If you like convoluted plots, might I suggest Narbonic? Sure, its characters aren't so much morally ambiguous as explicitly and openly evil, but it's "pink-heart evil" rather than Xykon-evil. It has a number of similarities to Girl Genius. Currently rerunning with cartoonist's commentary.

You might enjoy Keychain of Creation, which I understand to have been directly inspired by Order of the Stick. It's based on Exalted rather than D&D, but I know next to nothing about Exalted beyond what's explained in the daily notes and I still enjoy it. ('Course, when I started following OOTS I knew next to nothing of D&D, so.)

... If you don't mind archive binging a whole lot, you might be interested in Irregular Webcomic. It's mostly a LEGO photocomic, and it has about sixteen different (mostly interlocking) storylines, but all but two or three of those have very strong continuity. Be warned, however: it's been updating daily with no misses since early 2003, and it's currently up to number 2297.

I want to suggest Adventurers!, but a very large part of it, even once it gets a plot, is joke-a-day. This is occasionally justified as sidequests, but not always. You might be more attracted to Antihero For Hire, by the same guy.

I've started to read more plot based ones recently, don't know why. I still love Something Positive and the Devil's Panties and such as well. :D My favourite ones are normally the ones I've come across recently though. XD

Dreamless - actually, I'm half reading this one because of her name. It's so creepy when that happens.

Phoenix Requiem - drawn by the same girl as Dreamless. The story and art is amazing.

The Devil's Panties - and then a joke a day one. ^___^ Although it's been going seven days a week for far too long, so archive binges are only recommended if you have a week to spare.

http://concessioncomic.com/

Best. Furry comic. Evar. NSFW, though, and there're only about two or three characters in their that are actually heterosexual. Rife with sex jokes, and all of them funny.

Darths & Droids is another favorite of mine.

DMFA just reached the big one-oh-oh-oh! http://www.missmab.com/index.php
Wheee! It's an anthro comic with all the stuff you asked for, as well as fire!
I may share a mind-link with Wildy-san. Don't say I didn't warn you.

when I needed execution methods. Apparently "poetic justice" in the minds of the Flowers doesn't cover "giving psycho bestiality-committing Stu to Drip Rat" *grin* I'm still quite proud of using the Redneck Trees, though. An Fluffmodeus is very Molly-ish.

Suicide For Hire is awesome, and so is Concession. Ghastly's Ghastly Comic has ended now, but I still reread the archives.

As you can tell, I have a very dark sense of humour, but if I didn't, I wouldn't have joined the PPC, would I?

Bleepnip-bleeprin infused catnip for feline agents, as I don't know what effect alcohol would have on them.

Dragonlance, like (most likely) every other D&D setting, is swarming with Canon!Sues.  (And I include the setting which I've been working on under that heading...although my probable Canon!Sues had the grace to stay the hell out of the action most of the time.)

Answer the first: Miss Cam doesn't do permission for OFUs any more. I found that out about a year ago when I first spoke to her. You're more than welcome to write one, but you MUST credit her for the general idea of OFUs. I co-write one myself with Oozaru Angel, and in the disclaimer for every chapter we make sure to credit Miss Cam for the idea of OFUs and minis.

Answer the second: You're not familiar with Discworld by any chance? That description sounds a lot like Nanny Ogg's Greebo to me. Not that it would cause a problem, I'm sure; as Sedri said, just treat it as you would a humanoid character and don't go overboard.

Answer the third: I wondered about it for a while, but the last time this was brought up I believe someone pronounced it Toop-a-toot.

I personally pronounce it 'Twup-atwut', but if someone can offer a better version, I'm all ears. Except that that would be creepy.

hS

1: I don't believe Miss Cam hands out permission for OFUs anymore. I'm not certain, but I think she's washed her hands of the entire thing. Wait for the others to tell you for certain, but I don't suggest emailing again.

#2: I'd say treat the Kneazle the way you would a humanoid OC; don't go overboard. Your character could have such a pet as easily as he/she could wield magic - it's part of the HP universe. The line you have to walk carefully is making it 'speshul'; a bad-tempered cat isn't unlikely, as long as you explain it well enough and don't make it absurd.

#3: ...no idea. Sorry. Make that two answers.

on what exactly the other fandom was (other than the Pizza Cats, which I am familiar enough with to give a decent on-the-spot rendition of the Fan Club Oath if pressed), but now I think I know. Warriors is that book series about cats fighting basically a cat-scale war, right? By... *goes upstairs and digs book out of little brother's shelf* Erin Hunter?

I read the first one of those a while back out of sheer curiosity, but never really progressed onwards into the series (hence my extremely simplified summary of it). Even so, based off my experiences with that one book, this is a HELL of a crossover. I could write an essay on why this makes no sense.

*fallsdowndead*

...and when it drives a PPC Boarder to use ten exclamation points, you know it's bad. Kill it, kill it now!

Not looking into this I will.

...A'IGHT, THIS GOES TOO FAR! I HAVE SEEN BLACKSTAR GO TO CANDY MOUNTAIN, I'VE SEEN FIRESTAR AND JAYPAW BECOME BUTTERFLYMAN AND MOTH LAD (actually, those two were kinda funny) BUT THIS JUST TOPS IT ALL!

When I find who created this monstrosity, limbs will be lost! And none of them will be mine!

*starts chanting a la Lord of the Flies* Kill the fic! Bash it in! Spill its blood!

*odd glint appears in eyes* OK, WHERE'S MY TANK? I MUST KILL IT. KILLKILLKILLKILL

“Disclaimer - my entire knowledge of pokemon is based on my having watched the first series of the cartoon when I was about eleven or twelve, which is over ten yeras ago now.”

Hey, I’m writing a fic with the same kind of knowledge (plus some of the games). Any form of help is appreciated, especially from someone with as much biology knowledge as you.

“Animals and plants are grouped based on different charactersitics, and the idea of grouping them is to make sure that each group contains only organisms that are more closely related to each other than they are to everything outside the group. And modes of life are very important criteria for dividing up organisms - outward appearance is actually one of the least important criteria - it is so easily changed by selection pressure. So given that all Pokemon have this same basic mode of reproduction/metamorphosis, which can be catalysed by rocks, of all things (and I'll get onto THAT later as well), I'm going to group them in their own class, part of the phylum Arthropoda and a sister-taxon to the classes Insecta, Chelicerata etc etc. This group is cladistically correct because it is monophyletic (nothing that belongs in the group has been left out - no other animals reproduce like Pokemon do)”

… wow. Just wow. You may be “talking out [your] arse” as you say, but that makes perfect sense in a ‘had to look at the dictionary sixty-eight times’ kind of way. :P I’m not sure, but that could very well work. Unfortunately, that’s a bit too much information for my needs and I have nowhere to put it all. Sorry. Professor Birch plays a mild to moderate part of my fic (especially at the beginning), so if I get the chance, can I use him as a mouthpiece for you as he babbles on about a new discover. The only problems are Eevee and Ditto. How do you explain a Pokémon that can evolve into seven completely different species (and don’t say ‘unstable genetic code’ unless that’s actually plausible :P) and a Pokémon that can take the form of anything?

Re: Professor Birch. For some reason, I’ve started seeing him as a Scottish bloke when I’m writing him. Can anyone help me understand why?

“As for the rock catalyst thing, it is possible (not probable, and not likely, but possible) that these magical rocks contain essential elements or compounds that catalyse the chemical processes that cause them to metamorphose, or that stress them into changing, somewhat like bad water conditions force axolotls (which are normally neotenous and happy about it) to undergo the last stage of development and become newts.
This is a poor and depauperate explanation but I'm sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel here.”

No matter as I never use rocks in the game unless I have to (find them fairly pointless really), so I don’t think my characters will use them unless as a last resort for some reason (e.g. the Apocalypse that I have planned). :P

Have no fear. I am not planning any bizarre Pokémon relationships. In fact, I only even comment on a few having any potential, all of which are perfectly fine (a Combusken/Blaziken and a Combusken/Blaziken; two Ditto; Ditto and an as yet undecided Pokémon). As those are all perfectly normal, they could do whatever they want.

However, I’m not sure how I want to do this. Intercourse would be perfectly fine and natural for these lot, but what about non-compatible ones? It wouldn’t make much sense for Pokémon to randomly switch from intercourse to egg-laying depending on their partner.

Help?

Even in the desert, there’s still water. Maybe (though I really doubt this is plausible) for that move, Pokémon pull all water towards them until they have enough to Surf. I do have to wonder how Waterfall works anywhere though.

“I, personally, gave up on logic in Pokemon a long time ago. I don't think it's meant to make sense, but just to entertain. It's a fantasy world with different rules etc.”

But what would the rules be? After all, we wouldn’t want Christopher Paolini getting away with all the weird stuff in Eragon by saying “this world has different rules,” would we? :P Most fandoms have different rules to our universe (magic, starships et cetera) but whether or not those rules are explained is a different matter.

“Evolution could just be a case of 'I'm too powerful/experienced for this form now, I need to be at the next one to continue getting stronger.' There are exceptions, of course (i.e. Ash/Satoshi's Pikachu and its ability to defeat almost anything), but most things evolve once they're strong enough.”

Yeah, about Pikachu, why doesn’t it ever evolve and can still beat up everyone? I mean, surely some other Pokémon should have objections to evolving as well.

“I believe it was mentioned somewhere, perhaps in the Pokedex of one of the games, that Eevee has an unstable genetic code and therefore can evolve into whatever Pokemon is attuned to the stone you use on it (about seven or so now I think).”

An ‘unstable genetic code’? The only thing I can think of is that it means is that it’s missing pieces… which sounds ridiculous.

“People do age in anime, most of the time, but Pokemon is just weird with its non-aging. The Digimon Adventures 01 characters were older by the time of 02, to use your other mon-anime example.”

Yeah, but that was due to it being set later on (and with new characters). Pokémon’s being going on for years now with the same core characters (mostly).

“Good luck with figuring out Pokemon logic and science.”

Thanks. I’ll probably need it.

“There is no logical explanation behind Pokeballs, other than the diffusion of matter. In my stories, the Pokeball contains technology capable of transferring physical matter into a pure energy form, thus allowing the Pokemon to be stored within the Pokeball. As all amtter is simply different forms of energy, the conversion is easy enough to say in theory, but hard ot put into practice.”

That actually makes perfect sense. My story’s based on a combination of Ruby and Sapphire and in all of the games, someone says something like “Technology is incredible! You can now store and recall items and Pokémon as data via PC!” (from Red). Therefore, that is very easily transferred to your theory. I suppose I better ask anyway: mind if I nick your idea?

“Additionally, Pokeballs can expand or reduce in size due to the technology of the Pokeball moving around, thus allowing it to enter a more compact mode.”

And that one.

“It's unsure what the inside of a Pokeball is like, seeing as the being inside is theoretically pure energy, but it is often guessed, and supported by Nintendo, that the inside of the Pokeball varies to give the mind of the Pokemon, or the physical body if the energy process turns it to energy, then to matter again inside the Pokeball, a more sane level of existance. A water type may need water, thus the Pokeball compensates thruogh inbuilt technology. In this thread, of the inside of a Pokeball is chosen to suit the Pokemon, it also follows that the environment is suitable for the Pokemon to rest and heal.”

If it’s supported by Nintendo, why does it need to be guessed?

“Given the choice, I suppose a Pokemon may even be able to listen to events occuring outside its Pokeball, giving the possibility that the Pokeball has psychic capabilities and responds to the thoughts of a Pokemon.”

The Pokéball has psychic abilities? I just figured that it let sound through or something.

”Within the anime and games, Pokemon do need additional medicine for particularly extreme wounds or conditions (Poisoned, as an example), but other than that, Pokemon have probably developed accelerated healing abilities as a result of their frequent practice of battling.”

What about the wild ones though? They don’t battle nearly as much and they obviously have enhanced healing abilities.

“Pokemon have aso been shown to be fed regularly outside of the Pokeball, showing that the Pokeball doesn't seem to provide nutrition. As a result, they can starve to death unless they are Ghost Types.”

I suppose that answers the question of whether ghost types need to eat. But what about others? Regirock, Regice and Registeel have no mouths and it even comments in Ruby’s Pokédex that no-one has any idea what Registeel eats.

“Pokemon do not evolve constantly, as each tends to have one, or at most, two forms to evolve into. Humans are constantly evolving in their childhood to their teenage, and then adult forms, it's just more gradual. In the case of Pokemon, these changes are more sudden.”

Yes, but some Pokémon change so bizarrely that they can’t be said to merely be growing up (plus, that would imply that Pikachu is a perpetual child). Also, what about some Pokémon that evolve into multiple things (ignoring Eevee). For example, Wurmple can evolve into Silcoon or Cascoon depending on its stats.

“It's the training that allows a Pokemon to evolve, similar to how exercise and nutrition allows the human body to grow towards adulthood.”

What about wild Pokémon? I can’t picture a Jigglypuff fighting so that it can evolve (and definitely not Magikarp).

“It's quite similar to the human developement, just occurs at set stages that can spontaneously happen, whether upon an emotion trigger or the need to evolve to deal with their current situation (See when Ash's Charmeleon evolved to Charizard to save Ash from the Aerodactyl).”

*remembers* Damn, you’re saying that my idea isn’t original. *curses* I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not all that original to have a Combusken evolve into Blaziken in order to save her trainer from being killed by a Team Aqua member. Well… that might be original, but the general idea probably isn’t.

“The elemental stones are shown to contain concentrated doses of whatever element they represent, which leads to the suggestion of radioactivity, a natural element not found on earth or even divine blessing.”

… I think I’ll go for radioactivity out of those choices (though obviously a form that has no effect on humans).

“Eevee is capable of evolving because it is very adaptable. It has been specifically noted that Eevee's DNA is unstable, allowing it to potentially absorb part of the environment around it and evolve to best suit it. This would explain why Eevee evolves around the Ice Rock in Diamond and Pearl, or to Vaporean when exposed to a Water Stone.”

As I said to Ansela, an ‘unstable genetic code’? The only thing I can think of is that it means is that it’s missing pieces… which sounds ridiculous.

“Pokemon attacks can be a bit tricky, but again, I also dealt with this in my own Pokemon fanfic.”

*is relieved* I just had a worrying thought that you guys might think I’m weird for writing a Pokémon fic.

“The water used by certain water Pokemon (Squirtle, Totodile, Mudkip, etc) is developed in an internal water pouch which frequently fills with either excess saliva, stomach acid (Explaining why several Water Types are also poison types), or is capable of combining oxygen in the air with hydrogen produced naturally by the body.”

There are Water/Poison types? I’ve never seen any. I can only really picture Squirtle and co and any big Water types having space for a water pouch given how much they seem to use sometimes. I think I’ll use a combination of that idea and the air one (e.g. Mudkip would breathe in (Water types seem to do that a lot) and blow out and do something magical that combines both the oxygen and hydrogen together without a water pouch).

”Leaves and vines are harder to explain. However, there are cases where plants can be quite effective against regular metal. Theoretically, by binding together thousands of paper thin layers of membrane, you can create a substance equal in power to steal. This would be seal in a laquer naturally product by grass Pokemon.”

Hmm… can I nick this too?

“The vines may simply be the result of seeds carried by the Pokemon being forced to grow rapidly, or even the Grass Pokemon itself forcing its body to grow by concentrating sunlight, nutrients and water in its body to force the growth or attack (Solarbeam requires sunlight to fire, etc).”

What about when they retract the vines though?

“And that's all stuff I've dealt with in my story. It's actually quite fun, applying logic, you just gotta ask 'How can this work', and then create the theories. I dealt with the paradox of 'Pokemon fire = Not Death' vs 'Building on Fire = Death' by saying that fire types excrete a natural chemical in their fire sacs which limits the heat their flames can reach.”

I presume you’re talking about how Pokémon fire won’t kill humans. I’ve gone against the anime with this in that Pokémon fire can and will kill (especially if you get it in the face). After all the Pokédex entry for Torchic in Ruby says “This Pokémon breathes fire of over one thousand and eight hundred degrees Fahrenheit, including fireballs that leave the foe scorched black.” For Pokémon, I’ve decided that, like prey always do, each species has developed defences against the things that could kill it. Therefore, Wurmple has spikes on its tail to drive off Swellow, all Pokémon can survive brief blasts from fire types if their skin is toughened against flame etc. Fire types themselves have totally different views on fire. Taken from the draft of one story of mine from a Blaziken’s POV. “Taking a deep breath, she blew out, expelling some of her inner fire with the air. Flames spewed from her mouth, but they felt cold to Miska. As a Blaziken, she was adapted to survive the fire she used. When it was cold to her, it was still very hot but pathetically weak compared to her true power.” My current theory (though I’m open to suggestions) is that fire types are like a flamethrower. They need a flame of X size inside them to get it going and then use fuel to expand that into a deadly weapon. The fuel in my theory is stolen from the dragons in Reign of Fire.

Here.

I asked my sister yesterday. She says, marvellously helpfully, that she really can't remember, but there's not really an average either - it can vary a lot.

As for how they feel, she likened it to a sort of dull burning pain in the lower back. My fairy godson's mother said pretty much the same.

They are not like buses, for a start. Every twenty seconds at the start of labour? Er, no. So far as I know you're not meant to head to the hospital until the contractions are close enough together, which suggests they're initially far apart.

From experience: when I was having a three hour natter on the phone to my sister to distract her last time she was giving birth, she wasn't that far advanced then, but it was probably every ten or fifteen minutes or so (I'd have to check). She'll be calling me tomorrow to wish me happy birthday, so I'll try to remember to ask her then. In the meantime, google might help, but you're likely to get conflicting information - try your google-fu on "how far apart should my contractions be before I head to hospital?" and use that as a baseline.

It's been years since I read the books (my favourite was the Wild Magic series), so could you give me a bit of a rundown of exactly who Joren is? I know Keladry is the heroine and Daine is awesome, but I can't for the life of me remember Joren.

1. A provisional yes, dependent upon the specifics of each case. If it fits the general feel of the PPC, doesn't grant your agents Sueish powers, and doesn't interfere with anyone else's PPC writings, go for it. If you're thinking a piece of technology that would somehow radically change the way your agents tackle missions, and that would have ramifications throughout HQ, best to check with the other Boarders on a case by case basis. Basically the rule is: so long as you stick to the PPC spirit and don't tread on anyone's toes, and remember the aim is comedy, you're fine.
   
   2. and 3. Depends if the mission will be improved by the creation of one, really. If the mini adds nothing, best not to bother. A surname would certainly create a mini; on place names I'm not entirely sure.
   
   4. Just because a fic is AU doesn't mean it's not bad. Granted I do Bad Slash, not Sues, so the detail of Sues in AUs I'm not familiar with, but I'd guess the principle is the same. In the DBS we charge for implausible sex, implausible characterisation, implausible lube, implausible biology etc. These things are a constant whether the fic is AU or not. I'd guess with Sues the same is true - a Sue is a Sue, whether in the original canon, a straight fanfic, or an AU. And if she's enough of a Sue to warrant killing, that should be obvious whether the fic's labelled AU or not.

*throws shiny presents into a swimming pool so can bask properly in them*

Thoughts on being 24: it feels exactly like 23. The only appreciable difference seems to be me looking even more confused and taking slightly longer to work it out on my fingers whenever I'm IDed and asked how old I am.

I don't see any reason why not! *gets out balloons*

And for Fynn's, either, cos I is useless. Anyway

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, both of you!

*starts sharing the lembas around*

Have some Anti-Lustin chocolates,laced with Bleeperin.

Have a large shapeshifting plushie. It can turn into just about any random cute thing in any continuum.

*gives you both a sling, sack of pebbles, and basket of Bleeprin-berries*

Serious mega-congrats. *bounces on the bouncy castle*

Here, have shiny crystal bits to guide and inspire you, and also a pair of Boots of Butt-Kicking each.
*celebrates*

Hope it's a good one! *hugs* Thanks for helping me with everything I need to join the PPC.

Happy birthday to you both.

*gives chocolates and shiny swords*

*offers Pads a shiny new leash with "Property of R. J. Lupin" written on it*

*throws otter plushies at the both of you*

Plushies! And cake, too! *offers German chocolate cake*

[insert witty comment here]

Happy birthday Pads. Have some bleeprin

*starts to blow up a PP HQ grey castle.* “What, All they had left were sparkly pink ones. And that would not go well.”

Here's a shiny, new battleaxe (courtesy of the Raven Armory*). *hands over a deflated bouncy castle and air pump thingy for inflation* Have fun. :)

* All products of the Raven Armory are guaranteed to kill Warrior!Sues.

*screams like an author's note* HAPPY BIRTHDAY PADS!!!

Pan Galactic Gargle Bleeprin Blasters all around! *dumps a barrel full of salted walnuts on Pads*

"Many happy returns."

And Doctor Who has so many wonderful ways to put paid to Mary Sues, so I've no fear of duplication.

Kudos to you. You did put a lot of effort into this, and I'm just glad I was able to help. If only more authors were as willing to take concrit on board, the PPC'd be out of a job. :P

I hate you for making me laugh loud enough that I've probably woken up my parents.

I just got done with one of these Abusive Parent Plot Device things! Why would ANYONE think that that's a good plot device to use without the absolute most delicate handling?

And I wonder if Al's Waiter's still hanging around HQ...

hS

That was kind of confusing.  The beta request is not for the snippet; it's for the mission that I've basically completed.  (Provided I get permission, that is...)

can kill supernatural entities/souls if used properly. Ender-Peter's comments in the last Speaker book suggest that, at least.

I haven't heard of this... person, but the stories are definitely not supposed to be rated T. That was a disgusting experience just looking at the first paragraphs of some of them. I'm now feeling very tempted to spork my eyes out. I hope all of the stories get reported ASAP.

Someone's staked a claim to the latter, but the former are still unclaimed.

Oh, and I found a new Warcraft badfic:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4376401/1/Fallen_Love_Queen_Of_Thy_Hearts

It contains a Sue who's immune to the Sunwell, is the Lich King's concubine, and Malygo's best buddy. I only made it till Chapter 2. Kill it with fire!

All of them?

They are all T-rated. If they are not safe for work their rating is too low and they should be reported.

A new storyline has started in Generic Surface. It will be updating every weekday for the few weeks, and possibly even after that.

hS

Kayleigh never ceases to amuse me, and I liked Ontic ...

... and the Pokemon, I have to admit, were also a good laugh

For some reason, I'd expected Joruuus to put up more of a fight. Oh well. Still, seems the SO is the top Flower for a reason...

It was a very enjoyable read, I have to admit. Though I'm going to have to find my place again, because this isn't anywhere near where I last was, heh. Was interesting seeing Kayleigh's serious side for once. Forgive me for speaking out of turn, I just thought I'd comment, and state the weirdness inherent in that, reading something entirely different and not being near anything PPC-related, I knew you had updated. Intuition can be weird like that, I suppose.

Crashing Down: Awesome, as always.

Ghost In The Machine: I'd wondered about how she got involved. :)

All Roads: Freaking hilarious. It's fantastic to see them again. All four of 'em. :P

but now I have to ask.

Why is fanfiction dominated by women?

I filled it out, even though I'm hardly ever around anymore. I just happened to take a glance at the board, and saw it posted, so I figured, why not. :D

Here

Just the demographic portion of it -- I didn't get round to Favourite Flower. But it's good to see everyone's reading the Original Series.

I think it's interesting how many more males there are than there used to be, actually. That's almost a quarter of the sample.

hS

I'm surrounded by gurlz...

As LJ despises the length of the missions I write, it's in two parts:

http://cassie5squared.livejournal.com/20560.html?#cutid1

and

http://cassie5squared.livejournal.com/20741.html?#cutid1

Have fun. We did. The Agents didn't.

Thy second choice of fic is not only EPIC, but also popular.

Which, I know from experience, says absolutely nothing about quality. Far from it. (popular badfic -- particularly lots of it -- at times makes me wonder whether it's perhaps I who is wrong about the canon.)

Good luck on getting permission, and on all your missions yet to come.

Well, it's novel if they take the actual fic, and keep the name of the OC and such.

I've done something similar. I took the plot of the fic, the canon characters involved and added my own OC. Currently working on something like that, except that I took plot where the CC is supposed to do something no sane person would do voluntarily. And I still haven't thought of anything good to coax hem with.

Anyway, a rewritten OC so it's no longer a Sue is less work for the PPC.

The infamous badfic Doom: Repercussions of Evil (that I strongly suspect to be a stealth parody) was remade into a goodfic.


The original:
http://www.peterchimaera.com/doom.html

Improved version:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4067416/1/Doom_Repercussions_of_Evil_Mark_II

Have some coconuts and a pair of Boots Of Running Really Fast.

I know it's late, I'm sorry. Here, have an otter plushie! And some chocolate cake! ^_^

Laced with Anti-Lustin, of course.

Here is your birthday present: a sack of pebbles, a customised sling and a basket of Bleeprin-berries! Have fun!

Have a pet Dwemer centurion.

I gift you with a special dagger from the Raven Armory, courtesy of Tortall.

*hands around Convenient Cake*

If you look like a fool then I do too, 'cause I announced mine a few days ago.

Happy birthday! Have some beer and balloons. So, how old?

Here's a free extra-special scimitar from the Raven Armory.

You don't know who I am, but I'm going to hug you anyway. Have some coconuts (a lovely bunch) and the Sword Of Slaying Everything Except Squid.

Have a welcome-back laser chainsword anyway.

I can't recall if we've met or not. I joined April-ish last year. But hello, anyway. I certainly recall reading your name in older stuff. Nice to meet you.

Have a Sky Bison!

I saw your reply to a post above this one and had almost posted a long time no see reply to your comment. Till I figured you would probably have left a post saying you were back.

*shakes hand* You don't know me, but that's okay. :)

seems like you'll fit in fine :D

Nice to see an old face show up again!

I remember you! Welcome back! Always good to see a familiar face. :-D

*offers a tazer*

Dunno how well'd work on the buggers in Mortal Instruments but hey, Bella should be good for a shock or four, right~?

That is to say, an axe combined with a flamethrower. Brutal weapon, really. We seem to be getting a lot of new people/permission requests lately. Is good thing! New faces are always good, da? Hope you enjoy yourself, here.

I think I've been here around two-three years now? I count my anniversaries based off the Talk Like A Pirate days.

I can sort of trace it… around late October/November, I think? Things had happened. Wandered off for a bit in… probably '06, though, I think.

I've been here since the summer of 2007. :P

I believe I joined around September or October of 2002. So... 6 1/2 years, maybe?

When I joined, I think there were maybe ten people tops who frequently posted. Almost all of them seem to be gone now. Wow...

I joined in early 2008, in either late February or early March. So, roughly a year.

I joined April 2008. I certainly feel like I've been here forever. :P

Well, since last November. But it's the thought that counts.

I've been here since about mid-2007 I think, was quite active for a bit, then vanished. I popped up once every few months to check up on your guys, but now I'm back. Feel free to cheer/cower in fear, whatever suits you guys. :P

. . . so we were probably about the same time.

I'm pretty sure Leto is the oldest oldbie still around. All hail Leto!

I've been here since early '06.

I didn't even start the trail that led, among other places, to the PP...il sometime in '04. I know I knew about this place by the time I graduated in June '05, but the first time I accessed the Board was November/December '06.

Well, I'm pretty certain I got Permission from Miss Cam to write PPC in late 2003, as I was still at high school. I think I attempted being on the Board for the first time in 2004 - but it didn't last long as I was on dialup at the time and the Board EATS the internet for breakfast and the Parental Unit, with whom I lived at the time, was Not Impressed.

I think I reattempted Boarding again in 2005, with a similar fail.

I finally got broadband access and reacquainted myself with PPCing properly sometime in late 2006-2007, and have been here fully ever since :D

Both you and hS predate me, and I'm pretty sure Leto does as well.

Leto still pops up while being on his world trip, as does Araeph who is now pretending to be an adult and Kaitlyn who is also pretending to be an adult; Huinesoron's generally about, when he's not he's either a) in Wales doing presumably Welsh involving things, b) possibly got himself stuck in an alternate dimension, or c) pretending he is an adult.

And I've personally been here since late August 2007.

That said, my speech habits are slightly odd and tend to pick up the style of whatever I've been reading recently, so I can't really say that I'm representative of American speech habits. *shrugs* If it helps, I live in Pennsylvania.

(and it looks like that number keeps going up...)

It really wasn't my intention to offend anyone. I mean that. Please don't hate me. I just intended to answer the question as best I could, and by the look of things I messed up and wound up offending a lot of people.

I really am sorry.

Since I know KG is in the vague state/geographic area as my dad grew up in, and I could have picked it up from my dad.

...haven't heard it here in Ye Wilde Wilde West. Have heard, however, "I had been going to the bus stop when I saw a man."

...I'd be more inclined to say "on my way to the bus stop, I saw a man" than either of those...

The second version reads like something someone who is trying to sound culture and educated and Veddy Propah would say (the voice in my head had an affected RP accent). Everyone I know would say "When I was going..." or "On my way to the bus stop...".

I think I've heard that before with a contraction; "When I'd been going etc. etc.".

It certainly doesn't seem grammatically correct and I doubt I've ever used it myself, but I do think I've heard similar things before. At the risk of sounding classist, I think it's more of a lower-income-bracket form of speaking (though I am by no means rich), more prominent in poorer areas of the country or poorer parts of cities.

but basically everything I've ever written is on my computer. They were on my laptop too, but that went boom.

If a host does die on us, we can probably email the text to whomever needs it.

...for my periodic gmail plug. Not only do Trojie and I keep our missions on livejournal, which isn't likely to go under, they're also all stored in google documents, accessible anywhere and not at the mercy of hardware failures. I suppose it's possible for google to under, but I can't see it happening any time soon. Plus you'll never have to play word document ping pong again!

... are still saved offline, and backed up a couple of times.

I'm also in the long process of saving off the DMFF missions and throwing them up on Livejournal, since their website went down a few years ago. I should get back to that.

hS

That generally things like that should be left open to someone who will actually be writing in those divisions or involving those Flowers; not everything needs to be decided at once, and not everything needs to be decided or suggested by one person.

Just because it's unknown doesn't mean we have to fill it out immediately.

It might show what the mini'd be for that fandom.

Mini-Ra'zac perhaps?

But what other monsters does the Inheritanceverse have? Anything particularly iconic?

Narnia already has mini-dragons, so we'll find something else.

*isn't sure how to start with this*

I may be mildly incoherent in this explanation, so if I'm unclear, do ask.

Um, okay. Genes. Right.

Genes are lengths of DNA. DNA is read from one end to the other, so they have to be in the right order to work correctly. DNA condenses into chromosomes, which come in pairs. Each member of a pair has the same genes (well, theoretically, but we won't go into crossing over and mutations and things here) because they are copies of each other. So you have two copies of each gene.

There may be two or more slightly different versions of a gene - these are called alleles. It is alleles that are either dominant or recessive, not genes.

So, the way I interpret what you're talking about is that the ATA gene has two alleles - dominant (= can use Ancient tech) and recessive (= can't use it). If someone is homozygous dominant (that is, they carry two dominant alleles), they have the 'strong' expression of the gene (= phenotype). If they are a heterozygote (have one copy of each allele) they have a more moderate expression. Someone who is homozygous recessive is not able to use Ancient tech - they are a 'normal' human. As is the case with blue eye colour, it is very possibly for the recessive allele to be more common in a population.

The promoter gene would be heritable in the same way, and the MAG gene as well.

Basically her theory follows, but with the modification that genes themselves are not dominant or recessive; that it is their different forms that are :)

Or at least, it works enough for fiction - a real geneticist, which I am not, would most likely kick up at the details, but then again, they'd probably kick up about Ancient technology and about magic as well :P

That part is sound. I understand that in the story the MAG gene is a sort of promotor gene, and that magic is actually a form of Ancient way of operating technology.

As put here, I think the latter part is sound too.

But I don't think there'd be a problem posting it on the LJ? *says the person with no authority whatsoever and next to no idea about the LJ and it's workings*