Nov 2012 Archive, part a

We did costumes based on the first season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

My oldest was Loki .

My middle child was The Red Skull .

My youngest was Thor (with the sun in his eyes)

I was Wasp . I had black and yellow gloves in the final costume.

Action!
Pow!
For Asgard!

I was Slash!

I went as Hermione Granger. My teachers appreciated it, at least. :)

Probably the best I saw though was three guys dressed as Doctors 9 through 11, and their buddy dressed up as Jack Harkness. :)

My favourite part of the night was when I had a twenty minute long conversation with someone before they realised I was a girl.
My cosplay skills have evolved!

I typically don't dress up for Halloween. Haven't for a few years, now.

That, and I was too busy figuring out how full internet capabilities worked again, so.

I was a Jedi for Halloween. It's not that hard of a costume to make, actually. Robe + Judo Gi + toy lightsaber = Jedi!

...a Lord of the Rings elf. I wanted to be Arwen but my hair isn't long enough, so I was just a Random Elf Maiden.

...Thanks to the stupid hurricane.

At least Halloween just got postponed...

I dressed up as La Llorona. It was fun.

People wondered if I was a zombie or a vampire.
...Close enough.

BA-DUM KISSSSSH.

But seriously, you wouldn't catch me dead in a con of any sort. I've heard stories, and they worry me.

That's not to say it's all bad. It's just off-putting enough to me that even if I was capable of going, I wouldn't.

I live in Seattle but go to university in Oregon, so I can't go to ECCC. :[
So I am going to sulk during ECCC in my dorm so you guys better have fun and post pictures of your cosplays to cheer me up. :p

Can't make it out to Seattle in March. However, if anyone is interested in a smallish convention in early Feb (8th-10th), check out AlmaCon. It is in Michigan and it is free to attend. Any proceeds made (through donations, vendors, and charity auction) go to the American Cancer Society.

Guests include LittleKuriboh, Tiffany Grant, Chris Sabat, and Eric Vale. Check out those links. You probably know these peoples' voices. And you won't just see these people on a stage. I had a great talk about theatre with Tiffany Grant last year.

It is a good time, and you might get to hear me talk in some panels (not that I think that will get anyone to show up[...or do I?]).

So, come hang out with me, Nesh, and some of our awesome friends.

-Phobos, shamelessly plugging.

While I would love to go to a con and meet with all you guys (Even if I don't read Girl Genius) it's too far away. Well, have fun guys!

I love Girl Genius, too, as you can guess from Agent Lana. Why does all the fun stuff happen where I can't get to it? Are there enough Connecticut-dwelling Boarders for us to meet up at Connecticon? Or Anime Boston, perhaps?

All the fun things keep happening too far away! SOMEONE DO SOMETHING IN MODESTO, CURSE IT. (Or at least in San Francisco...)

...Around the same time I found the PPC. They lack a proper community, though, and the leader never got back to me on joining.

The main difference is that none of the Sues come from pre-existing fics. A few did come from badfic the authors wrote as newbies, though.

I don't know if the PPC invented the exact concept of killing Mary Sues, but Mark Twain was probably the first one to write a story to kill a Sue (specifically, a saintly-child Stu who found out that the real world won't follow his script) even back before "Mary Sue" was named.

There have been a lot of stories about the characters entering other stories. The Thursday Next series, for example, has characters entering books, and the first one in that series was published in 2001, roughly around the time the PPC also started. There've been other stories about characters from one world traveling to another, fictional world, but Thursday Next probably has the biggest similarity because it actually involves (sometimes) fixing damage to stories.

Mary Sue as a concept has been around for thirty years or thereabouts, so it's unlikely that killing Sues was actually invented by the PPC. The setting certainly was (HQ, the Flowers, all that), but the concept itself--nah.

If somebody steals the setting specifically, then sure, we can yell at them. If they're just using the concept of Mary-Sue eradication and story-fixing, then that's not plagiarism.

It was noted earlier on by one if the board members that so long as you don't blatantly call it the PPC and do exactly what they do, you can use the idea of Sue-hunting freely, since there's not really any monopoly of sorts on it.

But your concerns are definitely understandable - their name seemed just a tad too close to a fancy-worded "PPC" to me, and if what you said is anything to go by, they do use some similar ideas, but I wouldn't worry too much about them for now.

We've actually had some dealings with these guys a while back. Some of their members hung out in the chat and there was talk of some crossovers before they dropped off again. They do things differently enough from us that there isn't actually a problem. There were some concerns that their characters tend toward the Sueish, but other than that we have at least some good relations with them.

-Phobos

That's all I have to say.

I kinda wish more airline safety videos were like that...

I'm convincing my family to take a trip to New Zealand. This is all kinds of amazing!

Sorry, Void.

So, I'm gonna plug a link to my DeviantART journal here: http://specstacularsc.deviantart.com/#/d5k68my

I'm looking for some peer feedback on this. Does it seem a bit too out of the norm? Or do I have something good going?

And if I have something good going, any tweaks that might be suggested?

I'd like to keep the overall theme of just good, healthy adventuring, though, so try not to offer me tweaks that might throw me on the same-old-same-old path that adventure stories usually take, if you can.

Thanks in advance.

I have co-written several MSTs before now, and in most of them my co-authors and myself have added author-avatars to join the characters - sometimes with jokes about how we're risking our personal safety now our characters can actually get at us. :P

MSTs are pretty much "anything goes" territory, since they're not generally considered canon, or in continuity. Even if they are part of your agents' actual timeline, it wouldn't be the first time agents ran into their authors in one way or another. That's why my usual user icon is a plushie: I gave my avatar the ability to turn into one so my characters couldn't actually kill me in RPs. {; P

~Neshomeh

One that knows, not only that he/she is fictional, but that the PPC is fictional? That might be interesting, as long as it doesn't make her know everything that's going to happen...

Don't take this as an example of my answer, but the Creator in my Specs and Co. series is essentially an avatar of me, but beefed up with magical humdiggery.

As for my answer: I don't know what the rules say towards that kind of thing. I'm not in any real place to try, since I don't have permission, and am not currently interested in applying for it. I assume, if it's not directly written and nobody calls you on it, that it can't be completely out of order to do.

This is fanfiction. Write what you like, and as long as it's good (and not plagarism, etc), people will like it. Especially given how thoroughly abandoned OFUST:DS9 appears, I'd say you're free to use whatever minis you like.

Also, if there are still berths available, I can be on the next train for San Francisco...

Since your OFU covers more than the one spin-off covered by the other OFU, I think you are justified in using a different mini type. However, that doesn't automatically mean the PPC will retroactively change what we've been using.

Unfortunately, may of the Star Trek missions listed on the Star Trek page of our wiki are either deleted or friends-locked. Of the ones still readable, one of Tawaki's is the only one that features mini-Tribbles. Further, I'm fairly certain we haven't had any ST missions in a good, long time. It will ultimately depend on what writers of ST missions choose to do, if and when we start seeing some again.

Anyone else with a more solid idea of the situation want to weigh in?

... there is OFUST: DS9. (Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2151276/7/OFUST-DS9). However, the dates suggest it has been abandoned since 2004.

There is a list of OFUs here (link: http://www.misssandman.com/LOTR/ofum.html) but that seems rather old, too.

As the other Trekverse OFU is listed as DS9, and yours is very much Original Series/Next Generation/Voyager, I'd say you might get away with it. I would suggest seeking advice from more PPCers than just me, though - someone who has been here longer might have more experience of this sort of thing. That or an agreement on general consensus, I'd say.

If you somehow managed to contact Hellfire04, even better, but things are looking a bit quiet in that department, so I don't rate your chances of a response there.

Also, it looks like Firemagic (my beta), has been snowed under in the Real World (Firemagic correct me if I am wrong, but didn't you recently post something to that effect?). I was considering making my missions visible and letting any Boarder who finds errors point them out so I can fix them.

This is mostly for the notice of Neshomeh, as I know you are working on the 'Sue catagory pages at the moment.

I put the page up because, as far as I know, no other 'Sue has managed to partially assimilate themself with their own bad logic, lack of description and plot-warping power. There are also more badfics involving him waiting to be sporked, across various continua, and hermione of vulcan seconded the idea of building a page for him.

I have not yet added him to any catagories, to minimise interference.

The page link is here:

http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Captain_Jack_Russel

Please tell me what you think.

I've been reading these in between work shifts, so I likely won't remember everything I had wanted to say, so . . . in a chaotic ball of free association, here are my thoughts and corrections:

To start on a general note, something you've done super-well is setting things up way in advance, and making everything run together. This goes back to your first mission, where you introduced Eagrus' distaste for technology, and the malfunctioning of the disguise generator in the "Mulan and Shang 300" mission. Both of those pay off down the line, with Cyba's Borgification and the Borg-heavy Star Trek mission. The same goes for replacement!Shang in the first Mulan mission calling the agents Huns, and turning that into a running gag. These sorts of things give your spinoff some real glue between the installments, and help it flow better as a long-running story.

As for other things I liked, I liked that the mini-Colossi have such strong personalities, and interact with both agents as well the console frequently and in different ways. You made good use of the comma storm to unite the Mulan missions. (And also to keep the disparate Ancient China and modern day bits together. Seriously. Talk about clashing cultures.)

I super muchly loved the Star Trek mission! That piece, while taking the call-forwards from the other missions I already mentioned, was particularly cohesive in and of itself. I especially loved the focus you put on the Borg culture, and how you turned the Sue's descriptions and actions back on himself at the end. Part 2 had my absolute favorite bit, where the Borg's hive mind started infecting Cyba's mind (and Cyba cubed's minds). This majorly underscored the real threat the Borg poses in the Trekverse, and contradicts the account of them presented by the Sue, which is the sort of thing I love in PPC missions: giving the canon a chance to show its stuff after being degraded by the original fic's bad writing.

And now mistakes I found! (Apologies if these have already been pointed out, but I can't stay up any longer to read all the comments.)

Mulan and Shang 300

""Don't sat tha-" Eagrus was too late." (say instead of sat)

Fas Mulan: I just wanted to point out "Fa" is the family name given for Mulan's family in the Disney movie. You seemed a bit confused by it (as was I, when I encountered it in my own claim to these mini-fics. :s )

Between the lines, ""We have to wait that long?"" and ""Oh no," Eagrus corrected her." the font you're using changes.

Parenthood

" . . . to encourage yet another immanent punctuation storm." (imminent instead of immanent)

" . . . heard the terracotta soldier say, now moderately discernibly." (two adverbs in a row, lol)

Parenthood 2

Alright, alright, we're coming!" cried Eagrus. (missing opening quotation mark)

Untitled 1

" . . . trying to her mind off her destination..." (missed a verb)

Love and War part 1

Another font change here, between ""Since when would Kes and Seska faint over a dog-man?!" pointed out Cyba furiously."" and ""Oh look, he wants to come 'abored'," snickered Eagrus."

Love and War part 2

" . . . snapped the trio of Cybas in unison. "Then they exchanged glares . . ." (Oh look! The missing quotation mark from "Parenthood 2!" (: )

"Sigma cuffed him with her metal arm . . ." (This isn't a typo so much, but the sentence before this one had Eagrus off-handedly referring to the Borg as monsters, so when I started reading this one, I assumed (based on Cyba-cubed's increasing protectiveness of the Borg) that Sigma was hitting Eagrus until I got farther into the sentence. You might want to rewrite this sentence a bit to make it more obvious that it's the Sue getting socked.)

All right, these are my edits and comments, in chronological order.
Part 1
-I love the beginning bit with Cyba dancing. Imagining all her lines in the voice of the Collective made me crack up.
-"With guess which species?" should probably be "As guess which species?"
-Keep them mini-Tribbles just so you can keep the scene where one lands on Eagrus's head. :)
- "It wouldn't be fair on the Borg" should probably be "It wouldn't be fair to the Borg". And I agree with Cyba on that. :)
-I don't think you put "Kasons" and "Kason" on the mini list. It's Kazon, plural Kazon.
-Cyba and Eagrus discuss the section of text including "Time to dye" later than where you put it, so maybe you should move it.
-I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but the CAD says "Katherine Janeway" instead of "Kathryn Janeway" and "immanent" instead of "imminent". Could be Jack Russel's bad spelling affecting the CAD, though.
-"Russel/Seska/Squick" doesn't need the second slash.
Part 2
-I love the paper airplanes. "We are the PPC. Resistance is futile." I usually refrain from internet slang, but ROFL!
-I want to see Cyba chase her own eye laser. It would be HILARIOUS!
-The Borg are OOC, not OC. I think that happened twice.
-Several times, you use non-speech modifiers as speech modifiers, like "smiled", "stared", or "grinned". I didn't find it detracted much from my enjoyment of the story, but I just though you should be aware.
-"We're ladies," grinned the three Cybas." That comment seemed kind of random to me. Also, not a speech modifier.
-Poor Eagrus, having to deal with the Collective of Three. It's awesome, though. I like how they could sort of pick up the Collective's signals, but they still sort of keep their own personalities. A hilarious side to the Borg.
Overall, I liked it a lot. Yes, Jack Russel deserves a wiki page, since the author wrote more stories with him (I claim the other Trekverse one, pending permission, of course). In fact, he might be an multiverse emergency.

Chapter 2: 2 minis, Zouh (adopted by Eagrus) and Emporer.
Chapter 3: 1 child for the nursery, Miley.
Chapter 4: 1 mini-Bit, Ling She (looks like a little Chinese guy, except grey and faded).
Chapter 5:
Recruits (5): Bri'Aunna, Yoa, Miley, Will, Elizabeth.
Nursery: two unnamed daughters and however many children Will and Elizabeth have (unspecified).
Loot: 1 talking gate (dibs placed by Eagrus) and one neckless (dibs placed by Cyba).
Chapter 6:
Minis: 22
Mini-Tribbles (17): Turok, Turock, Torries, Voyger, voyger, voger, borg, borge, Buge, Kilngon, Paries, Arry Kim, Caprtin Janeway, caprtin Janeway, Captin Janeway, altha qudrant, Ensin Ryan.
Mini-Rancor: hislight saber
Mini-Tanks: Left for Dead and Loius
Mini-'Stus: Caprt Jack Russel and Captin Jack Russel (both taken for training by Phi)
Loot: 1 'rocket luncher' (must be an anti-rocket shield of some description), 2 'laseryer guns' (say 'yer' when fired), 1 lightsaber (dibs placed by Eagrus), 1 long black captain's coat (dibs placed by Cyba), 1 default-sci-fi spaceship (to be delivered to DoSAT).
Recruits: Sertana

Okay, so this might be a bit lengthy, but these are some important points that I wanted to... er... point out.

Chapter 3
Only one major note here, and it's the way this line is written: Then she shut the portal, missing Eagrus' eye-roll as soon as her back was turned.

My smaller note is that Eagrus' eye-roll should be Eagrus's eye-roll; despite the fact that Eagrus ends with an 's', the eye-roll still belongs to him, and this should be reflected with an apostrophe-s rather than just a plain apostrophe.

The larger note is the way the sentence is worded. As it is, the line makes it sound as though Cyba didn't miss Eagrus's eye-roll until she turned her back; a better way to write this sentence might have been something like this: Then she turned and shut the portal, giving Eagrus the chance to roll his eyes without her noticing.

Chapter 4
My only problem here is that one of your conversations came dangerously close to being too confusing to sort out who was saying what: "Where did you get that?"

"I bodged it up while you were being subjected to the No Drool Videos."

"Riiiight... Oh, and Cyba, don't challenge the IO! It'll come back to bite you!"

"And you know what...I'm in a good mood and I DON'T CARE! BRING IT ON!"

"I don't know why I'm going to go on this mission with you, Cyba, but I'm increasingly sure I'm going to regret it."

"I'm hyper, crazy - and the IO is not going to stop that. Not today! HAHAHA!"

"We're doomed..."

The only reason I didn't lose track of who was speaking was that Eagrus kept calling Cyba by name, which strikes me as a touch 'scripted', but that could just be the way he talks.

While it's okay to have a few lines written without identifying the speaker (as long as there are only two speakers, or there are several voices speaking at once and the narration needs to reflect a sense of all-at-once chaos), I find that more than a line or two per unidentified speaker begins to feel like a script with no specified characters - not only is the dialogue confusing after that point, but foreshadowing and personality quirks mentioned by a character during such a conversation may not stick with the reader as well as it would if the speakers were identified quickly enough to prevent any confusion, which can take away from the story a bit.

Now for the Nicer Stuff!
I really liked the fact that the wraiths possessing Mulan and Shang kept noticing the agents. I made an apple cider-drinking game of it. We're out of cider, now.

And I'm fairly certain this is the first time I've ever seen an agent wage war with the Ironic Overpower. It was equal parts terrifying and hilarious.

Your mentions of Sar-Plasm made me curious, so I went on the Wiki and read the other mission where it's mentioned ('Of Sar-Plasm, Sue Pies, and other Affairs of the Organs...'). I'm sad there's not a Wiki page for the stuff; it seems under-loved. Someone should correct this! -raises hand to volunteer-

Anyway, all in all, great missions! I giggled nonstop while I was reading them, and that's a good thing. :D

Jeebus, Riese! That's breaching the awesome meter!

There are consequences for that you know!

I'll get back to you when I figure out what they are...

Hello, and welcome to our glorious board! I'm sure you'll love it here! And no, I will not trick you into reading Celebrian. I'm not that evil.

Jaunty, not rakish. Key distinction.

Here, have some muffins and a conical hat!

The muffins are chocolate, while the hat is made of tin foil and duct tape!

Also! You should hang out in the chat! It is quite a fun place.

Welcome aboard, Pinefresh! Have a glass of enchanted water that will become the beverage of your choice!

I daresay, the PPC was certainly my first foray into reading fanfiction. If you're anything like me, it took a bit of braving up to introducing yourself here, so congratulations!

Welcome a-Board, newbie! If this is unfashionably late, blame hurricane Sandy for knocking out my power. You never realize the importance of central heating until it's gone and the temperature drops twenty degrees (Fahrenheit).

Anyway, it's good to have a new person eager for action but don't be too hasty. The Permission Givers don't usually grant power to those that have just shown up, so get comfortable and feel free to have fun.

To celebrate your initiation, I give to you this dusty old necklace that I found in a castle. It shines sometimes during the full moon, but other than that it hasn't done much. Maybe it will grant you eternal wisdom or something like that.

As a Newbie gift have this myserious pentacle necklace. It glows under moonlight, but beyond that I haven't the foggiest.

Welcome to the Board! Have a piece of bubble wrap with extra big bubbles for a more satisfyingly loud popping sound. I sympathize with you about being freaked out about virtual communities. It took some pestering from my sister to have me introduce myself here. We don't bite, at least I don't.

Glad to have you here - we love having new people, as you've already seen from the enthusiastic welcomes you've already had. Have a bag of pebbles and a Random Shiny Object! :D

Permission first, killy teh hurts on teh brains later. Unless you decide to Co-write it with somebody. Not sure how that works, myself...

Anyhow, welcome and have this dusty old sword I found. I think it says "Caledfwlch" on the blade...

Just a quick reminder to stick to proper English on the Board, that's all. Some of us are seasoned Grammar Natzees.

In any case, welcome to the Board, and have a graduated cylinder!

Hi, have some fudge!

I had to block Facebook e-mails because I had so many "friend me" requests from people I don't know very well (if at all). And since I don't have a Facebook account, I have no idea where they were getting my e-mail address from.

I do have a Google+ account, that's used solely for a couple online time/resource management games. (Well, and Google Docs, but I had a login there long before I let some friends talk me into helping them out in Zombie Lane.)

Have some chocolate, won't you?

Ah, I remember my first time joining an online community - trust me, you're handling it much better than I did!

As you are a newbie, Im'ma give you twenty bottles of bleepolate milk and a huggle. -proceeds to give you a giant bear hug-

Looks like you've already made some new friends, or at the very least acquaintances. If you are looking to get Permission to write PPC missions yourself, this might be helpful: http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Permission

I'm sure the Flowers would love to have more agents.

I'm something of a newbie myself. I don't much like online communities either (I have a Facebook against my will), but I like the PPC. Everyone here is really nice.
Here, for a welcome present have a cute fluffy Tribble. Just don't feed it.

Welcome to the Board! Have some of my world-famous hydrophobic water to commemorate the event. Contains the essence of the internet!

If you haven't done so yet, you should really check out The Original Series featuring Jay and Acacia.

Another must-read is the Board Constitution that can be found here.

There are also some pretty handy-dandy FAQs on the wiki to answer any questions you might have about the PPC. If you can't find an answer, don't hesitate to speak up on the Board.

...aaaaaaaaand with all the formal stuff done, might I ask what you favourite fandoms are?

I'm pretty much a newbie myself, so I'm always happy to see other newbs.

Here, have a chocolate bar. It'll come in handy later. :D

Hello and welcome! We're glad to have you aboard!

The mission on my page is here: http://rc170.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/the-strange-life-of-isabella-holmes/

And epic? Really, I am only epic in the company of awesome people like Lily Winterwood!

I was so bored i actually considered going for a walk

x. I will not make ass jokes around Cranky and Matilda.

- Or Puzzle the Donkey.

y. Am not allowed to tease Copreus about his name.

z. I will not give Legolas the impression of being surrounded by spiders.

þ. I will not spray another Agent's response center/TARDIS with lavender paint.

- Giving other Agents horsemeat cupcakes is right out.

I will not sing 'I've got a jar of dirt' anywhere in earshot of Captain Davy Jones.
- I will not get anybody else to do it either.
- Unless they happen to be a 'Sue.

Introducing Davy Jones to the YouTube remix of 'I've got a jar of dirt' is a very bad idea.
- Equally, I will not subject Captain Picard to the Picard Song.
- I will not show 'We're taking the hobbits to Isengard' to any Lord of the Rings characters.
- I fact, YouTube remixes and associated canon characters should never be introduced at all.

Alexandria's Genesis is not a viable excuse for Suvian traits.
-Like, ever.

For that matter, I will not try to gain superpowers the same way that many superheroes attained theirs. I will only end up either killing or severely wounding myself in the attempt.
-Not to mention that most of the superheroes got their powers by accident.

I will not refer to Trekverse agents as being from Star Wars.
-Or vice versa. Both continua have some deadly weapons, you know.

It is fine to debate Star Wars versus Star Trek. It is not acceptable, however, to do so with phasers and lightsabers.
-Or any other canonical weapons.
-Or non-canonical, for that matter.

I will not kidnap Captain Kirk and Captain Picard and force them to fight to the death.
-They'll probably refuse anyway.
-Kidnapping Captain Janeway to referee is also not allowed.

I will not introduce Lt. Commander Data to Marvin the Paranoid Android.
-Or C3P0.

I will not introduce Sheldon Cooper to Spock.
-Puddles of fanboy are difficult to clean up.

I will not feed the tribbles.

Yes, Doctor Fitzgerald bears a striking resemblance to the Energency Medical Hologram from Star Trek: Voyager. No, I will not say "Deactivate EMH" if he starts to annoy me.

I will not kill Wesley Crusher.
-Or any other Canon Sue or Stu.

Blowing up ships to kill Sues is probably overkill.

I will not recruit Sherlock for the PPC.
-Even if he wants to be recruited so he can do experiments on Sues. [shoutout to Lily Winterwood]

I will not talk in Yoda speak for long periods of time.
-Drive other agents insane, it will.

I will not talk in Shatner speak for long periods of time.
-It will, take me...forever to, get to the point, because of all the, random, pauses.

I'll reply again if I can think of more.

I will not ask Technician Caroline for cake
-I will not release birds into Technician Caroline's lab

Agent Corolla and Agent Amara are not interested in holding a cooking show about the joys of Sue-flesh

The following musical numbers have been banned
-The Birds of Prey song
-(fellow Boarders, do you have other ideas?)

I will not suggest that Agent Lana's canon means that she should constantly wears an inordinate numbers of gears and a corset
-I will not call Agent Lana a 'steampunk ninja'
--I may call her a Gaslamp Fantasy Ninja

In Nanoha, there are twenty-one Jewel Seeds. Despite this, I will not recite the Monty Python sketch to anyone other than a Sue
-Uncanonical Jewel Seeds should be brought to DoSAT, not used as wish-fulfillment or to create a zombie plague
--Zombie plagues are only acceptable on Halloween with approval from your Department Head

I will not tell newbies that Agent Riaa'lzhor is a Sue because of her name
-I will not give Agent Riaa'lzhor a variety of biogolems to see how many she can shapeshift into at one time no matter how cool I think a drider/dragon/catgirlferal would be

Agent Cepha is not interested in tentacle hentai.
-Agent Amara is likewise uninterested in tentacle hentai, and insinuating that either of them are will result in an immediate trip to Medical and a long lecture on what 'underage' means

I will not force Ramandu's Daughter and Yvaine to sing twinkle, twinkle, little star.
I will not dance around naked upwind from Tris (Circle of Magic).
- Nor will I ask Luxury to do so.
I will not introduce Briar to a bloodoak.
- He' just get it to eat me instead.

I will not attempt to hire Harry Dresden to entertain at an all HQ party.
- No really, it even says no parties.
-- Especially not if there will be multiple vampires at said party. There are only so many fire extinguishers in HQ.

My RC's door is not to be used as any of the following:
- A drawbridge
- A surfboard
- Anything I can think of that involves a wood chipper, glitter, or high explosives.

I am to stop attempting to get characters together from across canons or dimensions by sending them to Medical or Fic Psych at the same time.
- Nor am I to time my "temporary insanity" visits to either of the following to coincide with those of my favorite canons.

No matter how tempting it may appear in it's current guise, trying to take a bite out of the DORKS will result in chipped teeth.

I am not to taunt the agents hailing from the Old Kingdom by assuming a look of fear, pointing behind their backs, and yelling "Yrael!"
- For that matter, I should treat all free magic entities as I treat eldritch abominations from all other continuua: with the utmost respect and avoidance.

I am not Sherlock Holmes's soulmate.
-It's really easy to choke on Agent Eledhwen Elerossiel's red string of fate.
-No seriously. I think she's turning it into a punjab lasso.

I will not give the Men in Black characters Bleepolate milk.

I will not attempt an all-HQ rendition of Gangnam Style.
-Nor will I do it for my department.
-Lux will probably have too much fun with the 'EYYYY SEXY LADY' part.

I am not allowed to create shipping walls.
-Or shipping charts.
-That's Agent Kitty Smith's division, anyway.

I am not allowed to create betting pools for my favourite ships.
-This extends to Agents and Flowers and just about anything sentient in HQ that can be shipped together.

The victim could not have done it in PPC Cluedo.

I will not pit Consulting Sue Slayer!Sherlock against Agent Eledhwen in a game of PPC Cluedo.
-No, not even if the resulting death would be really funny.

I will not make reservations at the Shizuka in the CSS-verse for "Mary Sue, party of two, please!".
-Nor will I show up dressed as a Sue.

I will not encourage the Ice King to call his crown "my precious".

I will not introduce Finn the Human to Lady Cassandra O'Brien.

I will not introduce Finn the Human to America.
-If I do, then I am responsible for cleaning up the resulting mess, whatever it may be.

I will not continuously sing "In the Jungle" whenever Loke from Fairy Tail is in the room.

If I drag Death the Kid into an MST, I will resist the urge to shave one side of my head.
-I will also resist the urge to drag Edward Elric into the same MST
-Or really anyone who's missing limbs on one side but not the other.

I must not lock Cyba Zero, Sigma One and Phi Six in a room with a single pretty suit of armour.
-They WILL fight over it.

I will not take advantage of Agent Cyba Zero's fascination with the colour red.
-Ditto Sigma One with electric blue, and Phi Six with royal purple.
-If I do, it is my own fault if the one in question follows me all around HQ.
-It is also my own fault if the other two take revenge on behalf of the third.

I will not refer to Cyba, Sigma and Phi as the 'Collective of Three'.
-Not even behind their backs.
-When they find out, they WILL scream at me.

I will not try to sneak up on Agent Eagrus Khan.
-He is paranoid enough as it is.
-Neither will I try to find out what he looks like under his helmet.
-I will especially not attempt to convince him there is an invasion of any kind.
-(Except in the event of an actual invasion.)

1. Under no circumstances am I allowed to assassinate a Sue by "assimilation by swarm/hive mind/collective". Do you want sparkle-lings or urple Borgs? I didn't think so.
   
   1630. PPC personnel are reminded that while it is acceptable to visit different Worlds when on leave, it is not permissible to, say, hide in a Minecraft world to avoid missions.
   - Living in the Nether is a waste of time.
   
   1631. Luring creepers into hallways is a terrible thing to do.
   - The same goes for spider jockeys.
   - - And cave spiders.
   - - - The Ender Dragon is right out.
   
   1632. Starting a staring contest with an Enderman is a stupid thing to do.
   
   1633. I am not allowed to swing my sword, sword in HQ.
   - If someone mentions mentions a safety torch again...
   
   1634. Griefing is not allowed in Minecraft servers, so I shall not rig doorways with falling anvils and pressure-plate activated botomless pits in HQ.
   - Not even for seeing my partner's reaction.
   - - Especially since one does not respawn in HQ.
   
   1635. Splash potions are not to be used in a water fight.
   - Come to think of it, having the time and resources to build a brewing stand means that you're not doing your job.
   
   1636. Playing Minecraft at a Sorting Room terminal is not "scanning the World for inconsistencies".
   
   
   
   - - - -
   Why yes, I have been playing a lot of Minecraft lately.

I've been missing these. Peter's Evil Overlord List is starting to not be quite as funny as it was for me anymore...

Although, in terms of the last point, the spider was rather gung-ho as it was. Peter didn't do jack, if I remember correctly. Thing just bit him out of nowhere.

Eh. Whatever. Provoking it is still pretty back-asswards to do in the first place.

Another movie-related suggestion: (Avengers)

* I will not, in any way shape or form, attempt to remove the Marvel Universe Tessaract and convince the characters of Madeline L'Engle's time quartet, notably those who were once stars, to attempt to use it.

If anybody actually understands the second bit, they win internet cookies. I just needed to get the silly from the fact that both series use the word entirely differently off my chest...

The whole world is buzzing about Disney buying Star Wars. Almost more than the election. (Don't respond to that. The election is DO NOT WANT for me.)
And I remember that LOTR scene. I always thought it was either incredibly silly pandering to teenage boys or completely awesome.

I hadn't realized the quarantine was officially lifted, but I certainly got that impression after reading the latest book, One of our Thursdays is Missing, where the island of Fan Fiction is portrayed as a sort of perpetual celebration of writing and enthusiasm.

You know, a Jurisfiction exchange agent would probably be a really interesting character for a PPC agent. I might do that.

That the quarantine was self imposed and the consensus was that the meta nature of the continuum would cause problems.

I am currently reading the series for the first time (I am at Something Rotten) and I thought it would be awesome to do a mission in. Because of the meta-nature of the 'verse, the agents would have to bring in a blatant (and extremely whiny) author self-insert. Natually, learning that the continuum was quarantined made me go sulk in a corner.
It would be wonderful if the ban was lifted.

As for your idea about having to do an original work every time one does a mission in the continuum, I appreciate the idea, but I think having different rules for writing in different continua (other than whatever the different in-universe rules might dictate) could make things very complicated very quickly.
After all, Fforde is not the only author who has lifted a ban on fanfiction (Anne McCaffrey springs to mind) or who would prefer people writing their own fiction (can't think of an example here, but we could very well be talking about a lot of authors). We would either have to have to use the same rules for everyone or be facing, to my mind anyway, a serious inconsistency.

Hello! Sorry it's taken a while to greet you, but I've been scratching my head trying to figure out if you're the same Oracle I knew way back in the day. I'm sorry if this is weird. ^_^; So, erm, were you Ginger's author, or was that someone else?

~Neshomeh, confuzzled.

Good to see you back. Also, if it wasn't for your post, I would have forgotten what the badfic was called.

I don't think I've seen you around, considering my sporadi...il-now presence over in these parts.

Have a graduated cylinder!

I checked the lists and it looks like Gandalf's Lady Mages have yet to be PPCed. Wow, a lot has changed witht he PPC... We have a wiki! Totally did not have one the last time I was here.

Pinefresh - I am a traditionalist in regards to zombies, so I firmly believe in giving them a double-tap with a shotgun.

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and the presents... Especially the hydrophobic water.

Check the Claimed and Killed badfic lists for Gandalf's Lucky Mages and check it's still up whereever you found it.
http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Killed_Badfic
http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Claimed_Badfic

Also as a welcome gift have a Mysterious Bleeping Object.

Not that I know of.

Also, have a welcome-back papp. Because I've temporarily run out of stock on welcome items.

What wonders do the future hold? What answers lie beyond the veil? On the subject of zombies, what is everyone's favorite zombie killing weapon? mine's a shovel. They smash, bash, chop, and stab, plus they have the reach you need to keep the cannibal freaks at bay!

Well, that certainly sounds like a worthy endeavor. I don't think I've seen anybody trying it out...

Good luck with the Sue-slaying; I haven't see that fic, but the title alone ....

...wait, false alarm.

Welcome back, sir/ma'am/mysterious entity! Have some hydrophobic water as a welcome-back present. Found at the end of any rainbow!

As far as I can tell, nobody has done a mission on that fic, so you're good to go!

Here, have an Internet huggle! -huggles-

This election season was exhausting...I ran out of sarcastic and cynical things to say before they even started the debate.

Now we get a whole couple months (maybe) before they start going on about 2016. But the rest will be nice while it lasts.

... on the Republican Party.

Here.

Actually it's mostly interesting as an example of how to say nothing. The opening paragraphs read as:

What's next for the Republican Party? Some say they should be more conservative; some say they should be more moderate; and some, believe it or not, say they should stay as they are!

... which is kind of a weird way to open an article, but!

hS

I had to take mum to the polling place and help her vote. But my family's staunchly for Obama, since we're not very excited about Romney's foreign policy. Being immigrants from China (recently naturalised and stuff), we're extremely concerned about his... ahem... knack for getting people in other countries pissed off at the US.

That kinda man's not a good commander-in-chief for me. Also, the slashing PBS thing wan't cool, or the fact that his running mate is an utter idiot and the entire party wants to force their own beliefs into the uteri of other women, etc, etc.

I think one of the cooler things I got out of this was that I had a discussion about politics with the friend who inspired Scientist Lori Starrett, and now I've got plenty of fodder for her characterisation. Now to actually do something with it...

And I think that the "Obama hasn't done much since he took office" opinion is kind of a misconception. He's actually done a lot, but a lot of his accomplishments have been a bit understated and marginalized. I realize that there's a lot more he could be doing, and he did seem to be caving to opposition rather easily a couple years ago, but most media sources tend to accentuate the negative a bit. There's also the matter of the fact that half way through his term, there was a bit of a shift in power in Congress that allowed the Republicans to have more pull, and they've pretty much been fighting him tooth and nail. That's really the problem with this whole two-party system; for much of the time they tend to spend more energy in knee-jerk disagreements with the opposite side than they do in actually trying to fix things. This is a problem with both Democrats and Republicans.

Also? It's going to take a loooong time to fix things. We were told that four years ago; it's not going to take one term, or even two terms, to bring the country back to where it was before somebody effed up the whole thing. Heck, FDR took three terms to fix the Depression, and in the end it only really recovered because of the Second World War, which we do not have right now, thank Glod, knock on wood.

Just my two cents. Oh, speaking of cents, Prop 30! Hooray! Maybe tuition will stop rising. God, I need to get a job.

Hey, I'm happy. I don't think Obama will be the Most Amazing Leader Ever, but... yeah, Romney was scary.

I'd also correct your first two lines, there. We all possess a population capable of voting except Florida. Bloody Floridians. Every single term! For the first time, I watched the election coverage on BBC*, instead of one of the usual news channels** - far, far better coverage. I think it's just overall easier to be objective about a race when you don't have personal stake in it.

*Which was also the link on the IRC
**...okay, and the Daily Show***
***...Which was not.

Uh oh, you sparked my snark fuse again.

(It happens a lot - I'm subscribed to a british guy on DeviantART who gets pretty snarky about political stuff, and I snark back when he does.)

In terms of voting: sure, we can do it. Of course, it took us from the very late seventeen-hundreds to get it to a workable system, and we're still arguing about it.

In terms of presidency: I think both are idiots. But at least the idiot who got elected probably won't go out four years from now on the jewels of a comment that sounds like "and I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling voters!"

That, and Obama is probably still slapping his knees over nailing Bin Laden to really do much in terms if hurting us worse, right?

One can hope, anyhow.

[/snaaaaaaaaark.]

I'm sorry, what was I saying?

As a woman, I feel I can't afford not to—not when scant generations ago we had to fight through crap like this just to get the chance. In the images, I note a recurring theme of "Oh no! If women get the right to vote, men will lose their freedom!" This is represented by men losing their pants and having to take care of children and do laundry and stuff. Terrifying, eh?

This seems to be a popular refrain among anti-equality types today, too: more people getting rights will magically take them away from people who already have them, so we should be afraid. Rights are finite, doncha know. (?!?!???!!??)

So that's why I voted. I think I owe it to the women who suffered and even went to jail so I can.

~Neshomeh

Is it just me, though, or do the elections get scarier every year? When Obama and McCain ran, I didn't get the sense that the country would fall apart based on the outcome (though I did get a sense that we'd either go up or down a notch in other countries' respect,) and when Bush and... was it Nader? Nope, Kerry. Anyway, it was presumably going to be business as usual whoever won and the main difference would be what kind of legislation got pushed forward in the next few years, and what kinds of funding got priority. I don't remember any elections before that because I was eight when the 2000 election happened.

Or maybe that's just me growing up and elections (especially ones where we have a current president running) have always been this scary.

What a depressing thought.

I could really care less about politics, as I believe you should never trust people in a position of higher power, 'cause you don't know what their intentions are.

Or maybe that's just me being paranoid...

Some of the Romney supporters had me wondering if they'd mistaken The Handmaid's Tale for a utopia. And as a single female, this had me worried.

As a Californian, I'm rather happy to say that the majority of the propositions voted on alongside the presidential selection did not pass.

Why am I happy about this, especially when one promised better funding for schools and another promised better funding to the individual counties?

Because the majority of the propositions voted on this year were also loopholes. The ballots and the giant book I got explaining each proposition in detail both had the same line for all but the redistricting proposition: 'the majority of the funds would go to [whatever the proposition said they would go to]'.

Majority. Not all. Majority.

Don't get me wrong, I love my state. It's beautiful. The people south of Mendocino County are wonderful. The way the State manages money is another story altogether, and I've never liked being played for a fool with little throwaway lines the writers hope I'll miss like everyone else. If a majority of the funds - taken from taxes - is all any proposition can promise, and if the remainder is left mysteriously unaccounted for on the ballot and in the official booklet, it smells like fish and I'm not voting 'yes'.

As for the presidential candidates, though... I was impish and voted for the Peace and Freedom Party's candidates, because while Obama strikes me as a wonderful, trustworthy person, I'm not entirely satisfied with him as a President. And because Romney scares the [PUDDING] out of me.

/end political rant

-looks up at political rant-

GAH, how boring! Here, have a Scottish fold munchkin.

That's awesome! :D

Ahemn, sorry about that, my brain shorted out for a moment due to the SHEER AWESOMENESS this person has.

Ho

Ly

Fu-

[WOOHOO!]

Encourage others! If we get three more (not including me), the mailing fun times are on! :D

I'm in. I love postcards

That being said, I wouldn't mind doing it, especially now that I know where to get postcards...

I bought three postcards last time, so I've got two left for exchanges! Sign KittyNoodles up, if'n you will!

Holding off on email until you get at least a few more people.

(I always wanted to reason a postcard!)

hS

Shall we discuss how for all of fifth grade I was adamant that Hermione was pronounced "Hera-myohknee?"
I even have the mini-Aragog to prove it -waves Heramione-

And I don't quite remember the assignment—might've been a five-minute persuasion thing, or something like that—but it involved me getting up in the front of people and talking, which is always a dicey prospect. On this occasion, I was explaining that words like "nuclear" and "especially" have certain correct pronunciations. For instance, "nuclear" only has one U in it; it is not "nucular." And "especially" does not have an X in it; it is not expeshully.

To make my point, I proceeded to spell out the word "especially."

And forgot how midway through. My brain blanked out on me.

Fortunately, my class was not a bunch of total jerks, so everybody just laughed (totally fair; I had to laugh, too) and we moved on. I'm prone to that kind of thing when nervous, though, so that's one reason I will never be a public speaker. {= P

~Neshomeh

It is not pronounced ep-eh-tome.

My German (mother language) teacher managed to start at positive and go over to optimistic. During the word, which resulted in posimistic. She tried two times more, and both times we ended up with posimistic.

Let's see... I used to pronounce debris as "derbys," (turns out I swap consonants a lot,) and thoroughly as "throughoutly."

Add this to my chronic misspelling of the word sandwich (it almost always shows up as sandwitch,) and a tendency to indiscriminately add or drop T's. (For example, attached =/= "attatched," which is what it sounds like it should be.)

On a much funnier note, when I started taking Spanish, there was a girl who didn't understand that orange (the fruit) and orange (the color) are different in Spanish. Therefore we one day got treated to a really pointless discussion of her weekend, where she mentioned she ate the color orange. :/ We teased her for weeks.

Around where I live, what nobody can pronounce is "Probably." We say "prolly," usually, or "probly." Why? Midwesterners are too lazy to grant a repetitive word more than two syllables.

In Arabic, the word for 'bathroom' is 'ham-mam,' so when you want to go to the bathroom, you say 'biddi roo al-hammam.' However, 'hammam' is pronounced like that because you hold the m for longer. If you don't, then you're saying 'I want to go to hell.'

...the name James Bond was somehow reduced to a mispronounced "jambon" by my father who was trying to speak in French.

It stuck to the point where my family refers to the James Bond series as ham now.

I also used to confuse "trempette" (dip as in food) with "trompette" (trumpet). I distinctly remember asking my mother for carrots with a bit of trumpets on the side when I was about seven.

Hargarine - or hard margarine. It actually made so much sense it stuck, and my parents joked it ought to go into the dictionary.

You remember this one, Specs, but I'll let everyone else know that I once confused 'tongs' with 'tonsils' while discussing how clean a donut shop worker's tongs were.

"Wow, those tonsils she was using were really clean, weren't they?"

/sobs

One memorable incident ended with a serious discussion of the half life of geraniums. Turns out they aren't radioactive after all.

Agent Eledhwen's an elleth from the Tolkienverse, and I believe her last job as a generic elleth was more or less border guard that met the Sue about to converge on Rivendell, so I think she's been trained well enough to warrant such a post.

Agent Christianne's a trickier one; she's, according to backstory, been with the PPC for a while. I'm guessing her first time handling a weapon was when she had to face down some Naruto Sues (offscreen, since I wasn't the one obsessed with Naruto way back when; Christianne's original creator was) on her very first mission (it was, after all, in the brutal old days before the intern programme at the PPC).

Currently, what with the two of them working in a fandom where swords (or even katanas) would seem very eccentric (if not downright illegal, considering the fine for carrying a katana in Britain), my Agents prefer to use guns, which they managed to get training for in the time while I was working on IAHF. Since I'm personally not huge on guns I don't think I've ever specified what models they prefer, but yeah. For the most part it's on-the-job training for my Agents, and consistent practice both on and off missions.

Anebrin gets free proficiency because he's an elf from a fantasy game. Agent!Des comes from an AU of World One where everyone is trained with an old weapon (amongst other things). So, in my case, backstory.

My two Agents have a sort of arsenal, really. One of them, Kilroy, is an ex-Inquisitor (Ordo Malleus), and mostly uses a Daemonhammer or other large blunt object. Mike tends toward military-grade firearms, like assault rifles and anti-materiel rifles, although she's a mean hand with a sword (considering she's Heroic Spirit Joan of Arc and all).

But they use all kinds of stuff, depending on the situation.

I actually have years of experience in saber and foil fencing. Both Italian and French style. Admittedly, it's more of a sport than it is a martial art, but I know to stick 'em with the pointy end. I also know a lot of hand-to-hand, but I don't know if I'm really going to write about that.

My (prospective) agents are a pair of space marines, who came pre-trained, and a velociraptor, who... honestly, nobody wants to train. He'd tend to do what comes naturally to velociraptors: using his toeclaws and teeth to kill sues to death. Still futzing around with the space marines, but Vid is as close as you can get to being an actual pacifist and still being part of the army (he's mostly a mechanic,) while Nemedra prefers to shoot things from the maximum possible distance, preferably while their back is turned and they're holding conveniently still.

As a boarder, I've got a pretty decently functional knowlege of fencing (I had to quit the actual sport because of health problems,) and fairly nothing else except a very primitive, brownie-camp knowledge of archery, which generally results in my arrow being embedded in the target's foot or sailing over their head.

Even as Spies, some of my agents have combat training.

1. Gaspard always carries his trusty C-14 Impaler Gauss rifle from the StarCraft continuum in his Adventure Pouches. Nobody knows how he can:
a) fit that thing in there in the first place
b) carry several boxes of munitions with him
c) wield a rifle that's essentially a giant metal brick. Trope image is the rifle in question.

2. Nasir is a seasoned Pokémon Trainer and brings along Juliane the Glaceon with him when necessary. He's also handy with a Webley Mk VI revolver.

3. Angus used to be in APD, Discworld division so he's used to fighting with bows and swords.

4. Lucia is a LotR specialist and can outshoot most people at the range with her longbow.

I've got two prospective DIA agents too:

5. Taldaris of Aiur, a protoss High Templar that has mastered the use of his formidable psychic powers.

6. Fire Flash the Earth pony armed with nothing but speed, courage, and well-placed kicks to the kneecaps.

Agent!Sergio Turbo is proficient with firearms, mainly handguns and assault rifles (with his favourite combination being a 9mm handgun, like his current Beretta 92, and a 5.56mm assault rifle, like his Colt M16A3 or his recently bought Beretta ARX-160A2)

Nikki Cherryflower in her current state uses whatever magic she can use at the moment (has a still-unresolved condition in which her magic system keeps changing wildly) and various kind of grenades. Explosive, flashbang, smoke... you name it, she has it.
She also knows how to take advantage of her impressive physical strenght in melee combat.

Corolla uses exclusively her Nanohaverse magic, although she can use a knife if things get hairy.

As for Boarder!Sergio Turbo aka myself, I have no proficiency at all with hand-to-hand or melee combat (tried to learn karate during middle school, didn't work out for me), and although I have a good gun knowledge I never had the occasion to try one myself (also because gun laws are a lot more strict here in Italy that in, say, America).

My agents use a variety of weapons, most of which are unavailable for me to use. Two of them use magic almost exclusively. Another uses a large war hammer. A fourth is a dragon and, as such, uses her own claws, teeth, and fire.

About the only agent I have who I can be said to share any real capability with is Agent Phobos. As you may have guessed, he is a fictionalized version of myself. We both know how to use various blunt objects ranging from baseball bats and sledgehammers to staffs and two-by-fours. We also have some experience wielding fencing foils, rapiers, long swords, short swords, daggers, knives, cutlasses, maces, bows, crossbows, spears, javelins (one of my favorite weapons when combined with a shield) and shields (in various combinations). Mind you, most of these were not real weapons. They were wooden practice weapons, blunted for stage, or foam covered. The use was little changed, though.

However, I really excel at hand-to-hand combat. I'm a big guy. 6'1" tall, 260lbs (which is made up of a higher proportion of muscle every day), ridiculously long arms, powerful legs, and the knowledge of how to use these things to my advantage. I am really not above fighting dirty, either.

-Phobos, who is not as dangerous as he likes to seem

Two of my agents - Gilbert and Agent!Caroline - aren't actually proficient with any weapon. They both use whatever they can get their hands on, which sometimes leads to them concussing themselves or using Pop Tarts as projectile weapons...

However, Fiona's weapon of choice is an S&W 500 (which I have no experience with at all), and Veralyn's are knives and a bow and arrows (which I have... enthusiasm and some scattered experience with). I'll have to do a bit of research (and bounce fight scenes off'a my beta-readers) the next time either of these two use their weapons.

Basically, don't be afraid to write about agents who use weapons you aren't familiar with - just be prepared to do your research if you do!

One of my potential agents is a sword-wielding nut.

A while back, I posted a big topic which ended up going into how crazed about swords I really am.

It went on for AGES.

Real life: I have seen many swords, but only ever wielded one - Fort Ross, on the California coast, is an old Russian fort converted into a museum of sorts that has real-life period-specific weapons, one of which being a Russian war saber. It weighed about five pounds and was almost as tall as my lower torso at the time. (I was in fifth grade.)

I own three or so fake swords and practice basic kendo and fencing stances with them, and at one point I had a makeshift LARP session with some friends, which ended up turning into an impromptu weapon versatility and strategic defense class.

So, I have a bit of know-how with my agent's chosen weapon.

Agent Supernumerary's chosen weapon is "none," because he has the most awful gross (as opposed to fine) hand-eye coordination, and I think I can safely say my Real Life experience matches "none." Does that count? ^_^;

As for my other three Action Department agents, their weapons of choice are respectively a tail blade, a 20-lb sledgehammer, and a mace or a dragon, depending. I don't think I've ever so much as handled any of those.

(By the way, we don't generally refer to ourselves as agents/assassins/etc. As you've found, it tends to be confusing! We're Boarders or PPCers; the characters we write about are the agents.)

~Neshomeh

Well, what do you mean? Is the question whether we Boarders have experience with our agents' chosen weapons?

Most of my Agents' weapons are magic-based (Ari, Fio, Cepha, Amara), an extension of their species (Tera, Narav.) And I don't know much about ax-fighting. Though Ari does use a sword, and I have taken fencing as my winter sport twice.

Agent!Caroline has been keeping her eye on the series as well as she has been able to, and stands ready and waiting for her next mission. Agent Veralyn... Well, she'll just have to tag along, won't she?

I have an account set up on the Pit; I'll be keeping a close eye on the MLP:FiM section there in the weeks to come, and I'll also hang around FiMfiction.net, since that's where... IT came from.

In short: Agent!Caroline and Veralyn are braced for impact. I'll see how well Agent!Caroline can convince Veralyn to catch up on the canon, but as it is, one half of this team can smell an MLP Sue for miles.

I'll let Kitty know of this topic, too. She'll go nuts.

As for me, I'm going to continue to skulk about until I work up the nerve to get Permission.

And I rather liked it, too.

Luckily, Crystal Ponies seem to be Earth Ponies with sparkles. Though that means we'll probably be seeing Sues giving them super-love-and-sparkle powers....

Also, Celestia/Sombra? I'm more worried about the Luna/Sombra shipping.

Though, I am going to be looking for a good Sombra fic involving Tirek. Or writing one myself.

...and find ways to END the inevitable urple beings.

Just... just shut up and take my money!

I too want this to be REAL. Dammit.

Well, you see, I watched the TV show and read the books as a small child, but for some reason I decided to rewatch the whole show relatively recently. Maybe a year or so ago? And I discovered two things.
1) There is a teenage fanbase, and
2) There is shipping. Lots and lots of shipping. And when-they're-in-high school/college fics.
I now am part of this fanbase. Arnold/Phoebe, Raphie/Keesha, Carlos/D.A., and Tim/Wanda are my pairings. I would totally go see this movie. Even if it seems to support Ralphie/Phoebe and Arnold/Wanda.
Anybody else aware of the teenage fandom, a part of it, worried about potential badfic in this continuum, or have a favorite pairing?

Even though it makes absolutely no sense for me to even know about them, and it's literally the only place a British kid would encounter a yellow school bus...

... stars I loved those books.

I would watch this film.

And I will start collecting the books where'er I find them to pass onto the kids.

hS had a childhood too

I've tried throwing it at the screen, but nothing happens!

Ah, great use of those really old running gags, too. I hadn't even remembered some of them till they were used. I kinda want to watch some old Magic School Bus cartoons now. I watched the one where they went into space and Arnold took off his helmet, and it traumatized five-year-old me.

Now I really wanna see this!

...Right in the feels. COME BACK, MAGIC SCHOOL BUS. WE MISS YOU.

...............

S'cuse me while I go rail at the unfairness of the universe.

(While laughing my head off. Dangit, Arnold.)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee *clears throat* eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Done now. Yes. Very much yes. :D

I have another response to this as well:

Damn, DAYM, DAYUM!

JAW!

DUU-ROPPUUUUUU!!

I follow the Saphie half on Tumblr, and yeah, she's gonna turn Suedom into original fiction, but it won't happen until after she's written the... parody? I'd hate to call it parody. More like thriller-that-subverts. Anyway, she's not doing it until she's done with her current project which features a girl falling in love with an Edward Cullen/Christian Grey like character only to find out that his crazy stalker tendencies aren't because he's screwed up in his perception of protectiveness, but because he's actually screwed up.

It's an exciting thing to wait for :3

Funny, I read that back before joining the 'Board, and it heartbreakingly on hiatus back then, too. But actually, a few months ago one of the authors stopped by here - Saphie, unless my memory betrays me, and I think she said they were going to try and finish it (and edit it, because whenever you look at something you wrote years ago, it's very, very cringe-inducing*) together. So... yes, still on hiatus, but there might be a light at the end of the tunnel!

*Or it should be, a little bit. Because if you're always totally satisfied with past works, even years later, it implies you're still at the same skill level, which is saddening.