Oct 2008 Archive, part a

*glomps and gives a box that, when opened, will contain what the recipient really, really wants at the moment*

Because I couldn't think of anything else.

Except...well, I suppose you can have a whisk as well. *hands over gold-plated egg whisk*

Welcome to 'adulthood'... depending on where you live, of course.

Ah, well. Here! Have a 'water' bottle (of course that's not alcohol!), an Enchanted Stapler, a Transdimensional Pocket Knife and a fish. You may eat, or name, the fish. The Stapler will not tolerate another name.

Eh; being silly. Happy birthday!

Many happy returns, Dann!

*bestows 24 karat gold spork*

*fends Lux off for you*

Birthday lembas with chocolate icing for you! And a sparkler stuck in it!

I'd sing off-key, but it doesn't seem to have the same effect over the internet.

So have a virtual battle-axe! and guitar!

*throws more confetti, 'cuz confetti is awesome*

No clue who you are, but happy birthday anyhow!

*Gifts with a free daemonhammer from the Division of More Dakka*

Anti-Lustin baloons for everyone!

*Gifts with a multicoloured Ypur camoflauged as a Hat Stand, a right-handed Polar Bear, a tamed computer virus that can sit, shake, roll over and create wanton destruction and a small Venus Fly-Trap called Steve.*

*gifts with a case of throwing knives, a bottle of rum, and a small furry animal. Which may very possibly explode if you poke it, but no-one's quite sure*

No idea what you'll use any o'those for, but I'm sure they'll come in handy. *grins*

*throws confetti and offers party poppers and streamers to anyone close enough to have things offers to them*

*cracks open the champagne* Three cheers for Dann!

*gifts with an extra large bag of pebbles, a customised sling and a basket of Bleeprin-berries*

Hope these come in handy! Now where did I put that stereo...?

I adopted recently - Rosa - so give my poor agents a bit of a respite; Iza's burning the place down. But I'm all for advertising!

Yes, I'm late, I know. This is the first chance I had to check any links.

But, yeah. That was...wow. As people below have said, it's like tehe end of an era. And...yeah.

I can't believe it's over. Anyway, it's really good.

Haleth... *grin*

This is a joyous, yet solemn occasion. It's the end of an era. I feel like there should be fireworks and big bands and parties and mass hysteria involving computers and the end of the world.

...

Or, y'know, hefty congratulations and fare-thee-well to Dafydd and Constance, and definitely congratulations to their writer. {= )

~Neshomeh, stocking pretzels and chocolate anyway, just in case.

Abso-bloody-lutely fantastic. Beautiful. You...you're amazing. I can't put the rest into words.

Thank you.

Really, just... *hugs* Really great.

That...was impressive. A fitting end to Dafydd's truly illustrious career.

And yay, Constance! Orpheus and Luthien pale in comparison when it comes to retrieving lovers from the dead.

(I work Mossflower and the Potterverse, we need no excuse whatever to hold feasts.)

I guess it must be satisfying to have an epic story come to an end like that ... seriously, what's it like? My attention span is so short that I've never experienced that feeling.

*claps enthusiastically* I just love Daffyd/Constance. And they sooooo deserve that happy ending and...

[/fangirl]

This is brilliant. BRILLIANT! I love it!

And I'm... actually all not surprised that Constance had the brass cheek to march into Mandos and demand Dafydd back. It seems like her style.

*pat on the back* Awesome stuff.

Mmm~ Guys, this is delicious! Cirichen, thank you for discovering it!

I sincerely hope that there is some way for edible punctuation to drop into HQ some way. Agent Mystia would definitely appreciate it.

--Mystia, hopeful

*grabs handfuls of ! ( [ ; @

*chews* Yummy! You guys are GREAT!

(Don't tell the students at HFA, though, or those lovely Punctuation Downpours we enjoy watching them suffer through might turn into an imitation of the Wonka Chocolate Factory.)

Shiny. I'll remember this.

*hogs all the punctuation*
Cirichen, I am in your debt. Yummmmm!

I think one of the punctuations should have the flavor of rare lamb with very little mint sauce.

It would depend on college and money and what assignments I have to do, but I'll think about it.

Can't help with the idiot tourist bit though. I tend to run around like a demented child on sugar when I'm in a strange place.

I wouldn't mind going on the Belfast again though. I had to stick with my brother last time and he was only interested in looking for guns.

Maybe if I instill something into my parents's minds that it would be nice for us to come to England at that time, I could come.

But that's looking at flights from the US to the UK and currency changes and all that.

May ought to be OK - I think - so I'll tell my parents when I get home. Yayz! :D

I would love to come down and meet you! I should be able to, seeing as it's six months-ish from now, so I should have enough money and mobility, and best of all from everyone else's point of view, I won't be asking repeatedly for a British Gathering a few months later.

Though I'm not sure I can really help with the not looking like an idiot tourist bit... but I'm willing to try. And if not, we could look like idiot tourists together. :D

Especially if iv'e been annoying, which is a possibility.

They're not all brilliant, but I'll just list 'em

Love and Disappointments
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2595216/1/
- follows P&P; can be a bit dragging and sappy, but more or less in character

Mr Bennet's Quiet Evening
http://www.pemberley.com/derby/katja.mbqe.html
and
Mr Bennet's Favourite Daughter
http://www.pemberley.com/derby/katja.mbfd.html
- Mr Bennet's POV of Darcy's proposal, and following events

In A Different Style
http://www.pemberley.com/derby/leonore.iads.html
- HILLAROUS story told in letter format by multiple people. Not finished, though, and I doubt it ever will be. Still worth reading.

Battle of the Letters
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1243200/1/
- Also letter format; Elizabeth and Darcy correspond while he's away on business. Rather cute and romantic, also VERY funny.

And... let me know if that's good enough. I have more if you really want.

Yes, I was looking on the Pit. I'll check both those websites out, thanks!

I'd reply to your post, but the HTML's gone all screwy so I'll post here instead. -_-

Just don't look for it on fanfiction.net. Most of the bad stuff infests the Pit. If you want to check out goodfic, go to:

http://www.austen.com/derby/

and start reading. Almost all of those stories have few, if any, annoying original characters. In fact, about 85% of them are plausible AUs. Be sure to go to Epilogue Abbey, though, because Fantasia Gallery hosts the "modern" P&P adaptations.

Another good site is the Republic of Pemberley's fanfic.

If the author has forbidden fanfiction, there isn't likely to be any badfic for us to kill, is there? And if there is it's a whole different problem. As for agents from the forbidden continua... We need to remember that the PPC is essentially fanfiction. A rather odd genre of fanfiction, but fanfiction all the same. I'm no permission giver but I'm gonna have to say we're probably not allowed to use forbidden characters.

I've found a few awful Vampire Chronicles/Twilight crossovers. Do they fall under the same forbidden category, or would it be acceptable to go and remove Lestat from Twilight-verse?

I'd be inclined to say that we should respect the author's wishes and leave the fandom alone - no and no to your two points, respectively. However, that's just personal opinion - it's never really been discussed, to my knowledge.

Anyone else have an opinion?

I have to walk past my local primary school (or elementary for those of us in the US) every day on the way to catch the bus to work, and they have a little garden patch out the front... filled with Sunflowers. So I have a little PPC moment almost every morning.

Remember the "ATM Machine" thing hS saw at the York Gathering in 2008? (If you don't know what it is, then go here.)
Well, I was going through some of my older yearbooks and noticed the title of one of the spreads was "HIP Program".

It means: Hearing Impared Program...Program.

Deja vu, anyone?

I was looking at my schedule and found the initials of my new Maths teacher. On the schedule they don't put full names, just the initials.

My new Maths teacher's initials were MS. Yeah, definently a PPC moment there...

...to the point where I will frequently warn my parents and friends of the Ironic Overpower and the Narrative Laws of Comedy if they unwittingly invoke them.

Foreign grammar befuddles me.
Livejournal Entry: Bitchin' in Chinese Class

"The Curse of Millhaven" - a charming little song I found via TVTropes' "Enfante Terrible" entry when entering her in it. "I got a pretty little mouth underneath all the foamin', lalalala lalalalie ..." Violent children are fun, though my mental jury's still out on whether she's going to grow up into a genuinely nasty vermin or just a Chaotic Neutral. Six-year-olds are chaotic neutral by default.

Also have been reading Simon R Green's Hawk and Fisher novels, and I wondered whether they'd make a good agent pair because they have the l33t weaponry skills and witty banter down pat and they're used to killing weird things.

To the extent that my close friends actually know what I'm talking about when I say things like that. *g* Unfortunately, none of them are quite inclined to join the cause, even though they support it.

~Neshomeh, who only hangs out with cool geeky people.

I keep on having to stop myself from screaming "STU STU STU!!!" whenever I see people reading the Gold Brick at school (or "SUE SUE SUE!!!" at the sight of Twilight). And I jumped a little when I saw the word Manx when I was looking something up on Wikipedia (dunno what it was, though.)

And then there was the time when the New York Times spelled Tolkien "Tolkein." Glods, was I pissed off...

And then lots of occasions when I wish for Bleeprin loudly and ferverently. I get a lot of odd looks for that one.

I constantly talk about the Ironic Overpower, and there's a house near ours called "Acacia", and a road called "Canons Lane". And whenever I see sunflowers, I laugh my arse off. :P

I told my classmates not to tempt the Ironic Overpower on Friday, when one of them said 'at least Chemistry won't have as much maths in it'. It heard her. Four hours of maths is not funny; two of trigonometry and two of algebra, working out molar weights and concentrations.

If I see a geographical error in something printed, such as a paper, or the TV, I'll invoke DOGA.

And as a matter of fact, I often do say something - not explicitly mentioning the Ironic Overpower by name, but I've been known to say that the best way to make an elevator come is to get comfortable, to cringe when somebody says "At least ___ hasn't happened," and so on.

I also seem to remember mentally calling out for DOGA recently, but I have no idea what for. (Well, presumably a geographical aberration, but I don't know what kind or where.)

I remember reading something in a book or a poem...can't remember which...that mentioned acacia trees. Guess what the first thing I thought of was?

Yesterday I forgot a whole bunch of textbooks for a class, and a friend lent me her books saying, "Remember, it could always be worse." I had to resist the urge to bang my head against the nearest wall, and tell her not to tempt the Ironic Overpower. This happens a lot.

I ran into a particularly... er... choice piece of writing on an RP site I frequent.
It burns.
No, it wasn't one of the RPers' writing (I hope); someone posted it for us to stumble upon and despair.
Funny thing is, my first thought was, "Hmm, I wonder who'd be most traumatized by attempting to fix that?"
(For the masochistic among us: Augh.)

More in an RL vein, someone was mentioning things that cannot be unseen yesterday at anime club, and I nearly blurted out "That's what Bleeprin's for."

Haha, I would have gotten so many strange looks...

...with the wiki transfer and all that.

*hates the athletic Sue's like only an artsy, bookworm of a stick figure girl can.*

I'm not a tremendous expert in either fandom, but I would say so - the Crucible seems to be a brute-force weapon, not relying on any of the subtleties of the Hammerverse. Also, the base elements of the weapon (human psychics, existence after death, and so on) exist in Pokemon.

Division of More Dakka's summary of the Crucible of Malediction:

"The Crucible of Malediction is a device shrouded in mystery as no one fully understands how they are made but each one contains the trapped spirits of tortured psykers. These are released onto the battlefield, causing a wave of psychic energy strong enough to harm enemy psykers. Often this drives them insane through psychic chattering."

Therefore, we would rule it a valid Dark-type attack. You might also wish to consider a Nemesis Force weapon, Psyk-Out grenades, or an Animus Speculum.

not sure. that's a dark elder device, right? I think it migth work, maybe.

wait... there's Peanuts fanfic?

The Board? Really?

I may have to adopt that one. :D

The laws regarding parody and quoting are the same everywhere in America, as far as I know, and dA is based in America. Publishers can put restrictions on just how much can be quoted from their books, but there is a minimum allowance as long as you give proper credit. But, as dA isn't actually a publisher, I don't think that even applies.

In a nutshell: You're fine. Go for it. {= )

~Neshomeh

1) I'm very curious as to how an anthropomorphic Froslass could come to exist. I'm not too familiar with Pokemon canon, so is this something canonically possible, a badfic glitch, or something else?

2) Is Kip a vampire from any particular continuum? He seems to have a rather strange set of characteristics, so is this a canon type of vampire, a world you're working on, an invention for the PPC, or what?

3) I see you have one Floater, one Assassin. Generally Agents have partners in their own Departments, except for single-mission transfer duty. This being HQ, "tossed together by fate/random whim of Upstairs/plothole" is fairly common, but it does deserve commenting on; if you were just planning on them working together as if it were normal, you might want to rethink that.

Obviously you know the answers to these, but they're my immediate concerns when it comes to Permission.

hS

Seriously, they need to all get together sometime.... although that might not be such a good idea.... *ponderponderponder*

So much.
I recently discovered the joy that is TWEWY, and as a good portion of my current courses involve the dreaded math, Minamimoto rapidly endeared himself to me. In a twisted sort of way.
"Don't get your integers all divided by zero, sensei."
It's priceless. Priceless I tell you!

Hmm... this may spawn a 'priceless' commercial. *goes away to ruminate on this*

...oh yeah, good luck with the Permission thing. :D Stuff looks good to me, but hey, not a PG. (Still not even sure why they smacked me with the stick, actually...)

Anyway. Right. Done. Really. Promise. :)

It is looking pretty nice to me! But are you writing two different Agents in two different Departments, or do the two sometimes get partnered together?

However, given the huge collection of portal devices, universes with time machines, and so on that we have access to, I would be inclined to say that you could land in World One at basically any time you wanted, like it was any other fic.

You never know how much time will pass between worlds.

I remember seeing someone say that if, when you're in HQ, you stop and think "Hey, time should be passing," it does. Otherwise it tends to drift. Me, I was just clumsily trying to work out an actual timeline for my stuff on a couple occasions and I was more-or-less winging it, so don't take anything I did timewise as undiluted PPC-canon.

On a related note, I have to say I hope they have a way to slow it down, otherwise S&S and the M-kids would age at four times the rate of a human. Eh, there's probably some drug in some continuum which would slow the aging rate ...

...I've assumed that time in HQ is kind of like the geography. By which I mean that it doesn't stay in place and sort of moves all over depending on the individual. So while time is generally in tune with World One, it might also depend on how much time an Agent thinks has elapsed.

HST is tuned to World One most of the time; New Caledonia is occupied /now/, the AD 2004 Oxford Gathering caused problems in HQ in 2004 HST, there's Laburnum's interlude, etc etc. But not all cases fit. Agent Vemi, for instance, returned home "only a few days after she'd originally left". In general, however, HQ is synched to World One. We hope.

hS

the aforementioned essay is AMAZING! I know I'm replying too late to be of any use, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I think you're brilliant. =D

Nothing but hugs and kudos and other good things here.


--Mystia, awed

I apologise for being so... well, frantic last night. Was stressing far too much, I guess, and I certainly didn't realise how difficult a request I was making.

Am weighing up various titles now. Will post a link to the finished piece in a day or so.

(and hS: cheers for Longitude!)

Titles are hard. Various Douglas Adams references come immediately to mind, though I don't know if you can do anything with them:

Fanfiction: Mostly Harmless

An Insider's Guide to the Galaxy--of Fanfiction

Don't Panic! An Insider's Guide to Fanfiction

Etc., etc.

I'll come back if I think of anything better.

~Neshomeh

... I adore Longitude. I'm sure I've seen a similar book by the same author around, so I'll have to track that down and buy it...

As for titles... let's see.

Worlds Without Number(/End): Fanfiction For Beginners

Or the reverse thereof. Or "An Insider's Guide To Fanfiction" as the subtitle. Or... yeah, the problem is there's so many similar options.

hS

... and only having some memories of you asking for input, plus given the demands you have for things that should be in the title, doesn't make it easy to help.

* An Insider's Guide to Fanfiction

It's boring and factual. Alternatively "the world of" could still be plunked in.

* Fanfiction in X chapters/stories/steps: An Insider's Guide to What Can and Can't be Done.

Or variations thereof.

Sorry, not much of use.

Noting that there is no mini species for WH40k, nor any Fanfiction University for the setting, I would like to propose the mini species for WH40k be mini-Nightbringers, and apologize in advance for any people or stars it should consume. I can provide a link to the fic featuring Taildeer, the first known specimen, if the board wishes for confirmation-I am writing a pre-mission story for my prospective Agents, which will include a briefing on known hazards and fauna of badfic.

*swings in wearing Apostrophe Protection Society balaclava*

I apologise for being nitpicky, and not having anything else to add on the subject of minis, but ...

it's 'minis' without the apostrophe :)

Any Mini from a continuum that has an Official Fanfiction University must be formally adopted from the OFU. If they do not have an OFU, then Agents are free to adopt them.

I didn't know if there was, but I've checked, and there is! Yay!

List of Mini Types

For the record, there isn't yet a mini for 40k. The privilege of choosing (sorry, "discovering") the form of a mini usually goes to the person who first encounters one. Note that they are identical within a fandom, and it's best to check with the Board rather than being unilateral about anything.

hS

For example, at my esteemed Fanfiction University, we currently have mini-kiji. Any name misspelled in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles forms a mini-kiji. However, those aren't up for adoption yet (yes, you need to adopt them).

Other types of minis include... Hm... Mini-aragogs for HP, if I remember correctly, mini-hellhounds for Good Omens and... I'll be honest here, I don't pay much attention to the other minis. But there's lots of different types. I don't think we've decided on a WH40k mini yet but I could be wrong.

I'm not familiar with Moonlight, but maybe I could help with the others.

Maybe mini-Wolves for Twilight?

Ooh, Dracula's a toughie. Mini-Wolves would be appropriate for that fandom, too. I actually do like the Mini-Renfields, though. Ooh, I know! Mini-VanHelsings! *snicker*

Mini-Renfields a la Dracula: Dead and Loving It would be awesome, I think, but I can think of a few other ideas.

I think the original Dracula-type vampires could turn into wolves, or at least had some kind of power over them, so that's an idea. (Though wolves have enough of a bad reputation as it is. {= P )

What about mini-fangs? Little sets of vampire jaws that would float or hop around and bite people?

Mini-suns? Or mini-whatever-else-hurts-the-native-vampires? Because we all know the 'Sues will be vampires themselves more often than not.

I don't know Moonlight or Twilight, so that's the best I can do.

~Neshomeh

Gives a fox plushie and a pair of combat sporks. And an energy drink.

Welcome to the ppc. enjoy your gifts.

Hello! Have a seat, but be carful of where you sit. You never know what is masquarading as a chair nowadays.

Welcome to this insanity that we call the PPC. Watch out for the minis, they will take your foot off if you step on them. As for my gift, you have one free voucher for the General Store. Good for anything that is not in the rare section. And please don:t try the cheat the staff. They are one mini from each fandom. So they know things...

Anyways, welcome!

Leto

But here, have a nice fiery glomp from my four minis. (Locy and Lucy Pevenzi are mini-Dragons and Mara Labinigi and Ithillien are mini-Balrogs.)

You might need some burn salves now. But anyways, welcome to the PPC!

*waves enthusiastically* Is a box of miscellaneous biscuits acceptable?

Well, the bit about being bitten can kind of put off some people…

It's like a slightly smaller fuzzy yak thing, but with huge spiky horns and a taste for sausages. And it's blue. That too. It was spawned by a spambot consistently spelling "your" as "ypur," to ward off the incoming question.

*platonic glomf*

Lurkers unite. :P

HP, House, and Twilight, huh... interesting assortment you've got there. *evil chuckles*

I like that banner. Where can I get one for myself? I'll pay you in sugar... *offers pixie stix* 'Cause chaos is fun.

Sedri already gave you wiki link.

Prepare to be assaulted in other linkage ways.

First off, let me introduce you to the FAQ for the Board, it is rather handy for a newbie like yourself, and I promise it shouldn't eat you or give you rabies (that's me). Please to be making sure to read the Board Constitution (Wiki link here, Oddlots copy is up at top of Board) too.

Here is the infamous Araeph's The List of Everything PPC, it is really quite shiny. There's also the Complete List of PPC Fiction, and I personally heartily recommend reading several of the longer spin off series (I would give a few examples here but it is half past midnight as I write this and my brain is currently on holiday) to get a feel for things before you try reading things like Huinesoron's more serious PPC stuff- Reorganisation and Crashing Down - because while fantastic, both're confusing for newbie brains.

Now, beyond that, I'll give some handy advice.

Don't be afraid of the oldbies - they don't bite (that's me that bites, and I'm not an oldbie, and I'm sure they'll find a muzzle and will provide you with rabies shots afterwards), definitely post so that we can get a feel for you, and all in all have fun and don't take everything seriously (well, very seriously at any rate. Serious is allowed, so long as you don't take it too far).

Another handy bit of advice is that you, as a newbie, should not be left alone with me at all, so I welcome you to break that dire warning and IM me or something. fairladypsyche on YIM and AIM and with @hotmail.com suffix for MSN (and JulyFlame-at-gmail.com for Gtalk if you'd rather). To be truthful, no one should be left alone with me at all, and I'm sure a few of my victims friends will come along, spy this, and be honest and agree and warn you, which will do nothing but get you curious and end up leading you into a trap.

Welcome! And no, we don't waste much time. Good to meet you! *shakes hand dramatically*

Hmmm... I don't see July with her usual Plateful Of Links yet, so I'll give you the basic one - the PPC wiki, here (http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/PPC_Wiki) - and let her take care of the rest.

Bonjour! nuqneH! "Hello" in any other language of your choice!

I give you a Tribble and- well, I think I ought to skip the chocolate in this case. Have some Bleep-products instead. Just don't feed the Tribble too much.

The Harry Potter fandom highly approves of your assistance (or at least, I do on behalf of it).

My final gift is a sharp, pointed, and shiny object of your choice.

Welcome. :)

Oh, and I approve of your banner.

Harry Potter fandom, eh? The Divison of More Dakka issues you a refractor field, suitable for stopping curses, lascannon shots, and other such annoyances the Sues may launch your way.

*hug*

Okay, have an egg whisk! It's shiny, gold-plated, and whisks not only eggs, but spambots and author wraiths as well! Use it for good and not evil.

Welcome to the insanity! XD

*while chewing various baked goods* You sure don't waste any time out here, do ya?


mmmmmmmm....lembas

Welcome to the PPC. Have some banana chips. Bananas are good. Great source of potassium.

*hands over introductory plate of lembas*

Welcome to the PPC Board! No doubt others will come along later and give you links to the many and multifarious places and info that we have on the PPC, so I am just going to do my usual and throw baked goods at you :)

-Trojie, hoping that the sugar in the lembas won't be a problem ...