The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

And when multiple people are Anonymous on a frequent basis, it's easy to get confused. And if one of them is nasty and one isn't, that escalates things.

Forgetting to type in one's name is one thing, but leaving it blank habitually is another, and while I too do forgive one-time mistakes, I think we should encourage people not to do the latter.

So yeah, that's why I did that. I get your point, but better safe than sorry. :P

-Twistey

Thank God that man doesn't have any follo- oh who am I kidding.

-Twistey

This is, in my opinion, one of the best things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzmnPs64K74

This is the sequel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNuHV-iLBRw

Forbidden is a full-length (ninety minutes!) musical on YouTube. I will link to it in a moment, right after I warn for language and sexual innuendos in one song. Language warning, and one song contains sexual innuendos! Okay, here it is.

So the set-up here is that we're in an alternate history 1980s America, named Nacirema, where black and gay culture became dominant, rather than white and straight culture. Just as in real life, the Bible is used to justify the dominant culture's oppression: there are three commandments in this version, the first of which I couldn't actually understand because they were delivered through song lyrics. Eh, we're on the internet, I guess I'll just listen again . . .

Ah, okay. The first commandment is the one that gets broken by society constantly in both worlds: Love your neighbor. It's the one that shows the people in the musical's society to be hypocrites, because of how straight and white people are treated. Interesting that this was composed as the first commandment in the song, almost as though the singer/narrators are "getting it over with" so they can move on to the two commandments that are clearly more rigidly followed.

The second commandment I'll quote verbatim: "Turn your back on things you don't understand." This is essentially a direct contradiction of the first, as you can't love your neighbors if you turn your back on them; it implies that the community's love is only valid for those who follow the majority baseline. It's also a reflection of our world's tendency to give more attention to problems affecting the majority, and overlook the suffering of minorities.

And the third is basically the one that says that only same-sex partnerships are acceptable. (The wording in the song is a little clunky to fit the meter, but that's what it's saying.) I naturally would have loved to know more of the history of this setting, how their system of continuing the species works mechanically, though I understand the focus of the album is on injustice rather than world-building. I got the gist of it: that children are born to some women (must be through artificial insemination, since "breeder" is a slur applied to straight people), then taken away and given to married gay couples to raise. But I only saw couples with one child each throughout the whole video, which implies the population would drop by half with every generation, which isn't sustainable. Maybe I just wasn't meant to think about it that closely, or maybe it's a literal degeneration meant to be a metaphor for the other failings of this society tearing itself down.

But that's not to say there isn't any world-building. It's dropped through many minor details throughout the video, and they're all clever and fantastic. Nacirema's flag is the U.S. flag with the red and blue colors reversed, and we get to hear what's essentially an alternate universe version of the real U.S. national anthem. The protesters at the end bare signs that say "God hates straights" and "Split and quit." A white singer who performs a beautiful melodic song with undertones of equality barely gets any applause or other reaction from the all-black audience before her, but the following performance of black singers doing a very bland and simplistic pop song that only talks about general life gets the audience dancing and clapping along. The main character, Noooolan? I think I forgot his name, but he becomes the only black person in a prison filled with white inmates. All these little moments feel normal and natural; I only recognize them as off by comparison to my own experiences in our world.

Particularly chilling are the moments where a upbeat, peppy song is undercut with a moment of grim prejudice.
One of these is when the song-and-dance routine in a diner is cut off completely when a white server spills coffee on a black woman's lap. The entire diner, black and white, freezes to watch what happens—all knowing the power the black woman can potentially bring to bear over the white woman. When the black woman sees that no one else is going to support her, she contents herself with storming out after calling the server an N-word variant. (I don't care it's not the N-word; I'm still not typing it out.) Another was the scene where a black police officer guns down a white man who was innocently walking through an all-black neighborhood, all to a backdrop of jaunty harp and brass music, then proceeds to have a happy song-and-dance number with the black home-owners while the white man's body lays on the sidewalk at the side of the frame. Towards the end of that song, the camera cuts to a close-up of a broom sweeping dirt under a rug. These are great metaphors for the fact that while this society appears happy and friendly on the surface, there's some seriously dark happenings going on underneath that everyone would rather ignore than confront. (By the way, that scene of police brutality takes place, appropriately, on Novyart street.)

I also love the contrast between the costumes of the accepted gay community and the refuge for straight people. The gay people dress in either bright colors or pastels, and in impeccably smooth 50s/60s dresses and suits. The straight refugees dress in more modern clothing, with a lot of loose cloth, torn knees and elbows and uneven styles, and all in scales of grey. Not only is grey the color born of mixing black with white, but it's also a drab color that blends in to the background. It shows that when the straight protagonists were still trying to pass as gay, they had to put on a front that was meant to stand out and be seen by the rest of their community to match everyone, rather than be their base selves. It's also representative of how minorities sometimes have to hide themselves from the view of society, blending in unseen to avoid being attacked.

There are a couple of songs about money that didn't really feel like they belonged. I mean, they fit with the story line's progression, but not with the overall themes. Or maybe I missed part of their point by not hearing all the lyrics? Either way, it's still a strong musical, even though I could have done without those two. There's also a bit of a weird plothole in that Nolan-if-that-is-his-name and Elle-I-did-remember-her-name-for-some-reason are both accused of heterosexual activity, Nolan is jailed and eventually hanged, but Elle is allowed to return to her wife and live on like nothing happened. I mean, this isn't a big complaint, because I certainly didn't want her to be killed, it's just . . . it kind of leaves some questions, you know? The wife must have had some reaction to everything going on, but we don't get to hear it. It does feel a little missing something there. But overall, it's a very creative and thoughtful musical that I heartily recommend.

—doctorlit has been a fan of Todrick Hall for a while now

♪I've got a big black thick spoiler and I'm not afraid to use it♪ ♪I've got a big black thick spoiler and I'm not afraid to use it♪ ♪I've got a big black thick spoiler and I'm not afraid to use it♪

(For the record, the word I replaced there is "card," as in "credit card," not whatever you were just thinking it was.)

Though if you want a good laugh...

Tenth Doctor: The Musical!

Warning for use of the f-word, so this might not be appropriate to listen to near small munchkins.

But that's just my opinion.

What sort of fix should I do? There are multiple valid options.

And my inner Slytherin just realized that, if I ever wanted a promotion, I could just claim that Hieronymus the hermit is legitimately a journeyman, because he journeyed to Manyuel to learn from Master Huinesoron the Historian how to do the (insert plortification of mouseover text) and generally maintain a Cyclopedia.

But eternally being a humble apprentice may actually be more fun.

HG

... there's a compilation video out there of the Doctor(s) saying 'Run!'.

[Checks]

There is, and it's 20 minutes long. :D

hS

Aegis has always been a fan of Ten—we actually met at a cosplay ball where he was rocking a suit that he'd bought from a cosplay shop—but it wasn't entirely screen accurate and he wanted one of his own.

I just wanted a swishy coat, so it had to be Jack. :P

I particularly liked the second running image - I guess that tells you what I think Doctor Who is about, right? ;)

hS

We don't actually come down like Mjolnir on anyone who forgets to put their name in; we're discerning types who only bring out the war-hammers when strictly necessary. :)

hS

You both look very spot on, too. So, is there any reason you gave this cosplay or was it just because? Just curious.

We're thinking of doing another one soon, where I'll be sporting my TARDIS dress. There's just something much more satisfying about wearing costumes you made instead of bought. ^^;

In canon, you have the Hallow (which is sort of the Anti-Corruption, it shows up when Hardmode hits and acts almost exactly like the Corruption/Crimson but is full of sunshine, rainbows, and fairies and unicorns... that want to kill you), but it doesn't spread onto Corrupted/Crimsoned land, just like the Corruption/Crimson doesn't spread on Hallowed land.

And you also have powder that beats back or spreads the Corruption in pre-Hardmode, with its Hardmode equivalent being the Clentaminator (portmanteau of "Cleanse" and "Contaminator") that, using Solutions colored after the different biomes, sprays said Solutions to contaminate or cleanse the earth. (Which, DOGA might be interested in the Clentaminator. It's essentially a flamethrower that destroys or creates corrupted effects. Supply a Canon Solution, and...)

Is if that typo hadn't been a typo, but instead a "Cure"-rruption - fixing everything the Corruption damaged...

But I doubt this author's that sort of creative. >.>

But please don't break your mind in the process! |D

Not sure if he was aiming for horror or "this is how I'd bring about my ideal world".

Since the author also seems to be a Believer in what he's writing about, going off the info in his site.

Just type your name into the Author slot every time, it's simple as that. We have some nasty history with banned individuals trying to sneak their way back on, so we want to know it's you and that you can be trusted. Okay? Thanks. :)

Welcome to the PPC, by the way. I'm Twistey, a 1-year-bie who has way too many ideas. Since it seems like people have already been asking you questions, I shall spare the majority of them. However, what do you intend to do here? Any ideas for agents, etc.? Do you write original stuff? I'd love to know!

Since I've been too morbidly fascinated with Baldi's Basics these days (note: not representative of all my fandom tastes :P), your newbie gift is an electric ruler. You slap someone with it and it'll function as a taser. If you decide to hand it down to your agents, it'll be perfect for taking down a Mary Sue nice and discreetly in a realistic continuum, for this ruler could easily be invented in real life. I guess. I could verify my claim, but then what would I do with the ruler?

Anyway, it's nice to meet you. Once again, welcome to the PPC.

-Twistey

But then I realized that the phrase "femail" was already taken by all the rear orifices at the far-right news outlet Daily Mail. Sadness.

Also, that's a cool mailbox.

-Twistey

If we don't know you, we don't know how well you write/how willing to learn you are, and if we let people write missions who don't write well and maybe even aren't willing to learn, PPC missions would be very hypocritical, wouldn't they? That's why the Permission thing is in place. Nothin' we have against ya. :)

A lot of newbies come in thinking that they can start writing PPC fic without having to get to know us and get Permission. Admittedly, it seems like that's how it was during the time of TOS (from reading the author's notes), but that's not how it is now. In order to both keep track of who all writes PPC missions (because having to get Permission makes it a lot harder for there to be missions we don't know about) and prevent any PPC badfic that's not part of the Badfic Games or any other joke event (see wiki), the Permission process was implemented at some point in time (maybe an oldbie can tell you when.) I know there are some users who have rushed in and then chilled out (i.e. me), but this can sometimes lead to unfavorable incidents stemming from impatience and/or failure to learn when they do try for Permission, on the part of the newbie. Sadly, it's even lead to some nasty things happening in the past, which further intensify our need for us to know who you are. So I also suggest that you do, in fact, relax, and see all that the Board has to offer. You won't be disappointed if you do.

-Twistey
(Note to other PPCers: Perhaps we could make the need for Permission less easy to miss on the Wiki? That might prevent some of this kind of stuff.)

Okay, now we've gone from "what are you on that extended Your Mileage to include Cthulhu" to simply "excuse me but that's not how to do horror properly, and my advice may or may not include that sensitive subjects should not be placed in a horror story willy-nilly, but I don't want to read the story so I don't know if the Polyp forcefully does what I think he forcefully does." *sigh* Slightly better than expected. Slightly. So we have that.

-Twistey