Jan 2015 Archive, part c

Have a metafictional kitten. It's a Siamese, so don't worry about the invisibility. Just follow the meows.

Or you could just put a collar on it. Your sister seems to have an unholy fountain of urple bows...

So, you're Iximaz's little brother? Nice to meet you. I'm World-Jumper, the guy who has been slacking off working on that crossover mission with her. Nice too meet you!

I am afraid I did not see your introductory post before, so I don't know your fandoms. However, I am assuming you like MLP too, because I like assuming things. So, for your gift, I shall give you a small crystal stature of your favorite character from MLP:FiM. There may be an enchantment on it based on their character. Just, try and keep it safe. Shadow kings may rise from the dead and try to take your CRYSTAAAAL!

A fellow Newbie! Please have some of my sharp and pointy sporks. :)

Please accept this fine bottle of vintage Bleeport! It's taken me ages to get right, and I'm fairly certain I've ironed out all the kinks in the manufacturing process, so if you'd just care to sign this waiver... =]

Have a legal pad and some gel pens! You do like gel pens, don't you?

Since I wasn't here the first time you made an introduction post, well, welcome aBoard!
Here, take a...
*searches through Bag*
Wilver bird cage! Wait... I had one? Too bad I didn't notice it when Tawaki gave me a plover...

Here, have a Power Ring of the Urple Lantern Corps, it doesn't have a charge and I lost the battery a long time ago, but is a nice piece of memorabilia. :D

Here, have some lemon cookies.

Hello, As your welcome gift I will gift you a blello sword

I already gave you a funny-sounding animal, so just take this plate of freshly-made SPaGhetti! *noogies*

Enjoy digging shiny Sue brains with this +1 anarchic shovel. It deals an additional 2d6 damage to lawful and noncanonical creatures!

Welcome back and stuff! Since you're only half-new, I will dispense with the usual "read this or that" and just give you another cup of tea full of delicious goodness.

Orchestra, by TheManWithaPlan (rated T, probably).
I know, I know, Warframe is pretty obscure. But I still like those vignettes.

A whole year? Wow, you must be fully insane now. ;)

Congrats on being around for a year. It's not always easy keeping up with something like this. *Hugs* ^^

Here have a bootleg copy of The One Ring, that has no conection to the other Rings, has no will of its own, and makes itself invisible instead of the user, among other glitches.

Here! Have a disappearing kitten. Your description actually matches my own original anxieties pretty much exactly, by the way. It's kind of freaky.

Also, have a bag of complementary catnip and catnip toys. :)

I'm glad this place has been good to you. You deserve all the happiness life can offer. =]

Happy anniversary! This last year has definitely changed you. Now I can torture you with only two words! I have also seen your writing skills develop and had a good laugh with you about your old fanfic. I wish you the best of times.

One whole year. You know, I think I have technically been on this board for two, maybe three years. To be honest, I lost track of time.

I am certainly glad that you decided to stay on this board. Things would be a lot more boring without you around.

...Now about that crossover mission. I know, I disappear for several months, and I complain about you not being on in four days.`Still, I'm waiting for you to write the next part of the mission. Take your time, just, you know, letting you know.

Now, enough business talk. Celebration time!

I'm so glad you joined! *hugs*

Happy one-year anniversary of your joining the Board! :)

Here, have a scientifically accurate Dimorphodon! Perfect for taking care of any pest problems around the house!

Let's see... aha! Here it is! Halestorm's "The Strange Case Of..."!

Skip, skip, skip... it's the last track on the album.

Here it is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdEmsYOOQjU

"Hmm."

Rosalind looked over at her colleague curiously. "That's unusual," she said, "by which I mean that it's perculiar, or even simply odd, that you, Agent Haar of the Department of Redundancy Department, should make any noise at all, particularly one which is interrogative, speculative, or otherwise thoughtful, such as the one which you did in fact just make."

Haar reverted to type, simply staring at Rosalind. Above his eye, a green light flickered blue for a moment, then settled on a shade of pink that was alarmingly close to urple.

Rosalind coughed. "So," she said, "might I ask or inquire as to what you were commenting on, or speculating on as it may be?"

Haar held her gaze, and a string of red lights down the side of his face came on in sequence. He held out a sheaf of paper, fresh from the printer. "This."

Rosalind took the papers and leafed through them (three times, naturally). "Ah, Agent Rina Dives of the Department of Mary-Sues, and her partner, Agent Randa Roan of the Department of Mary-Sues, have sent us several messages or communications from their current mission." She checked the notes a fourth time. "Yes, quite a few letters, emails, and informative communiques."

Haar, naturally, said nothing.

"Well, come along, Haar," Rosalind said, putting the papers firmly on the desk. "We are needed and required in an unaccustomed manner, one which we have seldom been asked to operate - we are, in point of fact, needed in the field."

Haar usually stared at her, but this time the stare seemed more incredulous than usual. An array of green lights on his forehead seemed to flicker out a hundred games of tic tac toe before he finally said, "... what?"

"With a case or mission as serious and over-the-top redundant as this, the one Agents Rina and Randa have sent us," Rosalind said, "there is the potential for possible redundancy-related catastrophe and disaster! Why, one time, on one mission one day, Agent Starwind Rohana found herself duplicated not once, not twice, but three times, so that there were four of her, all identical, and her partner, Agent Estelnar Celebduin, who works with her, was trapped and stuck in a thirty-second half-minute temporal time loop which kept replaying for thirty seconds! All of which," she concluded, "could have been avoided if Agents Starwind Rohana and Estelnar Celebduin had bothered and remembered to inform us, the Department of Redundancy Department, of the redundancy which plagued their mission and cause all the problems which I have explained to you."

Haar continued to stare at her. Then he pulled another sheet of paper out of the printer and handed it to Rosalind. "No."

"No? What is the meaning which you intend by-?" Rosalind read the sheet, which was a standard notification that Agents Rina and Randa had successfully killed their target and returned to HQ. "Oh. Well... oh."

hS

Being a latecomer to this whole world of fanfic, I had no idea how bad My Inner Life was. But seeing your mission, it's clear that even if you believed that fic was a transcript of an actual series of lucid dreams (thus forgiving the Sueishness and the OOC behavior), there's enough horrible writing that the DTE would be able to do something!
Also, allow me to second Huinesoron's comment that you've done well in ensuring that the mission didn't devolve into an MST.
I must admit, I did find the death-by-punctuation to be a bit anticlimactic, but it was nonetheless funny, as was the mission in general.
All in all, a pretty enjoyable mission.

But of course, it's not an SOH176 mission comment without the usual SPaG comments, so...

1) "Be good!" She called before closing the portal.
The "S" in "She" needs to be lowercase.

2) "Oh, Faore!"
That's a mini-Gohma. The goddess's name is Farore.

Nicely done. Very nicely done indeed. Made me laugh even though I know zilch about the LoZ canon.

I loved that. I'm not a fan of the Zelda games, but I read My Inner Life way back when and I thought it'd never get missioned simply due to how bad it was. You have missioned it, and in fine, fine style. I loved your agents in this even more than I usually do, and I really felt for Rina.

Of course the best thing to do after rationing Randa's Bleeprin would be to hurl them into something like 120 Days Of Blueblood or a similar piece of vileness. Indeed, I'd say it was the only thing to do! You could even test that cactus juice theory from a couple of threads ago if you wanted.

Seriously, though, give the girls some holiday time somewhere more pleasant. I hear the Howling is nice this time of year... =]

I have a lot of respect for you for doing this, I don't think I could I read a small part of this fic but I couldn't deal with the rest. By the way your missions are always hilarious but this one might be my favorite.

I enjoyed the mission, and what with this thing apparently being a badfic classic, I kinda want to see the famous bad parts addressed. ^^;

Also, did you know <a href="ppc.wikia.com/wiki/LJSilverblade">Link Jr. is an agent? I didn't, but I vaguely recalled knowing the name Jenna Silverblade from somewhere, so I searched it, and lo and behold, there he was. It gives me an idea... suppose Jenna didn't quite die under all that punctuation, and managed to revive and continue the story? I dunno if Rina and Randa could stand to go back, at least not on their own, but if you could somehow rope Agent Phobos into it, he would be very useful to have along. He knows Ocarina of Time and isn't bothered by M-rated things.

... Not that I'm telling you to actually do this, unless you want to. It might be a good story, but not if you simply want nothing more to do with the fic, and who could blame you? Anyway, I wouldn't want to do it the honor of devoting any more of our time to it than necessary.

Anyway, good work!

Meanwhile, in FicPsych...

"Ah, Link, you're awake! My name is Jen—"

"AAAAAAHHHHHH! NO! GET AWAY!"

"... Oh, shards. A little help in here!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"Immie? Nath? Anyone?"

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"Fer cryin' out... where did I put that syringe...? Aha!"

"AAAaaah...."

"Whew. This might take longer than I thought."

---

~Neshomeh

I never expected anyone to actually take on My Inner Life. Nicely done.

A couple of things that jumped out at me:

1/ It didn't feel like an MST! ^_~ You had a load of punctuation-gathering scenes to break up the quoted sections, and a fair amount of paraphrasing to go with it. Good job.

2/ I really liked the very short charge list. I actually read all of it!

And now you've prompted me to go looking for the various LQ rants... aw, man, these things are just as much fun as I remembered. I think I need to collect them all. Hmm... I'm sure Kaitlyn MST'd one of them at one point, have to see if I can track that down... I know AW did a couple.

hS

Usually I don’t do this. *hugs anyway*

I tried to look at this reposted thing on ff.net and gave up after approximately two minutes.

Burying the Sue under a pile of her own bad punctuation is an ingenious assassination method.

HG

You need a shovel. A +6 keen vorpal holy shock brilliant energy adamantine shovel.

I don't care if said shovel is required by DnD law to be an artifact, it needs to be acquired.

Jeebus that fic looked terrible. Major props for taking it on. One question, though; why did Rina dump the mini blowtorch? That sounds like it could be really useful.

That fic reminded me of another that shall not be spoken off, though at least Linki wasn't replaced.

In other things, I liked the mission, although I think that the way the Sue was dealt with was a little anticlimactic. Still was good, so, here have coupon for a free bottle of Bleeprin.

I one of that kind of authors, whether I succeded or failed, I have no idea, as I have yet to write a fic. Also most of my OC are for a Original Continuum, and that just makes it harder.

And regarding your fic, I don't think it's bad, but is not that good either, Midnight is a quite good character, but is hampered down by the near-Sueness of his alter ego, also the story doesn't quite live up to the "comedy" part of its classification, because while the Prologue was very funny, after that, the hilarity gets reduced with each passing chapter.

All in all, I found it to be an average fic, definitively not bad enough to be killed; actually I think Midnight should be recruited instead, because at least he has personality and does not warp beyond recongnition the canon parts of the story.

(Coming to think about it, the idea of a pony agent is hilarious by itself)

Despite the fact that the one sporking I put my own awful badfic through on my very first PPC mission was well-deserved, I can say with confidence that I did everything in my power to keep Adam from stooping to Gary Stu territory. Personality flaws, bad luck, and the like.

Needless to say, I failed spectacularly. The poor kid was pretty beyond saving from the very beginning. >_

*points at Agent Sergio Turbo* Guess who used to be my self-insert Stu?

I did try to add limitations to him to avoid scoring too high as a Stu, but... well, I was a terrible author back then so I ended up giving him more glitter than I actually removed.


I think he's better now though.

When I took that sucker down, my old Sue insisted that she wasn't one because her author said so. Of course, it would vary from case to case, but generally they'd probably be in denial considering their authors had no idea what they were doing like me.

Do whatever you think the Sue would most likely do and you'll be fine, I promise.

-Iximaz, who is totally not speaking from experience. Nope.

Rina shook her head, blowing her bangs out if her eyes.

The following two paragraphs, coming from different contributors, should be mixed into one to remove the repetition:

Rina came over to help. “Woah, that is seriously mind-screwy,” she said, bending down and grabbing hold of Doc’s shirt. After a lot of tugging and pulling, the two agents finally managed to haul Doc's sodden form into the Lounge.

Doc stayed limp, but otherwise allowed himself to be dragged backwards, then upwards, into the Lounge.

Less obvious, but still slightly irritating: Rina neutralyzing the bystanders and portaling to Medical should not take longer than a minute, but Vania had been watching Doc sleep when Rina arrived. I assume that Vania grabbed the back of Doc's collar and began to drag him away, but then remembered the RA he had dropped, and portaled to Medical. The nurses must still have worked really fast. I don’t know what could be done about this.

Sorry for nitpicking again. I like what Doc and you achieved without knowing where you were going in advance. Someday I should try to participate in one of these RPs.

HG

I almost wish I'd taken part in that RP, but whatever. Maybe next time, when Chris has a working phone. *shrugs cheerfully*

That was really fun to read. I should probably check out the Other Board...
I'm also looking forwards to the probable collaboration between you and doctorlit!

I didn't know about Sparklee or the story that spawned it, but it does seem like an interesting idea. I also like the idea of a PPC TV channel. Well, I guess it pretty much had to happen since there already were radio stations...

I just a question: Whyn Doc thought it was a good idea a beach in New York? Anyway, good work as always!

And say thanks for apologizing. Can you take criticism gracefully now, do you think?

My work week doesn't leave much time between shifts for composing long replies.

The fic is a very weird one, with rather stupid time travel shenanigans on the Pokémon end, and a plot by Dogbert to send Dilbert, Wally and Alice on a giant office building-shaped space ship to start trading with the Pokémon world for PROFIT on the "Dilbert" end. Which . . . is actually in character for Dogbert, I guess? But the dialogue for the "Dilbert" characters is so awfully bland, it kind of ruins it. The actual "Dilbert" part starts with chapter 92. (Sorry for the weird link on the Claimed page, you guys; I think I must have been reading the last chapter at the time before I added it to the list, and forgot to go back to the first chapter before grabbing the link.)

Anyway, seeing that that fic has nearly doubled in length since I claimed it, I don't know that it necessarily makes for a good mission anymore. Even as short as the chapters are, that's a whole lot of badfic to sit through.

What do you think, Pretzel? Are the "Dilbert" canons OOC enough to be a charge? Is the length worth tackling? One thing we could try is having our respective agents tackling separate sections of the story, not realizing they both got assigned the fic, and have them meet somewhere in the middle before teaming up to take it out.

Whiskey, tango, foxtrot, over.

I'm gonna cut to the chase: Permission Granted! I enjoyed the prompts, especially the first one, and I think the agents will be fun to read about. I don't note any serious flaws in your writing, even with the formatting issues you mentioned. (May I suggest getting around the indentation issues by not trying? Double line breaks between paragraphs is just fine.) You've been around a while, I've interacted with you, and you seem nice. So, there you go. {= )

The only thing I really question is the logic behind Kayt's name-change. Sure, it's an odd spelling, but that's easily fixed—there's nothing wrong with Kate or Katie, depending on how it's pronounced. Why the leap all the way to Alloy, and why let Ginger-Wise get away with slapping a new name on her without her input?

That's about it for critique, though. Nice work!

~Neshomeh

There are some things you may want to correct before a Permission Giver sees them.

"... Let's see if I can actually charge you this time," Ann growled, shooting Ann a look.
I’m not sure who is speaking and who is shot a look, but I’m quite sure they are not the same person.

"Stay cool, Ginger-Wise," she whispered.
This looks like a clumsy way to introduce the redhead’s name. You seem to acknowledge that she wouldn’t say this as loud as she spoke before. But if Redhead just whispers to herself, Kayt is not meant to hear her. Thus we get a sudden shift in POV, which then immediately switches back to Kayt. Better let Ginger-Wise tell her name to somebody, or let Kayt reference to her by a spontaneously created nickname. (Thinking of her as “Ginger” and then finding out that she is actually called “Ginger-Wise” may work.)

They were here, and Kayt hadn't responded.
This again looks weird to me. We know that Kayt still didn’t respond to the Marquis suggesting to change her name, and why would she think about "them" – whoever they may be, she doesn’t know – being here? It may be sufficient to say "I need a new name?" Kayt asked, belatedly. (You probably don’t want to avoid the impression that there is some confusion with several people speaking nearly at the same time.)

Other than that, it’s quite good. I especially like the door that only "almost always" leads to the bathroom. We don’t often see the PPC’s weirdness spilling over from the corridors into an RC.

HG

Your agents seem interesting, and while the fugees thing has been done a fair bit (hell, one of my agents is just as guilty - actually, that raises the question of whether or not Alloy went through FicPsych, which might make an interesting interlude if you get Permission), you make it work. It's pretty cool to see an agent who's been properly messed about with by a Sue in a physiological sense. Ginger-Wise... eh, fits the theme. I personally would have gone for a more conventionally recruited agent to counterbalance Alloy's origin story and add a little conflict, but it's your party. =]

You've been hanging around here a while, and while there's a lot of short sentences around in it, the same's true of my own writing. I like it. I think you're in with a shout, though of course my opinion ain't worth the screen it's written on. Actually, screens have a specific material value linked to the price of ITO (for touchscreens) and similar materials, so my opinion is really worth a lot less. =]

World-Jumper already linked to this a few threads down.

Maybe you could blindfold Valon and have him hang onto Kala as she moves about and tells him what's going on? If that doesn't jive then I suggest having another canon specialist replace him. If it's the start of the mission, Kala can guide her partner back to the RC (she stays in the fic so that his replacement can portal to her location) where he can send a Department-wide request for backup via ICEP. He doesn't need a contact: a general call will suffice.

Personally, I've always been fond of the idea that the Department of Intelligence sends some of its operatives along with Action Department agents if there is a gap in canon knowledge. It's also like some sort of foreshadowing for hS' post-Sundering PPC where Rangers assist the Paladins during the mission. If you wanna run with that, then go ahead.

In fact, since the sensible way to do this is MST-style, I'm going to invite Agent Huinesoron to cover this one for me. ^^

The deer were a truly ancient folk.

True. We predate humanity by millennia.

Thousands of years before ponies could write or speak,

Or even existed.

the various deer species

Clearly an analogue for the Three Tribes, though 'species' implies we couldn't interbreed - which would make me a biological impossibility.

had filled much of the world with civilization, forging great kingdoms

Now that isn't true. Before humanity awoke, we were all living in Valinor; most of the world was empty. No, actually, I take that back: the Avari and the Sindar were still there, and I suppose their lands count as 'civilisation'. Just about.

and building magnificent cities of crystal and precious gems,

That's mostly true in Valinor. Unless you count caves with those things set into the walls, in which case Menegroth probably counts as well. (And Nargothrond, naturally, but we built that after the coming of the Sun.)

their shared culture fueled by their strange and powerful magics.

Now that's just nonsense. I mean, we had our arts, sure, but 'magic'? No. Working a mail-coat so that it doesn't catch the light isn't sorcery - it's just a skill.

Unlike ponydom, where complex magical skill was restricted to unicorns,

Or humanity, who are frankly rubbish at anything they'd call 'magic'; look at the Numenoreans, who tried to rip off our metalwork. Fingolfin's sword wounded Morgoth seven times, while a Numenorean knife dissolved after striking the Witch-King just once. Pathetic.

every deer could use magic;

Every elf could learn certain skills, yes. That's how skills work.

moreover, the average deer was far more powerful than the average unicorn, their pair of many-tined antlers able to channel and conduct much more magical energy than a unicorn's single horn.

Uh. Only if you interpret 'antlers' as a metaphor for our very nature.

(hS note: but I do love that idea. It's logical!)

Because of this, they had not left many technological achievements behind,

Nonsense! Swords, stonework, the great shipworks of the Grey Havens - it's not our fault mortals wander on the outskirts of Mirkwood or Lorien and go 'oh, all elves live in trees, eating leaves and drinking dew'.

save their unparalleled ability to shape crystal and gemstone.

Reference to Feanor, or to Celebrimbor? Either way, that only really applies to the Noldor; the other tribes either ignored such things (the Vanyar), or preferred to leave them in natural form (the Teleri).

Their cultural achievements were great, however: the deerfolk's languages had formed the foundations of many modern languages, not just in Equestria but across the world.

That's true. The main exception is the Dwarven tongue - and I suppose the rumoured original tongue of mortals, though I don't believe it ever existed.

Much of common law

We did shape a lot of that. The Edain were pretty primitive, legally speaking, when they reached Beleriand; things got much better when they started adopting our laws.

and accepted interspecies customs had been laid down first by the deerfolk.

I'm not sure what that means. That we didn't kill the dwarves and mortals when we first met them, so they didn't kill each other either? I guess. We're pretty cool that way.

Their artistic achievements were magnificent, ancient deer art and sculpture renowned for its elegance.

^^ Why thank you.

Deer had also invented the performing arts, with a particular love for the theater.…

Is that a backhanded complement? It feels like one, but I'm not sure how. Either way, technically 'the performing arts' were invented by Vana and Nessa when they invented dancing, and dance and music were always our favourites; though if you don't know about the Valar, I suppose you could attribute it to us.

Yet taken together, these were but echoes of the past, and faint ones at that. There was much about the ancient deer that most ponies did not know,

You should hear some of the nonsense they said about us. 'So there is a witch in the Golden Wood' - about the Lady Artanis! Really, I ask you!

due largely to the one thing everypony did know about them. One day, for reasons nopony fully understood, the deer had gone to war with each other.

What? No, we didn't.

It had been a terrible conflict, spreading across the Earth,

No it didn't!

lasting decade after decade,

Like that's even a long time - but no, it didn't!

unleashing ever more powerful destructive magic.

No, we didn't! Why would we do that?

When it was over, the whole world had lain in ruins,

Now that... okay, I think I see where this is coming from. This story has conflated us with the Valar - and included Morgoth in that number. So yes, I suppose 'the pre-human people' went to war with 'themselves' and laid a large portion of the world to ruin with terrible forces - but that was us versus Morgoth, not a mass Kinslaying.

Though... I suppose there's the argument that orcs are elves, and that we were technically all kinslayers all along... but somehow I don't think that's what they're going for.

and most of the deer had wiped themselves out.

Unfair! We were slaughtered by Morgoth, and later Sauron, not by 'ourselves'. Well, I guess the disaster of the Nirnaeth could count as suicide - but not the rest of it!

Those who had survived had withdrawn deep into the world's forests, and in this age they were rarely seen.

What, the vast forests of Rivendell? The deep woods of the Grey Havens? The reclusive massive trade network of Mirkwood?

Yes, we 'withdrew' - in the same way that mortals 'withdrew'. When the world is filled with orcs, trolls, spiders and other horrors, you don't go larking about in open countryside; you build walled cities, or deep caverns, or hidden refuges. The cities of Gondor had high walls; the people of the Shire never left their country, and were guarded by the Dunedain; and we tended to stay in our own settlements. But not 'deep in the forests'; neither of the two forest realms were particularly 'deep'.

In general, it's clearly inspired by our history - but I think it's more inspired by general D&D-type elves. 'Ooooh, powerful magic & no technology & destructive war & now they all live in trees' - it's us in the broadest outlines, but the details are from somewhere else.

I only have read very few missions, since I have been very busy straightening my life. I cast my vote to Iximaz and Desdenelle. Mainly because I am rather attracted to their comments. Also, Kaitlyn should be PG as well, if just due to seniority.

I was unsure about voting at first, since I rarely post despite constantly lurking, but since Dann said he thought it'd be a good idea for me to throw in my two cents, I'm casting votes for PC and Kaitlyn (I legit thought she was one already, so oh well.)

I guess I'd better vote - I'm definitely in favor of PC and Des, and while I haven't seen a huge amount of Iximaz, they look good too. So I guess that's a vote for all three?

(And yeah, I think Kaitlyn deserves to be a PG at this point. So a vote for all four.)

I vote for Iximaz, desdendelle, and PC.

I also support some sort of non-PG status for Kaitlyn, or maybe a "PG emeritus" hat as proposed by BeautyID.

j/k I already am a permission giver.

Actually I think my permission giving abilities should be revoked, because I have apparently diminished and gone into the West, only to return as a whisper on the wind or a shadow out of the corner of your eye, or a nightmare which recedes from your consciousness upon waking, from time to time.

Maybe there should be, like, 'permission giver emeritus' status, and it would be kind of like the queen, everyone thinks she's nice but she can't actually do much.

I mean can you imagine if I went rogue and came back here and just started granting permission to random people? CHAOS.

All four of them seem like they'd be good PG's; I vote Iximaz, Poor Cynic, Desdendelle and Kaitlyn all get the promotion.

Kaitlyn. If she is the oldest boarder than she should definitely be a PG.

For Poor Cynic, and Desdendelle. I have all confidence in Iximaz, as they seem awesome, but we haven't interacted much.

Also totally a vote for Kaitlyn if that gets decided. She knows the old canon better than probably any of us. Except maybe hS.

I'll happily support Iximaz, PoorCynic and Desdendelle becoming PGs for all the reasons that have already been discussed far more eloquently than I could hope to.

Echoing July's comment below, I feel that the PG hat should really be given to those who will use it, and that some alternative award should be devised for long-standing members of the community who don't wish to become PGs.

I recall someone suggesting a yearly awards ceremony - I like this idea. Perhaps Kaitlyn could be given a pre-emptive 'Lifetime Achievement' award - "successfully maintained her sanity despite long-term exposure to the crazy world of the PPC"? ^__^

Votes all round! Yes, all four of them!

Iximaz, and i think is a good idea to have one of the older members be given the Permision Giver title (with that i refer to the thing about Kaitlyn).

Desdendelle and Poor Cynic.

I've known the both of them long enough to know they'll do well with it. PC's beta workshops are a marvel, and, I have to admit, having been a firebrand myself, I'm ever for having an alternate voice around.

While Des might have got off on the wrong step a few times at first, in my opinion that means he'll make a better PG for it, because he knows how people can improve first hand.

(While I can't say much for what my reputation is on the board nowadays since I have no idea what it is now, I do hope the fact I believe they'll do a good job is worth something!)

And as for the secondary item, I'm going to have to not vote for Kaitlyn as a PG; to clarify, this isn't a vote against her by any means; I have immense respect for her, and she clearly has good taste I mean what but I do personally prefer that we vote for PGs who have been and will be active in the community in the future and are willing to do the whole PG thing themselves. If she decides to change that and decides to take part more actively and expresses an interest in actually doing PG activities, then I'd be all for it; but until then, no.

I vote for all of them. :)

Desdendelle: He's been in the PPC for longer than I, and his missions have been excellent. So it's a yes for him.

Iximaz: She's a good member of the Board. However, I'm still on the fence. So I'll abstain for now. (If I cannot do that, then you can count my response as a no.)

PoorCynic: He betaed for me for a time, so I know personally that he'll be a good PG. A clear yes to him.

On Kaitlyn: I think that giving Kaitlyn a PG hat at this point would be highly irregular--especially since she had not been nominated in the previous thread. And if she would not be around to do the job, then that makes my decision that much clearer. I'd agree on coming up with some kind of honor for still-active non-PG Oldbies, but as for making Kaitlyn a PG: no.

All of the above! I am admittedly not too familiar with Iximaz, but I do recall them(she?) being pretty level-headed for important things, and Poor Cynic and Des are both responsible and sensible folk.

(Yes, making lists helps me calm down.)
So far, the votes look like this:
Iximaz: Hieronymus Graubart, Sergio Turbo, foofooman3, Scapegrace, myself, Darkotas, eatpraylove, Storme Hawk, Edhelistar, Neshomeh, Gigglet, SeaTurtle, Phobos, Voyd, World-Jumper, Huinesoron, TheShyIon, SkarmorySilver, Tira. Total: 19.
PoorCynic: Hieronymus Graubart, Iximaz, Cassie, Sergio Turbo, foofooman3, Scapegrace, myself, Darkotas, Storme Hawk, Edhelistar, Neshomeh, SeaTurtle, Phobos, World-Jumper, Huinesoron, TheShyIon, SkarmorySilver, Tira. Total: 18.
Myself: Hieronymus Graubart, Iximaz, Sergio Turbo, foofooman3, Scapegrace, Darkotas, eatpraylove, Storme Hawk, Edhelistar, SeaTurtle, Phobos, Voyd, World-Jumper, Huinesoron, PoorCynic, TheShyIon, SkarmorySilver, Tira. Total: 18.
Kaitlyn: Cassie, Sergio Turbo, foofooman3?, Scapegrace, myself, Darkotas, eatpraylove, Edhelistar, Huinesoron, SkarmorySilver. Total: 9 (10?).

I'll vote for Desdendelle, Iximaz, and Poor Cynic. All three seem like good candidates for the role.

With regards to Kaitlyn, I'm going to have to vote no, mostly because of your comment that she wouldn't use it if she had it. There's nothing wrong with recognizing the longest-standing member, but I think there should be a better way to do it than to give her a job she's not interested in having.

Especially Iximaz, though. Because she's awesome.

...as pretty much everyone else is, as well. :P

I vote for Desdendelle (not voting for myself; my ego's not that big). Iximaz is a good writer and a fine part of this community, but I'm not sure about her critiquing ability.

As for Kaitlyn, it's been repeated several times throughout this thread: being a PG is a job, not an honor. If she isn't going to do the job, then why should she get it?

I'm casting my vote for all three nominees, and for Kaitlyn (uh, that was probably obvious). Because, no, she's not around to actively use it - but as Neshomeh pointed out, we don't need PGs around; this is more in the nature of recognition of long (long long long) membership of the PPC.

hS

Iximaz: Yes

Poor Cynic: Yes

Desdendelle: Yes


As for Kaitlyn... I don't know what to say. On the one hand, she has been our longest lasting member. On the other, I have not seen her in action at all since my joining. That, and the fact she likely will not use it, makes me have to say no for her. However, I agree with Phobos. If she makes a presence in the community again, I would be happy to re-consider.

I vote for Des and Rina, since they're the only ones I've interacted with extensively.

I like PC's stories, but I don't know what the guy's actually like.

I'll put in votes for Iximaz, PC, and Des. They are all excellent choices.

On the Kaitlyn proposition, I just don't like the idea of handing out a PG hat just because someone has been here the longest, especially when that person can barely be said to be here at all. I mean no offense to Kaitlyn, of course. If she were to become more active and she wants the job, then I would absolutely revisit this.

-Phobos

I support the nominations of Poor Cynic, Desdendelle, and Iximaz.

As for Kaitlyn... well, I have to agree with the others saying that there isn't much point in giving her the Hat if she isn't going to use it. The way I see it, one of the qualities of a PG is being visible on the Board. The three above share that quality but I can't remember the last time Kaitlyn posted...

I vote for Iximaz

Casting in for Iximaz and PoorCynic. We don't strictly need additional PGs, so creating more than the semi-traditional two seems excessive. Nothing against either Des or Kaitlyn whatsoever.

~Neshomeh

Voting yes for all candidates! Incluiding Kaitlyn!

I'll vote for Iximaz, Poor Cynic and Desdendelle. I'm not 100% sure I see reason in making someone a PG if they're not going to use it (no offence)

Kaitlyn, Iximaz, and Desdendelle :)

I'm going with all of the above - all four candidates are more than deserving of PG status, and I have no doubt that they will excel in their duties. These candidates have proven their care and attention to detail in the community.

Not voting about myself. That's silly and אין הנחתום מעיד על עיסתו. Voting yes for PC and Iximaz. Similarly to Sarge, I have no problems with Kaitlyn being given a Hat; I'm pretty sure that, were she to actually use it, she'll do it a way most PPC (PPC-ish? PPC-y? PPC-like? Eh, I've no idea).

YOU GET MY VOTE! AND YOU GET MY VOTE! AND YOU GET MY VOTE! EVERYBODY GETS MY VOTE! =]

Yes to all. I may only know one of the candidates, but I have heard great things about all of them. I'm sure that Iximaz, Poor Cynic, and Desdendelle will all make exceptional PGs.

I don't mind the concept of the Permission "ad honorem", even if she isn't goign to use it.

I know I don't contribute much here any more, but I do lurk, and of the three main nominees I know and approve of Poor Cynic most, so I cast my vote that way.

As for Kaitlyn, I do of course cast my vote for her to become a PG.

Desdendelle: Yes

Poor Cynic: Yes

Iximaz: Yes

As for Kaitlyn... well, I'm sure she's a lovely person (she certainly seemed so on the few times she showed up) but... well, I don't know her well enough to make that call. :(

Iximaz: Yes.
Desdendelle: Yes.
PoorCynic: Yes.

I don’t see the point in giving Kaitlyn a PG hat if she wouldn’t wear it anyway. Isn’t being the longest-standing Boarder (and the only Duke/Duchesse in Plort) enough honour? So, just for opposition’s sake: No.

HG

That was a pretty good interlude. Good character development all around, and you've even mentioned other characters' missions! That's definitely a plus.

Of course, a few issues. I mentioned before that in your post, you have the timeline off. You said that this takes place before the Indiana Jones trollfic, while in the interlude itself, it is as clear as crystal that the trollfic mission already happened. Of course, alas! Board posts cannot be edited once posted.

In addition, a few other errors:

1)Rina had elbowed her partner in the ribs.

“About a year,” she said calmly. She turned to Randa and hissed, “That mission took two days, stop going on about it!”


It becomes clear in context that Rina is both the actor in the first paragraph and the speaker in the second, but at first, one is confused as to the antecedent of "she". Either replacing the "she" with "Rina" or removing the paragraph break (i.e., making the two one paragraph) would remove the confusion.


2) the black converse had glittery stains

I'll defer to someone who's more knowledgable than I, but isn't Converse a brand name--hence requiring capitalization here?


3) with the September 11 World Trade Center bombing be involved

Either delete the "be" or change it to "being".


4)Falchion chirped a quiet laugh as he watched the girls leave. Then he turned to rejoin Rayner, but not before clicking his rear talons at his accomplishment. It felt so good to make some friends around here.

“Well, I guess the cats and the roosters have finally split up,” the humanized pegasus said with a dry smirk a few minutes later as they walked down another corridor en route to the DF.

First, I think that a scene break is necessary between these two paragraphs.
Second, even though "en route" is a French loanword, I don't think that it needs to be italicized, due to it being so common in English.

Are you sure that you have the timeline right? A few paragraphs in, it seems that this takes place after Why We Can't Have Nice Things, not before:

Of course, there was also the prospect of having to listen to his partner yelling at Sarah for screwing up on a massive scale. It was not something to look forward to, especially not after all of the flak he had taken directly on his first assignment.

Yeah, that page is seriously outdated. The reason is that End of the Beginning has been shunted to a different site - you can read it here if you're looking for it.

Given how outdated the timeline as a whole is, I'm probably just going to remove those links altogether - there's no point linking to a third of EotB and not the rest, and I don't have the energy to fully update it. ;) Someday, I'll have an awesome complete timeline of all my stuff - but that is not this day.

Thank you; I'll get right on that.

hS

I had no idea it was even on the list. I just knew it wasn't claimed, which was all I needed to know. ^^;

...didn't hS claim that daughter-of-Maglor fic that isn't on Claimed Badfic?

This one's not on the page (yet): If you use Firefox as your browser, you can get an add-on called RightToClick. It works for the Pit with default settings, and you can get it to work for the Circle by enabling the advanced option "Disable CSS styles." It'll make the page look broken, but you'll be able to copy & paste the text.

~Neshomeh

It's a bit more complicated to get through, but if you right click on the page, click on 'view page source' that'll open up in a new tab, scroll down to somewhere around line 300 and that's where the chapter starts, you can copy from the text from here all you like. The one problem with this is that it shows all the code used on the page, which can make scrolling through it quite confusing, especially as it doesn't have line breaks or paragraphs (which also makes it slightly unreliable for straight copy-pasting into missions, you'll need to check how its formatted in the fanfic first. You can also get to there by typing 'view-source:link' where link is the url into your search bar thing at the top of the page.

Storme Hawk

Here, to be exact. You can thank EF while you're at it (she wrote the code snippet).

There was a page on the Wiki... lemme see... aha! Here we go! Nocopy!

But to save you the time, just replace the 'www' with 'm' and it'll bring you to the mobile version, which still lets you copy/paste stuff. ^_~

It seems that the author is transplanting the Pevensies to USA despite them being British. I do not realise if there are a significant minority of Japanese in UK by that time, and how well they integrate. But calling a Japanese Jap is rather American to me.

Also, Peter gets himself recruited during WW2, and the Pevensies are staying with their uncle and aunt. If this story is WW1, I don't remember Japan being a significant player in the war.

Unfortunately, I can't link it (Kindle), but look up "Darekesst DAERKNESS" (sic) on FFnet, if you're familiar with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

It reads so much like My Immortal that it's hardy even funny, there are tons of minis (what would a JJBA mini be anyway?), Dio is replaced, and the Sue obviously just stuck "Jo" in front of her name to be a JoJo.

...yeah, obvious troll is obvious.

While we're on this topic, I might as well announce my first claim for DIC:

Criminal MindsSSBB: Reckoning by SkyleafAlchemist19
After an attack on the Smashers, Pit finds himself trapped on Earth, in the care of the BAU team. A series of public attacks points to the same obscure group, who seem to have a vendetta against Earth and the Multiverse. With the Smashers on the run and the team unable to trust their superiors, both groups struggle to unite against an army that threatens them all.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Adventure/Suspense - Pit, Marth, Jennifer J./JJ, S. Reid - Chapters: 7 - Words: 21,981 - Reviews: 19 - Favs: 13 - Follows: 19 - Updated: Sep 12, 2013 - Published: Nov 30, 2012 - id: 8751185

My comment: I honestly have mixed feelings about this thing. On the one hand, the characterization is actually pretty good - most of the time, anyway - for such a... strange mashup. But on the other, you've got people angsting because they think Pit is dead, an idiot ball on Zelda's part, uncanonical locations, an uncanonical main antagonist faction, and the Smash Bros. multiverse somehow including the Earth that the Criminal Minds continuum takes place in as an "off-limits" zone. And the fic itself has been left hanging since 2013.

Considering that my upcoming DIC team is gonna include that Not!Pit guy I'm recruiting from my Kid Icarus mission, the one tackling this fic will be... interesting, to say the least.

I found one like those, too.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10955069/1/WARNING (Free!)
"I love you" How endearing and dangerous can 3 little words really be? Do they have the power to make people do things they never thought they would do? Do they have the power to change? Do they even have the power to... kill? / Yandere!Makoto x OC
--What in the name of every water god could possibly justify making Makoto a yandere?! Makoto! The most selfless, loyal, friendly character in the main cast! (Well, Nagisa's pretty friendly too, but that's not the point.) And another thing--OBSESSION/PSYCHOSIS IS NOT ATTRACTIVE, FOR GOD'S SAKE PEOPLE. *Marge Simpson noise*

I was about five pages into a mission of Heir of Sky's Rimwhen I realized over half the complaints were directed at the author. So I dropped the mission and now bring the badfic to you.

No, it's not Skyrim, it's Minecraft. The Ender Dragon turns into an enderman and goes on a quest to retrieve her soul? I think? The sentence structure is atrocious, but that's not the worst part.

The author included little gems like Time jump, the scene was boring as a scene break. During a fight scene. Seriously.

And let's not get started on the massive influx of submitted OCs, the game the author started with the readers (points were given for spotting errors, but the author didn't fix said errors to give new readers a chance to catch up), and did I mention the sentence structure? Holy cow, the sentence structure.

"Secrets of the Void", by Generatedname, rated T. Warframe x Mass Effect.
Well. Classic "SI falls into canon X". Immediately gets ultra speshul by somehow becoming a Low Guardian and taking control of the Technocyte Plague (which are, uncanonically, the same thing or something), which means bye-bye conflict of Warframe. Probably an OP Stu.
I've no idea what this... abomination... does to the ME-verse because I've only read a few paragraphs from the first chapter.

I kinda want to use it as some kind of origin story for my characters, but I'm not even sure whether or not I want to write missions, so...

Dumbing Down
By: FieryFilly
An insane Trixie is going to make Twilight love her no matter how drastic the measure. Just a quick story I cooked up
Rated: Fiction T - English - Horror/Romance - Twilight Sparkle, Trixie - Words: 2,036 - Reviews: 18 - Favs: 14 - Follows: 15 - Published: Jan 8, 2012 - id: 7722178

My comment: Yeah, uh, I'd say brain surgery is probably more difficult than that. Also, what?

"The Empty Vessel" by ZeeDrippyVessel.

Tungsten Monk and I have already claimed this beast, but I wanted to share, because that's how much I love you all. {; P This absurdly long story is about Bronwyn Morgan ap Powell, a modern woman with a perfect hourglass figure and fiery-yet-vulnerable personality who is shanghaied to Middle-earth by the Valar, but only once they've thoroughly ruined her life so she can become the titular Empty Vessel. What does this mean? Well, apparently it's her destiny to have lots of hot sex with Haldir and also become the "Bard of All Earth" or something like that, storing up all the history of Middle-earth in her head for thousands of years... so she can psychically dictate it to none other than J.R.R. Tolkien, who is implied to be one of her descendents. I cannot make an emoticon with a deep enough scowl to properly express my indignation at this.

Along the way, she discovers the power to make music play in the air around her, subjecting the poor Galadhrim to a lot of 80s rock. Not that there's anything wrong with 80s rock, mind you, but I can't imagine that the Elves appreciate it, and it certainly wasn't written for the lute.

Enter, if you dare, and marvel at the illogic, the disrespect for canon, the defamation of the Valar, and the random insertion of things like Smut the Dragon and the speshul wolves that become the companions of Bronwyn, Haldir, and their speshul spawn. Not to mention a scene in chapter 22 where Haldir assures her she's not a Mary Sue, completely not getting what a Mary Sue actually is. {X D

I also suspect there's some butchery of Elven languages going on, but I have not the wisdom to confirm it (yet).

~Neshomeh