Oct 2014 Archive, part b

((Sorry for the holdup.))

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"Rudi's mostly serves pub food: burgers, fries, salads, soup, the usual stuff," said Tomoko. "It's good but not great. The drinks are the main reason I go there."

Gaspard adjusted his walking pace so that he could walk alongside Eric. "Though if you're looking for food, you should go to New Caledonia. There's..." The Canadian agent looked at his sorta-partner. "Ma'am, why don't we go to New Caledonia? If I recall correctly, it should only be the fifth time partition past the end of the afternoon shift, so all of the eating establishments should still be open. The prices are also a lot more reasonable."

Tomoko stared off nito space, playing with her ponytail as she walked. She reached into her pocket, pulled out her wallet, and peered inside without breaking her stride. "Mmh. You got a point, G. Why don't you take us to that restaurant you always talk about?" she said as she slipped her wallet back in her pocket.

"Fatima's? I'd be happy to! Er... if you want to come with us, that is," said Gaspard, looking at Helen and Eric.

Isn't that listed as a goodfic on the wiki? Should someone go and change that?

I was just going to start reading the Methods of Rationality when I thought I'd look at the author's profile (it's one of those things I do on FFnet). On there the author has put up a section called "The (first) Three Laws of Fanfiction:" and then launches off with the first rule: " If you do anything to increase the protagonist's power, or make their life easier, you must also amplify their opponent or add extra difficulties to their life. You can't make Frodo a Jedi unless you give Sauron the Death Star. Otherwise, even if it is well-written in all other ways, your story will suck because the reader will know to expect an unending string of easy victories, leading them to neither wonder or care about what happens next. " OK, fair enough. It's the next (and final) sentence that's the whole reason behind this post.
"The Mary Sue is not defined by her power being too strong, but by her challenges being too easily overcome." Personally I don't wholly agree with that, whilst having challenges that she can overcome easily is part of a Suefic, the fact that her powers are too strong is, to me, a definitive part of the character being a Sue/Stu, alongside any uncanonical elements that are bought into the story though the Sue/Stu (Which, yes could also include the power.)
What do you guys think?

Storme Hawk

I. . . have actually liked that fic in the past, though admittedly the last time I gave it a read- I never got more than five chapters in- was middle school. I thought it was an interesting concept for an AU, though perhaps I should give it another look and reevaluate my opinion, haha!

...the second one's 'Unicorns of Balinor' by Mary Stanton.

I remember the first one too! However, I can't remember the title.

this one?

Never read it myself, but I loved fantasy stories like this as a kid...it was recommended reading based on a series I did read (The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville).

Araeph

The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. There are currently nine books, and they are awesome. There are actually a couple of PPC missions there, too, one of which is by hS and/or Kaitlyn and the other of which is mine. {= )

Dunno about the second one, though. Sorry!

~Neshomeh

Done in narrative form for fun, but rather stream of consciousness, and maybe not much fun to read? Also, I think Doc wanting to watch TV is probably OOC for him, but uh . . . chock it up to curiosity?

"So, do we actually get television, or is this just for researching games?"

"Oh, no, we get all kinds of stuff! HQ has its own channel." Vania held down the PlayStation's start button and the screen flickered, but displayed the same image.

"Is it . . . stuck?" Doc asked.

"Oh, this is a Let's Play. I think the A/V Division sponsors this. It lets agents show off what they're playing from their RC. And then . . ." she pressed a button on the remote control. "There's a separate channel for kids. Nutmint, as opposed to the regular Nutmeg."

"Ugh. Like Nick, Jr. or whatever?"

"Well, this is the PPC, so no. It's much better."

The screen showed a thin-haired man reading from a large book. "'My name's Scrubb, and this is Pole,' said Eustace. 'Would you mind telling us where we are?'"

"Ah, Narnia," said Doc, but then he frowned. "Is that actually Lewis?"

"Yeah," said Vania calmly.

"But." Doc shut his eyes and shook his head. "But Lewis is. Is."

"Dead? Maybe on your Earth."

"But that's it? Two channels, and one aimed at kids?"

"Oh, no, no, no! Those are just the two created here, specifically for HQ. We get reception from all different shows. Here, do some surfing. I gotta pee."

Doc frowned as he took the remote. "Thanks for sharing," he muttered. He tried out an arrow key, and the channel changed again.

It was playing the theme song to a cartoon. "♪On the Transformatronic Vocational Transport! Step inside, it's a wondrous, fantastical ride! Ride on the Transformatronic Vocational Transport!♪"

"God, yes," Doc murmured.

". . . What are you watching out there?"

"Children's cartoons," Doc replied obliviously. "Also, don't talk to me from the toilet, please." He changed the channel again.

A bipedal green lizard was charging at a weird black doll with red eyes in a circle around its head. A pinkish light suddenly appeared in front of the doll, which the lizard tried to slash through. An announcer's voice called out, "Claydol managed to survive that Leaf Blade thanks to Reflect, it was still super effective damage! And now it looks like Steven is switching to another Pokémon."

Doc flipped. A girl with long hair was marching jerkily towards the camera with a well in the background.

"Weird," said Doc, and he flipped.

A dark stairwell showed, lit only by a weird emergency light glued to a wall, which was beginning to sputter and fade. There was just enough light to see an expressionless mask floating in midair. It slowly began to glide towards the screen.

Doc huffed. "Weird." he changed it again.

A stone statue of an angel stood in a mist, hands covering its face. Hearing the sink running, Doc turned to address Vania as she returned to the main room, and so missed the statue pull its hands away from its face.

"Vania, a lot of these channels are just weird."

"Whatcha got?" she asked, coming around the corner of the screen to see a Weeping Angel advancing towards them. She shrieked and grabbed the remote, hitting the "Home" button to go back to Nutmeg TV. "Let's just stay in HQ for now, okay?"

Doc's brow was furrowed. "What was that?"

"Something we wouldn't want in HQ."

"But then, we're stuck with just the two channels."

"Well, sort of. But remember, we're in HQ. Time only counts for a sixth, here. Let's see what was on an hour ago." She pressed another button.

The video game footage was replaced with a classroom setting. A little kid in ratty clothing was talking at the head of the classroom. "And seeing as how you students is all having such difficulties in writing about the lives of Paris's poor, Miss Irene informs me that you'll each be having a turn spending a night in the elephant—" he grinned— "with the rats.

The seated students groaned, some beginning to complain before the gibbering of some book-shaped figures silenced them.

"Oooh! OFU lessons! How about an hour from now?"

The screen now showed a PicPsych nurse, apparently being interviewed. "It is hard sometimes, you know? I mean, I'm trained to improve people's mental health, and with agents, that's what I do. But with some canons . . . Well, let's get back to Captain Ahab; he's a prime example. He was heavily Sued when we got him, and we essentially had to get rid of all his well-adjusted behaviors, and find away to bring back the monomania."

Vania glanced at Doc mischievously. "Wanna cheat?"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's see what was going on back in Jay's time." She held a button down for nearly a full minute. When she stopped, an agent was just setting down a paper. "That concludes our list," she said, folding her fingers together and giving the camera a look somewhere between a smirk and a sneer. "If you have any information on these dangerous rogue agents, do not hesitate to inform the first officer you see. Just look for the sash with the Black Cat." She turned herself to demonstrate the flash patch on her won sleeve.

"Eh. Bad example," Vania said, hitting "Home" again. "Let's try a couple decades in the future?"

It was another news report. A young woman on "on the scene," as they say, of a section of hallway brutalized with scorch marks and slashes in the generic surface. "Several of the agents involved are currently being cared fro in Medical," the reported said into the microphone. "However, one agent present in the confrontation is said to be missing. Internal Affairs is asking for any information regarding the whereabouts of Agent V—"

"Meh. I'd rather not know." Vania flipped back to the present. "So anyway, what do yo feel like—watching."

Doc was back on his bed, reading. He grunted.

So, uh, thoughts? Concrit? gfd

Not the children's one!

I wish that I could say that I have not seen these creeping horrors... but I have... I have been to the darkest corners of the internet... and wish that bleeprin is real. Also, you should have written NSWF in the title.

And to keep it limited to being within some level of taste with brevity: yes and yes.

What a journey! It took me eight hours to read this, and I feel I should read it again to appreciate all details. That’s a good thing. I don’t expect to understand nearly 100 pages of foreign language on first read, and I want to read it again. But I don’t have much time, and although positive feedback is important, there are more important things to say.

Rasheeda should have her C-CAD checked. Apparently it doesn’t always succeed in stabilizing the agents in third person past tense (in Acts 2+3):

“The Stu’s off to school with the rest of the gang,” she said, taking the steak and tearing off a piece with my teeth.

The glowing Alpha Male had resumed his human form, and attempt to blow the group up with a Pea Turret — a super-deformed, pea-green Turret that was somehow explosive. I opened up a portal and rushed us through, shutting it just as the Pea Turret exploded.

Rashida facepalmed at this supposed Reveal. “They should’ve prepared for something like this if they’d known that Stratogale was the daughter of Splashdown and Apogee,” I muttered.

Rashida was too groggy to react to Falchion’s pronouncing the parentheses, but she sat bolt upright the moment I heard the author’s Tumblr username.

Did Falchion get a temporary genderbend?
She hesitated, trying to comprehend the meaning of this statement. “Huh,” she said finally. “You have a point there. If the author has interest in feet and tickling, then logically I also have an interest in feet and tickling. Guess that explains why I taped those scenes earlier.”
Or is this Rasheeda speaking and “I” should be “you”?


Is there a word missing in Acts 4+5:
A moment later, she scrambled for cover, with the mini with one hand and dragging her partner behind her with the other.

Concerning the mini Jurasic park: As far as I know, there can be only one mini of any name. If the same misspelling is found in another fic, then the mini has been abducted from its home, and the Sue or wraith can be charged for this (there are multiple examples of this happening). Jurasic park is Caddy-shack's Jurasic park and should be sent back to Cadmar.

HG

And as promised, here's Sarah's bio for your appraisal! Constructive critique is much appreciated as usual :)
For reference for her appearance and such, her profile from the fic she was created for can be found here.

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Name: Sarah Katherine Squall
Aliases: “Stratogale”
Species: Human (Super)
Home Continuum: The Incredibles
Department: Floaters
Age: 16
Lust Object/s: TBA
Favorite characters: TBA

Appearance
Being from the only Pixar continuum with humans as the main characters, Sarah is the first truly human agent in RC #227. She’s 5’2”, 110 pounds, lean but quite athletic with wide shoulders and well-defined upper body musculature. Her hair is jet-black and styled in a ponytail, and her eyes are Egyptian blue. Her current Supersuit is now 100% cape-free (see the History section below), with a dark blue torso region and a silvery “strap” across her chest, which frames a purple circle at the center which contains the logo of her family, the Galeforces (from her homefic, see the History section again). Her gloves, boots, and belt are also silver, and her uniform sleeves and pants are the same purple as her insignia. Instead of a cape, she has red and blue wing vanes on her shoulders and boots that help her maneuver in flight and can be folded away to avoid snagging (especially now that PPC hammerspace technology is involved). Her casual gear is much more cosmopolitan, with a red-orange shirt with brown sleeves, blue jeans, and white sneakers with red and blue accents; she also wears a maroon long-sleeved T-shirt with a silver eagle decal on the front on occasion.

Powers
Being one possible definition of the canonical bit character, Stratogale (see the History section), Sarah has three superhuman powers, all of which are known to have been possessed by Stratogale in canon.
First, Sarah is capable of flight, the mechanics of which aren’t specified in canon but presumably similar to Superman and other comics heroes (which isn’t particularly surprising, considering that her home continuum is an homage to superhero comics in general). While not capable of supersonic flight, she can fly at least as fast as a commercial airliner, and is capable of withstanding the G-forces faced by most fighter jet pilots by extension. She is not very maneuverable when airborne, however, and while more agile than other characters when both grounded and hovering, she is terrible at cornering when flying at top speed.
Second, Sarah’s status as an interpretation of Stratogale has given her super-strength comparable to Mr. Incredible. Because of the variance in ability manifestation demonstrated in her homefic, however, Sarah’s strength works somewhat differently from the canonical Super. Her author’s headcanon for her strength is as follows: in contrast to Bob’s raw muscle power, Sarah relies on kinetic force to back up her blows. While she needs to move her attacking appendage at a significant velocity and is normally as strong as an average human (albeit capable of lifting her own weight from a standing start), when she does put inertia to use, the momentum is boosted exponentially. The forward thrust from her fist going at 20 mph is converted by the properties of her ability to a proportional multiplication of the resultant force, allowing her to punch through plate iron after a few good rounds. This super-strength variant meshes well with her flight ability, as her increased maneuverability means her whole body is often moving quickly with each strike, her offending limb only adding to the velocity; at terminal velocity, she can deliver a dive-bombing punch or stomp that can smash a crater in a concrete sidewalk. Her bones and muscles are of course highly resistant to the kinetic forces this property entails as well as blunt-force impacts in general, a useful trait for someone who tends to crash-land more than she likes to.
Finally, Sarah is capable of speak with birds (again, from her corresponding bit character). This property has been rendered mostly irrelevant around avian and ornithanthrope agents (such as her own adopted brother, Falchion), courtesy of the Universal Translator; however, for occasions when she needs to communicate with avians in continua that don’t revolve around anthropomorphic creatures, it can come in fairly useful. She was able to learn the dialects of at least six different clades, along with the specific speech patterns of at least ten different species, prior to her canonical death, and she is currently broadening her studies to the languages of avians from other continua as well.

History
Sarah first came to life as a major character in a mega-crossover, which was partially written by the same author who created Falchion. This mega-crossover primarily took place within the continuum of a prominent Pixar movie, The Incredibles, and the story in question focused on the idea of some of the lost Supers mentioned in the movie being resurrected. Unfortunately, this particular fanfic turned into a series of consecutive disasters as more and more continua got dragged in for no good reason. Ironically, the concept of Super revival was both interesting and fairly well handled given the horrific context, and cloned Supers themselves were considerably more tolerable characters than certain others who were trotted in later on.
Sarah herself is based on Stratogale, a canonical bit Super who died while rescuing a commercial airliner when her cape snagged on a turbine. Because she was based on a bit character with very little development to begin with, she, along with the other cloned Supers, was given a personality that was fleshed out surprisingly well throughout the story, despite the escalating stupidity of the fic itself. Established as the daughter of two other Supers, one killed by another cape snag and another by Syndrome’s Operation Kronos, she basically kept everyone’s development going strong, even with the sudden arrival of a Gary Stu who claimed to be her biological brother and later derailed the fic altogether, all the while pursuing her close friend, the canonical Violet Parr, as a love interest.
Agents Falchion and Rashida discovered Sarah while venturing into this particular badfic on their first mission, during which Falchion began recalling experiences as the fic’s “heroic” Stu. Although she did not know the truth until much later, Sarah actually interacted with Falchion several times throughout the mission, as his disguise was virtually identical to said Stu. This came to a head when Falchion was forced to kill both the Stu and a dinosaurian Character Replacement of Violet on his own; with Rashida incapacitated due to stress overload, Falchion managed to convince Sarah to assist him with Not!Violet in particular, though this would later come back to bite him when she witnessed the deaths of both remaining Suvian characters and mistakenly thought that Falchion had murdered her brother. Falchion was able to clear up this misunderstanding, however, and Sarah eagerly accepted his offer to work for the PPC as a token of gratitude for her help.
Sarah is currently staying with her rescuer and his partner while the Flowers are deciding which department she is to be ultimately assigned to. She also has plans to visit her noncanonical family during the next holiday season, and still exchanges regular correspondence with Violet, whom she is still good friends with.

Personality
Sarah is a cheery and outgoing but headstrong girl who prefers to solve her problems with her fists. Given her history of squaring off against a wide variety of threats, such a predilection would have been vital to her survival back in her homefic. She has yet to learn that this behavior may not be the ideal choice for an environment such as the PPC HQ, where socialization with other Agents is strongly encouraged, but the PPC is all about giving poorly written characters a beatdown, and it’s hard to find someone more eager to take up the task. Though Sarah likes to metaphorically keep her head in the clouds, she’s still an excellent source on how to handle terrible fanfiction, being a former badfic character herself. She’s also blessed with a great sense of humor, and enjoys joking about the random things that poor writing may inadvertently do to the Word World during missions.
The biggest problem most people have with Sarah’s character is that she is as obstinate as she is strong. It’s a bit of a chore to convince her to change her course of action when she’s in a good mood, and when enraged she’s nothing short of inconsolable. This can lead to her rushing into things too quickly and often without thinking sensibly, which in turn earns the ire of many of her peers, especially those who prefer to actually sit down and think of the best way to handle the situation; in general, while her affable demeanor allows her to make friends quite easily, her recklessness and immaturity can lead to her making enemies just as quickly. She isn’t oblivious to her “Leeroy Jenkins”-esque temperament, however, and she often feels rightly guilty whenever her actions have unforeseen and often horrific consequences. Her reliance on reckless brute force also belies a deep sense of caring, and she’s willing to respect those who are there to cool her down if the situation calls for it. Her headstrong attitude (along with any repercussions thereof) is in fact more than welcome as far as character development is concerned, and may even serve as a benefit in the right circumstances, as long as her allies can keep her protected as she forges ahead.

Sexuality and Kinks
While Sarah has yet to explore any explicit subject matter (Heaven forbid she gets a Bad Slash mission), she IS familiar with at least one fetish, courtesy of her author, although her experiences with tickling back in her homefic were in no way sexual. She’s a committed switch-tickler and very merciless when on the offensive, where she can best put her super-strength to use when restraining her victims. On the flipside, her feet are somewhat larger than average and extremely sensitive, and it’s not hard to reduce her to a giggling mess simply by teasing the pads of her toes. The playful nature of such scenes in her homefic means she enjoys receiving the tantalizing sensations just as much as she loves dishing them out, and this is one of the quickest ways of cheering her up when she feels depressed.
Sarah is straight, through and through, and even has an uncanonical boyfriend, Wendell “Stryclone” Zuckerman, in her home continuum. Being a dominant type of character who prefers to lead the way if given the choice, she prefers her ideal partner to be submissive but also caring and dedicated to her safety the way Stryclone is.

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Just two things: 1) Can an agent be friends with a canon? I know Chilever and Winston befriended a canon from Les Miserables at one point. And 2) can an agent wear their supersuit or canon-appropriate outfit during missions where a disguise is not required, or do they have to go with a PPC standard uniform?

Thanks in advance, folks! I eagerly await your response. :)

As I said when I commented on the first half, you continue to do an excellent job juggling the sheer bulk of canons and characters that had to appear on-screen in this mission. You show the reader the sheer amount of complication that's intertwined, but still keep the actual mission's story plowing forward through it all. There's one spot where this causes a problem: letting replacement!Ludlow die without being charged, which is stated in the original series to let the killed character's legacy to continue influencing canon. However, I don't see this particular instance to be too much of a problem. Replacement!Ludlow had the least effect on the story compared to the other three Suvians, his characterization was so "generic villain" that he barely resembled the canon Ludlow, and you described a very thorough neuralyzation and disentangling job at the end, which would have wiped any remaining influence from replacement!Ludlow out of the story. Next time, though, be sure to charge OCs that get offed, and preferably do the offing yourself; I know this story got complicated, but that is part of the agents' Duty.

Getting back to that epilogue, you did a good job of communicating the sheer time the agents had to put in to disentangling everything without turning it into a rote list of, "and then they did blah and then they did bleh and then they did bluh." I like that you involved Mr. Dicker in the cover-up process; since that's his canon job, it's reasonable to think he would go along with the neuralyzation process to a certain extent. One more major scene that I feel did warrant inclusion here would have been the healed Violet being reunited with the rest of the Parrs. Actually, bringing up Violet reminds me: I don't understand why she had a missing leg in the first place. If there was a source for that occurring in the badfic, you should include it, because otherwise, it feels rather random, and an out-of-place thing to happen to an Incredibles canon. (Unless I'm just forgetting something that happened in the first half of the mission?)

The way you imitate the original fic's script format is especially creative. Each time you had Falchion get stuck in it, it made sense, whether separated from Rashida and the RA, or when Rashida was knocked out. I did find it rather obnoxious to read, since the way I read is to read every word on the page. However, in this case, that annoyance is actually a plus, as it better showed me Falchion's own feelings when having to deal with it.

I see now that I was too hasty in one comment I made last time. I made the assumption that Rashida, as the more experienced agent, was correct in her mockery of Falchion, but I see now that you were setting her up to overreact in Medical, and then get her comeuppance. I like this; it's a nice change from the cliché of the veteran agent always being the more level-headed and wise one. So sorry for jumping the gun last time.

As I see it, this mission does suffer one major flaw. In your ending author note, you mention that the final chapters were basically a violent gore-fest, and that that's one of the major issues you wanted to address. Unfortunately, your way of addressing it was to show some of the worst such scenes (but I'm primarily talking about replacement!Ludlow's death here) in blocks of full quotes from the fic. At the simplest level, this does show the reader how bad the gore was, but personally, I feel that it also aggrandizes that gore, and puts it on display. I think it would have been far more effective to give just one or two lines, something like, "Another display of gore showered the ground. In the end, the mostly still-recognizable head of not!Ludlow slid down a nearby wall." I somewhat understand why you wanted to show that whole display, since it leads to Rashida's break. However, a short description like the lines above still get across how unrealistic and over-the-top the violence was without making the reader have to read it directly. And quite frankly, I don't feel that I needed to read that, either from a narrative perspective, or from matters of simple taste and comfort. This is especially true of replacement!Ludlow, who was already established as a character replacement, and was pretty much acting like a bad, generic villain; his death simply didn't deserve that level of detail and drama within the mission, because he was ultimately such a non-factor. To further fall from the point you wanted to make about the awfulness of the violence, you wind up partaking in some more all on your own, without the badfic helping at all. I'm talking about UltraViolet's assassination scene. We hardly needed to read about a Tyrannosaurus rex's worth of innards hitting the ground. Certainly describe the explosion being cross-shaped, since that was a clever little brick joke from the earliest portion of the fic. But the reader didn't need to "see" that body. A simple, "and then it blew up," would have sufficed; we're all familiar with explosions. (Well, through media, anyway.) But giving UltraViolet an eerily similar death scene to replacement!Ludlow's only reinforces and vindicates the unnecessary violence from the badfic. (Also, I think it would have made the T. rex head popping out of the bag of holding later a heck of a lot more surprising and funny/less morbid.) The one benefit you did derive from displaying all that gore was that it made the scene in the epilogue, when the Galeforce family had their little reunion, all the more sweet. It gave me the sense that The Incredibles canon had been returned to its family and Disney-oriented roots. It was so sappy, that it felt right at home there. Nonetheless, I still think the mission would be better with less gore, both quoted from the badfic and as part of the mission's actual narration.

wonderful! I have just one complaint... aren't C-CADs able to enforce consistent third person in a narrative?

I'll let you know what I think as soon as I land! *throws cakefetti*

Whew! I don't think that I have ever seen such a long entry as a PPCer's first mission. However, I must admit that you've done a good job. Though it was long, it was not rambly; a laudable achievement.

Two things, however.

First, there are a few SPaG errors:
• “Oh. Ohhhhh. It was a dream sequence. Of course it was.” She made sure to note an extra charge for confusing the Duat out of them as well.: That "she" should be “Rashida”; the previous paragraph of narrative was from Falchion's POV, and except for the reference to Duat, there is nothing in-paragraph to note that the speaker was Rashida.

• appeared out of no where: “nowhere” should be one word here, not two.

• The teens and the PPC agents rushed back to the cloning room we’d just visited: Don’t you mean “they’d just visited”?

• and the ensuing narrative everyone, including t rex, into silence: It looks like you're missing a word there. Perhaps the missing verb is “stunned everyone … into silence”?

• Its robotic legs clung to it as though it about to pry it free. As is, the second-to-last “it” is out of place. too many. Consider deleting that "it" or adding a verb:

Its robotic legs clung to it as though about to pry it free.
OR
Its robotic legs clung to it as though it was about to pry it free.

Of course, with all those "it"s, you might want to add a different noun, replacing one of the "it"s with "the scarab" or "the finger," as appropriate.

Second, regarding the badfic itself, I did not think that the format was that bad at all. IIRC, the premise is that the fic is actually a recording. That said, the first-person/scriptfic format is actually appropriate, as it accurately conveys the sense of people adding their two cents to the story as appropriate. Too bad that the story itself was horribly written, but IMO, the format was not one of the weaknesses.

Either way, good work, and congratulations on besting one of your old shames.

I'm glad to have been one of your beta readers! Reading the finished work is quite satisfying for me, and Falchion's story arc could end up inspiring some plot points for Chris and/or Ami; those are my agents-pending-Permission who both have...patchy backstories, let's say.

Anyway, have some celebratory cookies, and I look forward to reading/betaing more of your works!

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. However, this board is mostly for RP threads now. The main posting board, in case you didn't read the top of the page, is over here. Hope this helps :)

This may be my favorite mission ever now.

Like, this trollfic was almost custom-made to be sporked. There are just so many random parts, and yet, they're different enough that they make this mission unique. (Count Dracula? Ancient Rome? Godzilla? Duuuuuude.)

I love all the creative little things you got to do with the wolf-everything. Wolf disguises, Wolf minis, Wolf attack, Wolf control by Dracula, I don't know why I keep capitalizing Wolf, but I'm not going to stop now, my zoo is supposed to finally get some Wolves around the end of next year. Excellent choices for the minis on both new counts. I had never heard of the Capitoline Wolf before (our world isn't fictional, so I'm not much interested in it), but I like it, as it kind of has links to both actual Roman history and Roman legend. I also like that the mini-Capitolines have a metallic sheen to their fur, as reference to the statue.

I also like mini-Children of the Night for Dracula. I was imagining misspelled rats myself; I think they get mentioned more often than wolves or bats in the novel, but they're also more closely associated with Renfield. Wolves are singularly the Count's deal, and I love that you named them with a phrase Dracula himself used.

The scene at the end was stupendous. I love how you simultaneously treated it seriously and comically, with knocking out Edward to stop the Meyer spirit (Oh Gan, the implications) and Dracula's very dangerous presence in the final stage, vs. the troll's reaction to Selene's presence and hilarious backfiring of holding up a sword in the presence of lightning-wielders.

Out of curiosity, how did Middle-earth even facotr in to this? You said it did at the beginning, but I didn't catch anything from it. Also, Ancient Rome, therefore

The ground shook. The brown-haired woman frowned, stopped chewing and listened.

A roar sounded—terribly nearby, and terribly familiar. "What kind of animal makes that cliché stock roar sound?" Acacia wondered. She put down the chicken leg and moved to a window.

Glancing left and right down the path outside, she saw some of her neighbors running around, screaming. But people were running from all directions, to all directions, so it hardly communicated much in the way of information. Then she looked up.

"Oh," Acacia said. "Not a stock sound—not when he first made it, anyway."

She moved to a trunk, ignoring the somebody else's problem field with practice. She opened it and fished out the camera her old partner had insisted on giving her; Jay would never forgive her if Acacia didn't get a picture of this.

She leaned out her door and took a picture of Godzilla towering over the tiny structures of Ancient Rome. Then she snapped another; if that bulletin board of unlikely pictures was still in the Cafeteria, this could easily compete with any new stuff contemporary agents were posting.

The daikaiju unleashed a blast of weirdly-colored flame at something at ground level. Moments later, Acacia watched humanoid figure covered in slight distortions riding out of town on a . . . Patronus?

"Ugh. I guess this was bound to happen eventually. I suppose I should—Aha!" A massive blue portal had flashed through the sky. When it ended, Godzilla was gone.

"Nice. Someone's already here." Acacia looked again at the deep red flames scorching the trees near town. "Say. I seem to recall something about Godzilla's fire being radioactive . . ." She grimaced, but sat back down and continued eating dinner. "Well, I'm sure the modern PPC agent has the sense to get some of those pills for radiation for the townspeople."

Several hours later, Acacia found herself beginning to itch at her arms. "Or, I can always portal to Medical and do it myself."

This sentence only exists to double-check the closing italics tag.

And I love the mini-wolf packs. :D

I had a fictional small town called Capitoline in a werewolf story I did for NaNo - the only year so far that I won, actually. okay so I made the entire thing end in a spontaneous song and dance number

It's pretty interesting to read about agents dealing with a non-human, non-sapient disguise choice. That mini wolf pack/army is going to be multiple hand(paw?)fuls, I can tell that much. (By the way, I have to ask; the snow wolves don't look like living snow sculptures of wolves, do they? Cause I can see multiple problems with that.)

Are you by any chance familiar with The Parent Trap? 'Cause I have quite a doozy to report if you are. Also, did you get see the HP barricade I linked in the last threat?

Excellent! Though I do not think the account will remain active for long... *shudders in fear of admins*

How are you managing to churn them out so quickly, though? Is it just that you're taking on badfics 6000 words or less, or is there some other secret?

~DF

First up, the Pack. It'll be revealed in the beginning of the next mission that the entire Pack has been set loose in the Miss Cam Courtyard, under the leadership of roman. Selene says something about her coming to an accommodation with Alice, so we shouldn't see any massive equi/lupicidal events any time soon. (Though we might see some bizarre cross-breeds... can minis breed?)

Secondly, Selene. I've finally read Dracula and taken note of what powers she should and shouldn't have, and weaknesses too. I've then confirmed that Driftwood complies with those, so no problems there. There may be contradictory things in her earlier missions; I intend to edit those out. As far as I'm concerned, she's a straight Stokerverse vampire with a steampunk accessory.

Thirdly... nope, no idea. There was something, though. So let's substitute: Selene's difficulty with keeping her clothes on when transforming back to human comes from this story, which is defined as 'canon-friendly', not strictly canonical.

hS

Are the mini-Capitoline Wolves up for adoption?

The entire pack was such an awesome idea, and I particularly liked the mini-Capitoline Wolves. I saw the discussion earlier about ancient Roman minis, but it was neat to finally see them in action. And is it had I was gigglesnorting my way through the entire scene in Dracula's castle?

And poor Selene, having to deal with... well, pretty much everything. *offers her a hug before deciding that's probably a bad idea*

I'd suggest this one absolutely horrible Pippin fic I found once, to give Kaitlyn a chance in the spotlight, but I'm about to board a plane and don't have the time to look it up. Shame. Maybe next time? *wicked grin*

Sorry, but I accidentaly wrote the wrong link. the real one is: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2960364/1/Lord-of-the-Onion-Rings

I cannot. I just---I cannot. I watched it four hours ago and I'm still internally screaming.

http://www.mspaintadventures.com/GAMEOVER/

-Aila

All you Homestucks, good luck and my best wishes. Make sure nobody's around to hear your screams.

I mean, by this time the update has happened, the servers have crashed, the site is up again, and the update has vanished without a trace.

But I still can't wait. To like. Actually see it. On the site.

And. And. The upd8 happened.

...and the servers crashed immediately, of course. Someone made an imgur of the page, though, so here:



-Aila, whose current state of mind is three hundred and fourteen pages of shout poles

I've read all the books, so I know a thing or two.

THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!

Ranger forever here! I can help out :)
Speaking of, one of my agents is native to RA...

I've read the first book, but not much else.

with Ranger’s Apprentice, nor with anaphylactic shock, but apparently I’m rather good at spotting typos. Unfortunately I’ll be offline for the greater part of next week, so you’ll have to wait before I can do anything. My e-mail adress is on my user page.

HG

Definitely don't recall them on the board in 2008 or that being posted to the board then; this is the first time I've read this mission and I read everything back then.

Of course, it may have slipped through in some manner, but I suspect Nesh will have the same recollection as I do.

PGs, do any of you remember either of these fellows (fellowesses?) applying and getting Permission? Because like PC points out, this is very much not the way we do things...

(Third from the bottom.)

So that's a permission giver who was at least aware of them, roughly around the time of the Original Series.

Let's see . . . the Wayback Machine seems to have saved the main navigation hubs, but not the actual content. Nuts. Based on the URLs, though, it seems they were primarily MSTers, rather than mission-writers. So . . . eh, Idunno. I'll probably still archive them as a piece of PPC history, even if we don't add them to the wiki.

I think they're- or at least, Mervin is- best known for their/her Twilight sporkings. I've never actually come across them as agents of the PPC, though I have read the Rose Potter sporkings and unless I'm misremembering, there had been several mentions of the PPC throughout.

Hello! Here, take this Holy bowl of Salad Dressing, for use in official Wizards council brunch.

You like the hunger games? seriously, NOTHING will ever match them in my opinion.

Yeah, I really gotta read Driftwood, concerning how everyone thinks of it.

Anyways, I don't actually have permission, so I can't give you a gift (Well, maybe. except for this voodoo doll made from sue skin and CAF bones. P.S.: don't tell anyone it's from the mirror multiverse agent Huiensoron's collection of his deceased "Allies". it'l really tick off the enforcers.)

Hi, have some fudge!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Hi there! Of your listed fandoms, I'm most partial to Hunger Games (though that's only because I've seen the movies). Do you like any anime, by any chance?

So, a Poli Sci major living near DC, eh? I'm guessing that you're gearing up to be either a lawyer or a politician?

As for your newbie gift...
*rummages through bag of holding*
Here, have a snowglobe with a replica of your favorite fictional locale inside!

Enjoy the craziness that is the PPC!

--sonofheaven176, Esq.
yes, I am a lawyer IRL)

I share all of your listed fandoms! AWESOME!! *glomp* Political science and history sounds like a powerful combination. Do you have a particular time period/region of history you like? What got you into political science?

Since you like cooking and are in wedding planning (yours or someone else's?), have a box of food coloring! Perfect for dyeing pastries fun colors!

* third poke *

Hello and welcome to the PPC Board. I was quite a bit of a lurker myself, since I probably became aware of PPC back in 2012 and I knew about the Board but I never joined until a few months ago.

Anyway, have a Firebolt to catch that Golden Snitch, a Muggle-Use Wand and a copy of the Rorschach Book, which changes its contents according to your current reading interests.

Have a Golden Snitch, a sword made of celestial bronze, a mockingjay, and one of my own shed feathers (careful, it's sharp)!

I'm glad you liked Driftwood (wait, you didn't actually say you liked it, did you? Gulp!), and, welcome a'Board! [Pokes, because poking the newbies is a Thing]

hS

Hey! Hi! Hello! Always nice to meet a fellow Potterhead, Whovian and Percy Jackson fan!

As a welcome present, I bestow upon you this screeching pocket rhinoceros. Don't look directly at its urple horn, though!

Anyway, take off your shoes and sanity and leave them by the door with everyone else's belongings. Welcome to the PPC!

Hello!
I am probably called Kitty.
Nice to meet you, Miss Niko. I hope you'll be perfectly at home here.
Here, have this cup of cold tea. It's been that way since 1976; I'm sure you two'll get along famously.

Hello. Now, if you just found out about the board, you probably do not know about the wiki, which I highly suggest you read. I can see you like to read PPC stories. There's a list of them on the wiki. links to the list and wiki are at the top of the board. Anyway, congratulations on joining us. Take this Strange Mystical Object(tm), now with added Generic(tm) Runes! Make your own Vague Prophecies!

Hello and welcome!

I gave to you a lined Infinite Notebook, complete with urple covers and wilver bindings. Don't look at it straight on!

-Aila

//POKES// DIBS-

xD Anyways, welcome, here is a bag with endless space so you can pack all your gifts in.