. Don't think I'm afraid of making a scene, I will if it comes to it."

There was something on her sweater that I could see now. It looked like... was that splotches? No, wait. I couldn't believe it. Paint? Definitely paint. And on the other side were some cartoon ducks, three in a row.

"Okay, fine. But you won't like it." I unlocked the door and opened it. She stormed past me - through me, in fact - and marched through to the other side. I followed her into the dark.

I met up with her at the other end of the corridor. I'd had that put in here after some complaints from the customers and the building management. There was a second door here too, nice walnut wood that matched the tables in my café.

"So, will you open this door for me as well?" Her voice was starting to sound softer too, so far as I could make out. I probably didn't have a lot of time.

"Before I do..." I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Ma'am, how much do you know about where you are right now?"

"Well, I thought I was in a nice coffee shop with excellent service." Sarcastic, sure, but it wasn't the worst review I'd ever had. "Which... now that I think about it, that's strange, because I was at home, I think. I'd just finished pruning Henry - you must excuse me, he's the rose bush, I named him after my late husband - and I was listening to the radio with a cup of tea, and, well, then I was here. You know, I can't remember a thing about how I got here."

"That happens a lot, ma'am." I took a deep breath. "If I might ask a personal question, are you feeling more energetic than usual? Sprightlier?"

"Well, now that you mention it, my arthritis does seem to be behaving itself more than usual today." As if on cue, her hands appeared, and I saw more of the paint on her fingernails.

"That's because you don't think of yourself as having it."

"I'm afraid I don't quite follow."

"Your shape. Your form. Where we are, it's how you think of yourself that matters most. Your self-image is yourself. Nobody has joint pain as a core tenet of their identity. Everyone's young and strong and vibrant. Everyone's... alive." I unlocked the door. "Through here please."

Inside was a much louder room. Orbs were whizzing around, jumping, floating, playing. The room was all warm yellows and sky blues, summer colours, and there was a circus clown's happy face on the little cups. A few tiny dots of light were in a corner, glowing.

"I think I understand," she said. Her eyes were green. I didn't have a lot of time. "This is somewhere that isn't quite anywhere. There's life, and there's..."

"I prefer to think of it as somewhere that's nowhere else. It's nicer that way. Hello!" An orb nudged at my leg, a bowl of jelly and ice cream hovering in mid air beside it. "Would you like - ah, I see you've got some already. Kindly Clown must be reading a story soon then! Can you help me out and let your friends know?"

The orb raced off, making the beebling noise they all did. I turned back to the woman. "His name's Jamie. The orb, I mean. You get to understand them after a while." My eyes prickle a bit. "People like you and Kindly Clown - she's called Rachel, by the by, you'd probably get on - your self-image is pretty much set. It's not the same for them. They're in flux. You grow up so far and so fast you don't even know you're growing." I saw Rachel setting up by the bookcases, with a crowd of orbs hovering around her. It was almost time.

"Is each one..." The anger was gone from the woman's face, and her eyes were kind.

"Some go back. Some go on." I rubbed my eyes. "I opened the café to give everyone somewhere nice to go, when they're going somewhere. When I started it was just the one room. I forgot that everyone meant..." I gestured at the orbs, settled in a semicircle around a clown reading a story. "Everyone. I do my best but, well, they're a real handful, and I've got the other side as well." A thought struck me. "Probably shouldn't call it that, all things considered."

"Well, that's just it." She pushed her spectacles up her nose. Her voice was younger now than it had been, clearer, brighter. Happier. "I noticed that people changed. They'd come in and they'd be quite indistinct. I thought I'd just brought my reading glasses with me by accident. But when they left, they were people."

"Everything gets clearer when you know where you want to go."

"I thought so." She smiled. "Thank you. I... I understand your reticence now, young lady. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that."

"It's alright. You didn't know. I make a point of people not knowing, to be honest. It only upsets them."

"Yes, I can see why it would." She brushed down the front of her sweater. It was duck-egg blue, and it looked soft. The poster paint on the hem was a riot of different colours. I could see the yellow of the ducks, and their orange beaks. "Alright. I think I'm ready now."

"Are you?"

"Yes. I know just where I'm going." Her smile reached her eyes. "My name's Iris. Iris Jones. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Cassie," I said. "Welcome to the children's section."

The dialogue: "I know you'd say that. What else do I expect from the tea ceremony club president? Well, I'll be on my way now. See ya tomorrow." seems a little unnatural. It just sounds weird to me.

I really like how hilariously difficult that conversation is to understand without knowing what all those canon terms are! Nice.

Overall, short, and enjoyable, interlude.

-Ls

I'm glad you liked the nomenclature convo! As I put it to one of my beta readers: "it's a metaphorical takedown of JKR's ~what is a woman~ tweets". Not all people who menstruate are women, JoRo!

Actually, the play Puffs really highlighted that part of the First Task: "and that's the story of how four dragons were tricked into believing one of their kids got kidnapped". It's pretty horrifying if you think about it from their perspective!

~Lily will never get used to tropical humidity...

A 'guya-centric one this time.

Dragons! I really enjoyed the conversation about dragon nomenclature. Liu has a good point, that the west’s entire perception of what “counts” as a dragon is being colored by Newt’s arbitrary labeling, which feels more descriptive than genetic. (And after all, even us Muggles call eastern dragons “dragons,” despite how westernized a lot of media and language has become in the real world!) Embarrassingly, on my first read-through of Goblet of Fire, I didn’t pick up on how awful it was for the dragons to have their eggs taken away for the sake of some stupid sports competition. Yeah, no wonder the dragons are upset, no wonder the movieverse Horntail broke out and chased Harry around the castle! They’re not dumb beasts, they’re parents! Frankly, Charlie should have just told Bagman “no” and made him come up with another idea for the first task.

Also, I like seeing this version of Madame Maxime not being in denial over her heritage, and instead pushing to support other mixed-heritage people!

—doctorlit hopes the move has gone well, and that Lily has settled in with minimal stress!

The Quartet see the dragons.

BL9 warning at the start, where Draco accidentally gets attacked by a Skrewt.

I'm happy about the fact that this Sirius gets to experience freedom and have a proper conversation with his loved ones! Though I can't say he's exactly pleased about Kreacher still being around...

It was actually in the books that she misspelt Fleur and Viktor's names, so that's where that came from. (Again, I only know this because I've been rereading along...)

Haha, I could've sworn the argument was much older than that...

~Lily thinks doc should have a decent bed to sleep on... or at least a nice futon...

The best thing about this chapter was getting to see both Black brothers in the Three Broomsticks with Harry and Lily, supporting Harry and contributing to the discussion. Good for Sirius to be out of Azkaban, but even better that this time, he has his brother with him (and even Kreacher, really!). It’s a level of parental figure support that Harry deserves!

Ugh. I know Skeeter’s whole schtick is not adhering properly to facts, but you’d think she could at least spell words correctly. (Insert joke about wizards flubbing spells here.) If Krum has paid attention to U.S. pop culture at all, he may feel mildly insulted by that typo, and it’s going to get even worse in about twenty-one years . . .

“Balrogs have not got wings,” scoffed Harry.
Not yet, Harry, but pretty soon, you’ll be learning about something called a “fanfiction explosion” . . .

—doctorlit performs a weekly Wonky Faint, assuming that’s a euphemism for a taking a nap on cold concrete in between two work shifts