The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

It's perfect! It's all steampunk and clockwork and vaguely reminiscent of a ship's wheel which is totally perfect for what I'm planning for my Plort self and you even worked the arrows in and I love it so much! You even got the variant of brass I for the snowflake right even though I forgot to mention it!

Ahem, sorry for the run-on sentence, but seriously, thank you so much.

Now, as for my Inglish heraldry, the other reason I was reluctant to ask you for help is because I might end up changing it. A lot. I can feel there's a way to get it to work with proper blazonry rules if I can just simplify it a bit and change the field.
If you really feel like taking a crack at it, though, I'm hardly going to decline after how awesome the Alvish one turned out. I'm not even going to try to properly describe this one, though, so plain English will have to do. Oh, and I also sketched it a bit, if that helps.

The top of the shield is a dark red, with a silver sword pointing left. The center is divided in two, blue on the right charged with a rampant wolf facing left, yellow on the left charged with a rampant badger facing right. The bottom of the shield is green with a silver bow and arrow crossed.

The sketch. It's not much, but it's the best I've got. Don't feel too constrained by it, though. It's only a sketch, so feel free to muck about with the particular shades of the colors and whatnot. Stars know I will next time I work on it.

It is, as you can see, rather a kitchen sink blazon. I'm almost positive there's a better way to divide up the field, I'm seriously reconsidering the sword and the bow and arrow, and I'm still debating whethet I want the red chief embattled or not. Really the only part I'm completely happy with is the badger and wolf facing each other, and even then I'm not sure if they should be colored proper or sable and argent.

Still, I suppose the only way to improve is to iterate. The sooner I do that, the sooner I can find the flaws in the next version. "Fail faster," I believe the common wisdom goes.

Thank you again for the Alvish heraldry, and good luck if you end up tackling the other one. You're the best, hS.

HQ has sub-basements. The Phantom of the Opera Division is (or was) located in the fifth one, naturally.

Also, DAVD is located in the basement of HQ, and it and the HQ Pool are said to be some absurd number of flights of stairs below the rest of HQ.

So why does the trash collect on the ground floor? And where do the doors to HQ let into? And where's the lobby (cuz there is one, seen here)? {X D

Maybe the lobby and whatnot are on the first floor, but unbeknownst to the designers, HQ planned itself on city rules, and the first floor is not the first one you walk into, but the first one up from the ground?

~Neshomeh, who read the story, but couldn't think of anything intelligent to say about it. Sorry. {= (

Because I need a large-scale project to occupy me until my temp job starts and the lists are looking a little messy anyway. If you have a claimed fic dating from March 2017 or before, and you're still interested in doing a mission to it, please renew your claim before I begin. Conversely, if you're no longer interested in it, let me know so I can kick it back to Unclaimed with impunity.

The cleanup will begin on Saturday at 10 am Eastern time, which should be enough time for everyone to address their claims.

ONE WORD: WARSHEEP

I'm also a sucker for Power of Friendship/Power of Love-fueled victories. And magical girls. And magical girls kicking the bad guy's ass with the power of friendship.

You aren't alone in (your reasons for) hating Umbridge, Snape, and Malfoy's guts. That's one of Rowling's biggest strengths, I think; writing both large- and small-scale villainy well.

I wish I had some funny story involving you to share, but I don't, so I'll just reflect on finally graduating from college.

*screaming*

Just kidding! I still don't know exactly how I want to get to where I want to be (and how I'll pay for all of it), but I didn't know that when I started college either. I guess the best thing I can do for now is work on being a better roommate and keep my eyes open for jobs in my field, yeah?

I historically tagged things as Interludes if they came in the middle of a series of missions, but with Driftwood I instead have InterMissions and Side Stories. I mostly don't call stories set away from mission series Interludes, but sometimes will.

In this case, because cleaning is actually their job, it sort of is a mission... except it's not a mission, obviously.

Report? Shift log?

hS

And yeah, times seems to flow slower than expected... Would be stupid to complain though.

Anything to go with the redberries coated black-hole chocolate I'm bringing to you?

I was under the impression that if it wasn't a mission, it was an interlude. Sorry about that. ^^;

The roads are the big thing we've never named in Plort - they tend to get stuck with geographical names, on the assumption that someone will stick a name on them later.

The same goes for the sea routes that aren't named Hyparlink: they're just names of places they go to.

hS

While describing Los Taelis, I realized that my wording would be less clumsy if the road from Mei'n Payj or Manyuel to Los Taelis had a name. (Between Mei'n Payj and Manyuel the road is part of the Hyparlink Route.) If somebody could come up with a fitting name, I would happily use it. Bonus points if using the (combination of hyperlink and) whatever road would actually be preferable over going through a category tree and/or a menu on a landing page.

Punning is so hard.

HG

The dwarves bathed at the ford from the Carrock (where the eagles left them) to the eastern bank of the Anduin (from where they proceeded to meet Beorn the were-bear).

But "Bilbo summoning a storm"? Are you sure this is Bilbo? What is in the valley left to "Bilbo’s rock"? A bridge? Buildings with illuminated windows, mirrored in a lake? If I could unsee what now appears to be a faraway bridge or town, I would wonder whether the background is a thunderstorm or a not so faraway waterfall. I have no idea where and what this is meant to be.

HG

Whoever it was I asked on Discord about whether I'd call these interludes or not, you owe me a pat on the back! And a pleasant smile.
I guess I'll just call them... stories, I suppose, ay? Situations, events, conundrums. Employments. Jobberies. Such forth. Whatever gets that search engine optimisation.

Also lemme just say that calling stuff I've writ weird is, other than maybe giving me money, some've the highest praise I can scrounge up for. Cheers!

Have a set of slightly holy Imperial Guard (not Astra Militarum) flak armor.

I joined the PPC this year. I think this was a good choice.

*throws sealed packets of chocolate confetti everywhere*

Also, is it odd that I actually know someone who goes by the name Crim online?

I'm glad I get to share a site/message board with you - and now a Book Club! Here's to future years. ;)

Fun, though. ^^

I'm not sure a story in which the Janitorial Division do cleaning work counts as an 'interlude', though... isn't that their job? ^~

hS

But I don't think it is the Moomins, is what I was trying unsuccessfully to say. That cover is absolutely ringing a very strong bell, but I don't know what it is.

I want to say Vikings, but that brings me back to Noggin the Nog, and the art style is actually quite different. The cover for Rosemary Sutcliff's 'Dawn Wind' is faintly similar, but again, I can't see why I'd go 'that shield! Those mountains! That dragon!' at it.

The inside illustrations don't have the same effect at all; it's very specifically the cover. (Though I am quite baffled by the one of Bilbo summoning the storm... did I miss that along with the naked dwarves??)

hS

It’s really weird, because it feels like you’ve been around for a lot longer than just a year.

*raises toast* Here’s to many more! You’ve been an amazing addition to the PPC and I’m very glad you decided to stick around. It’s nice having you here... and I think I might just have to add myself to your list of cowrites sometime. ;)

And... well, at risk of talking too much about myself, a lot of stuff has happened to me this year. Good stuff. Moving on stuff. Baby bro moves into his dorm for the first time tomorrow. I got top surgery and finally feel at home in my own body.

Most significantly to me, though... I move to London on the six year anniversary of my release from the first psych ward I stayed in. At risk of sounding incredibly corny, I went from having no hope to positively bursting with it. It’s kind of amazing how drastic a change it’s been in such short time.

Life’s been good.

I really like fics that explore character's limits.

Have you ever seen the movie The Four Feathers? It isn't much like the book. One of only a few things that I think the movie is better. (Ella Enchanted and The Princess Bride being the other two I can quickly think of). Anyway, Heath Ledger's character is an officer in the British army back when they were basically appointed from the ranks of the gentry. He was the best at all the drills and practice. Then war breaks out in what seems to be northern Africa. He registers himself as a conscientious objector and resigns his commision. He spends the rest of the movie trying to redeem himself, ending up doing more heroics than any of the others, but still considers himself to be a coward.

A lot of stuff happens and then there is this moment where it all snaps into place for him and he is transformed. That moment is what I like to read about in stories.

I really don't like fics that sexify canonically repulsive characters. (Either personality or physical appearance.)

I do, however, like stories that explore how a character ended up the way they did. A bit of a self brag, but of all the stories I have written, the one that I am most proud of (even if it has the fewest hits) is one that shows the descent of a character from a decent guy to an out of control murderer who has to be killed for the safety of the community. It never tried to make him not a bad guy, just a how did he get to that point? I love stories like that.

Has it really only been one year since I introduced myself here? In that time, I came out, got permission, cowrote a mission with a distinguished PPCer, wrote a lot of stuff here, wrote even more on Discord, made a suprising number of people laugh at the shipfest, uttered the phrase "hot crim-on-crim action," roleplayed a lot, read a ton of books, and made more friends than I could count. On one hand.

So I celebrate this year with all of you as I look forward to the next.

And because I like to inspire discussion and not a flood of (nm)s, take some time here to reflect on something that happened to you this year. It might be me. It might involve me. It might have nothing to do with me. I dunno.