Nov 2016 Archive, part b

I'd mostly recovered from the first blows of the election reminding me that half this country does not agree with universal human rights. And then this news sent me over the edge again. Have any of you listened to his very last album, "You Want It Darker"? It's heartwrenching. Quite reminiscent in a very strange way of David Bowie's farewell album.

Though I'd heard "Hallelujah"'s many covers, the first time I heard Leonard Cohen himself was back when I was involved in Food Not Bombs, a group of anarchists who used groceries' discarded produce to make public meals, which were cooked in the basement of a synagogue, and distributed in a dirty and somehow still pretty park nearby. There was a boombox on a fridge, and people shuffled their mix CDs and cassettes through it, and one day, the song was "Everybody Knows." I mention this because it was the first time I'd heard a song like that, and because I think L Cohen would approve of this story. The song is grim and angry and bleak and yet beautiful.

That's what my memories of Hartford are. A city that's empty, usually, and dark, but the gardens are beautiful even while overgrown, and we saw a great blue heron land in a pond that was more trash than water, one day. I associate Leonard Cohen very heavily with Rice Boy, and probably always will.

Somewhere in my mind is a memory of Leonard Cohen saying that one day, as a student, he “came across a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca that ruined my life, I am happy to say.” The same is true of Cohen - he showed us the beauty in shadows and dust and broken glass mosaics in the cracks of the roads, and he was honest about the loneliness and the meaning of love and of G-d and of the position of self, and, and, I feel the world is missing something now that he is gone from it.


That was too long, and self-indulgent, but this man's music really has been a central part of my life for a long, long time.

And I can tell you that we won't hear the end of it here in rance, with all the organiations about memories playing the centenary card for the whole war.

Still this pointless slaughter is a lesson of history to not forget. Including the lesson it gives about concluding a proper peace...

A poem-- in remembrance.

(*is still technically a soldier*)
What's the price of a mile?

I am rather prodigiously late, but welcome back to the PPC!
Don't really know who you are - though I suspect your name has been mentioned. I dunno. Been meaning to hire a new archivist for the ol' memory banks - so your past is a bit of non-issue for me. Hope you have fun around here now that you're back.

Oh, before I forget, here's a Replica Holocron and a Steampunk hat as welcome back gifts.

I don't even clearly remember why it is you left, so "apology accepted" would be a bit hollow, but I'm saying it anyway.

I see Des already linked you to the Discord. Come join us!

Please have a bag of black-hole chocolates and a self-updating guideboook of all the deathtraps in the multiverse.

I hope things will go better for you this time. I don't know you personaly, but I sure liked your Zombieland missions. Hope you'll manage to go back to writing soon.

Heard a bit about you, but you were long before my time.

Have a plate of SPaGhetti.

It would only be right to offer you the same.

Also, have a returnbie gift:-

===

Your randomly selected starter Pokémon:-

Iiiiiit's Lunatone!

And your starting item is:-

Prayer Card from The Binding Of Isaac: Afterbirth

Alas, Prayer Card and Lunatone don't normally mix well, purely due to how they both operate; Lunatone is a lategame special sweeper, and Prayer Card is a very tanky item, making sure that healing moves dependent on the weather heal the holder for the maximum amount of health possible and with a 50% chance to boost either Defence or Special Defence by 1 stage whenever such a move is used. That having been said, a specially defensive Lunatone can work; try a Modest one and give it EVs in Special Attack and Special Defence, with Moonlight, Calm Mind, Psychic, and Earth Power for coverage. This works best with sand support from someone like Tyranitar or Hippowdon, as sand boosts the Special Defence of Rock-type Pokemon by 50%. However, the key thing to remember is to have fun. =]

It's nice to meet you. Here's some popcorn just because!

I don't remember why you left, though, so.
*shrugs*
Here, have a best hamster.

Hello-there!
Fond of the hyphen-thing, I-see!
Fair-enough. Links them-up. Gives it a sort-of sing-song nature.

Dunno who you are or what you've done, but, oy, you don't know who I am or what I've done, so it's all fair, in my eyes.
My gift upon you is: a spooky Halloween ghost. Because while Halloween may be over in reality, it is always present in my heart. And, hopefully, yours.

Welcome, again!

... a compelling argument for extending chances to people who say they've changed with time (twice, in fact).

So: chance extended.

Welcome back.

hS

I'm a little sad there wasn't more of a response—I was curious!—but I get that anonymous posting freaks people out. Oh well. Thanks, hS and Tira, for being good sports. {= )

Now, follow-up question: another part of my challenge was to write Nume as a Nosgothic vampire. I figured that was easy; personality-wise, he's already halfway there. I had to adjust his background and speech patterns, of course, but still. Now that you know, do you see it?

~Neshomeh

I know I'm not a Permission giver, so this is more of a general opinion, but I found it a great read. I know nothing about LoK, but I like the characters a lot, and I find myself hoping that Shimon and Caprice will make another appearance.

Hey, that's a good idea, I should try that. No, wait, I shouldn't. :-/ Anyway, I can at least throw a few thoughts at you, good and bad:

I think you've done a good job of differentiating your agents' characters, both in terms of their dialogue and actions - I like the fact that Shimon's first line ties directly into his issues with water - and the way the narration treats them. Caprice tosses a ponytail over her shoulder; Shimon gets a low tremolo in his syrinx. It's a clever technique (assuming it's deliberate!). On the other hand, I think might take it too far at times (what in blazes is a syrinx, anyway?); don't fall victim to thesaurus disease.

Now, a question: whose head are we in, anyway? It seems to be Shimon most of the time - 'ignoring her cry of protest and her tiny fist pounding against his rib cage' - but we get random things like 'an affectation that he thought made him look distinguished' or 'perhaps that was why' etc that sound like they're picking on him. I feel like you have a third character trying to break through in the narration.

Ehm... your plot is good, though your answer to the question 'why does the vampire want coffee?' is 'he doesn't'. A partner is always a good way to force someone to do something; in the event that you can't do that, either (maybe his partner is a Dalek?), you'd need to work in another character who they both have reason (social or employment-based) to try and help. Arrogantly. Anyway, I think the plot as it stands works well - Shimon's initial resistance, his reason for acquiescing, and his 'victory' at the end (which makes me grin).

Speaking of which: humour. You haven't made the story overtly comedic, but what you have included is very well done. The deadpan 'So I shall only burn my feet' is wonderful (as is 'piddly splinters'... to be honest, Shimon is just funny), and you've also worked in a little slapstick - the initial foodfight description, the screep! moment. Though, speaking of the latter, your physics is off: if he's light enough to be dragged around, then sitting down isn't going to prevent that.

Had something else to say, what was it? Oh, yes: you did a good job of working in trinkets of PPC knowledge (Tantaflaf), and telling me what Shimon's type of vampire can do/what he looks like. On the one hand, the 'blue' part might have been good to know earlier; but on the other hand, I feel like some of it was probably extraneous anyway. I guess that's one of the hazards of Permission prompts, they can become As-You-Know-Bobs. But this one wasn't. If it were part of a Permission request, I think I would look on it favourably.

hS

We're continuing the dramatic reading in a few minutes! Hop on the Discord voice chat, we'd love to have you all.

Here's> the fic. I'm reporting it as a badfic, since it's not on any list on the Wiki. Warnings before you click for near-rape and mind control, along with a bunch of frankly NSFW/NSFB stuff.

And another one flies right past my outstretched arms!
Drat! Bugger!

...
Got highlights?

Watching this developing was a lot of fun. But I’m not sure whether it holds up on a second read (no time to try right now). There may be some gaping plotholes concerning original Exeter’s way from Tex-Mex (via Imperial Russia?) to Golden Mongolia, and why he didn’t know that he had the shield in the first place.

Final Nitpicks:

Scene 25:
Dwarfed all this magnificence, a marble stair rose steeply to a gilded throne.
Apparently the missing "by" wandered off to the next sentence:
Beneath by a canopy of silver branches, clad in robes of what were probably nylon and wearing a green gem on his brow, sat the king of New Gondor.

Scene 30:
I'm pretty sure that' what I just said
Shouldn’t this be " that's"?

HG

http://www.xkcd.com/1759/

*g*

~Neshomeh

But first:

Scene 18:
I shook my head slightly, taking completely off-guard by her breezy dismissal of what I'd thought was her entire point.
Shouldn’t that be "taken"?

And then you'll need to join me in in bed and put on an enthusiastic show of making up for it.
Cheating with the word count again?

Scene 19
It was even more distressing to know that the black shield that popped into existence to effortlessly fend off Golden Monglian energy-lashes had been under my control all along, had I only know it.
Shouldn’t these be "Mongolian" and "known"?

Scene 23
You've got another thing coming if you thing you can turn me over to your government.
Tell me that this is intentional!


Well, this guy obviously doesn’t speak Japanese, so they are in New Gondor? Small doubt, because it may be too far from the Australias, but it just fits too good. It may also be New Arnor, but the big city at the mouth of a river at the eastern coast looks like Christchurch.

HG

So chances are most of the non-Mormon Christians would flee to the Tex-Mex Republic--love that name--but I'm guessing at least a few would band together. Here's that country. ^_^

It's called Antemurale Christianitatis, or just Antemurale. It originated in Kentucky, then migrated south to Alabama, and now stretches across Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Antemurale has had some troubles in the past with leadership. Everyone could agree that they needed some kind of government, but no one could agree on what it should be. Finally, they decided to split themselves up by denomination and then arrange themselves like the America of old, with each denomination acting like a state within the Union.

Antemurale largely carries on the industries of the states they occupy, but there's been an astonishing upswing in conversion to the Amish way of life, so they're also known for their excellent cabins and cabinets.

-Alleb, who could not resist

South Africa and the surrounding countries could always be put into some kind of 'New Zulu Empire'.

As for South America, You could have a nation consisting of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, maybe some of the southern parts of Brazil and the Falkland Islands known as 'The Falklands Republic'. Their motto would be 'Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?'

I do like what I've written so far, though. There's the beginning of a short story about Jewish vampires, and a second thing started that combines two of my oldest original works into something new and fun. So at least there's that.

~DF

...am so far off schedule that I've written about 3k words total, have definitely not written every day, and actually almost half my word count comes from the two short essays I wrote yesterday for a midterm (I like them. I had fun writing them. They totally count.) In my defense, I've been sick and busy and mostly just exhausted from being sick. It's annoying.

I have no clue if I'm going to break even 10k words this time (not counting the essay I need to write for the end of the month), but I look forward to finding out. And I look forward even more to a, getting back to writing much at all, b, not being sick anymore, and c, actually getting caught up on my German homework. There's a lot of that.

Cheers, and good luck to whoever's writing,
~DF

I wait with skepticism that serves a defense against crushed hype. A certain prospective agent waits, and eschews the skepticism in favor of optimism. Or maybe he just doesn't feel like putting up the walls. :P

Because no one is bringing up the parts I thought were important! (SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS ahead!)

Sometimes, rarely, I latch onto a character and see every scene from their point of view. I reflexively invent a running commentary of their thoughts and feelings. While watching this movie, this happened to me. . . with Credence. You can imagine how upset I am.

I think it's totally amazing that this character, mentally ill as the result of trauma, isn't just a danger that had to be stopped. He has hopes and dreams and people he cares about. And the GREATEST THING EVER is that when the team from MACUSA comes to shoot him down, they look needlessly violent: our heroes were well on their way to talking him down. They could have calmed him, gotten him into treatment (not that they were likely to have any decent mental health treatment in this time period, but this time period didn't have Nifflers either) -- his death was a preventable tragedy stemming from governmental over-reliance on militarized law enforcement.
And this happens in real life.
And all those kids I saw in the audience will hopefully internalize that Credence didn't need to die and grow up and make the world a better place.
Who knows, maybe that's all a load of dingo's kidneys. But it might not be and that makes me hopeful.

So yeah, the only character I was seriously invested in probably won't be showing up again. And there seems to be little chance of Newt/Jacob happening (although it NEEDS TO), so I'm not likely to watch the rest of the movies.

Other things: my mom is a total nerd about Jewish New York history, and she pointed out that if Jacob Kowalski is living on Orchard Street, he should probably be Jewish, but his last name isn't a Jewish last name. However, Tina and Queenie are Goldsteins, a very Jewish last name, and it's kind of weird that Queenie is blonde. Basically, I want more of their family history.

Although maybe I don't, considering how adeptly their family history is handled in the movie. Could anyone tell what Tina's relationship to Credence and the New Salem-ers was? I was confused, as were the two people I watched the movie with and the two people I asked afterwards. . . help!

One last point: if MACUSA is apparently progressive enough to elect an African-American woman president, why is she the only POC in a position of any power? The only others in the entire movie: foreign diplomats (different governments, don't count), a nurse/executioner (who didn't seem to give orders, just to carry out her particular job), and. . . no, wait, I think that's it. All the Saints and the donkeys they rode in on.

--Key has been taking an African-American Film History class and may never be able to watch mainstream movies again.

The best character was clearly the Bowtruckle.

But yeah, the movie was brilliant. Easily the best Harry Potter movie, though the fact that I didn't have a book to compare it to helped. Also Newt the Bowtruckle was very cute and obviously needed cuddles. >.>

Yaaay, we saw the movie today, so I don't have to worry about spoilers anymore! But you might, so caution reading ahead. {= )

Anyway, yeah. I liked it. It was fun. For me it was just good, though, not great. It had a lot of really good stuff going for it, but I think it was trying to do just a little bit more than the run time allowed for. I really would have liked to get more in-depth with the characters—Barebone and the New Salemers felt especially shafted to me. Like... who even is that lady? Why does she hate witches/wizards so much? Why is she such a bitch? Maybe there were explanatory details that I missed, but that's kind of my point: I would've liked a little more time to expand on these things.

I also wanted more information about all the marvelous creatures we got to meet so briefly. I honestly wouldn't have minded more romping around New York catching escaped beasties. We could have done something new instead of going after the niffler a second time, even. Yeah, he was adorable, but still.

I'm not entirely clear on what the heck Grindelwald was doing there, either. Not in New York in general, I totally get that he showed up because of the Obscurial and that he probably knew a thing or two about them thanks to Arianna, but how was he able to get into what looked like a fairly high position in MACUSA coming fresh from causing mayhem over in Germany (if it was Germany)? Was there a real Graves whose place he took, or what? And why did he go to all the trouble himself? Does Grindelwald work alone, or does he have followers who might have gone in his place? Inquiring Minds Want To Know!

Also, I love Jacob and I think it's totally bogus that he got himself neuralyzed Obliviated at the end. Did he decide he'd gotten in over his head? Was he worried about making trouble for his new friends? I don't know! We didn't have nearly enough time to get to know him, and I'mma pout about it. Hmph.

Just... so many questions. o.o Hopefully the next movie will answer some of them.

~Neshomeh

It's a new way to wipe memories isn't it? And it can cover a city the size of New York so that is always helpful.

I totally agree though the movie was good. I'm so glad Jacob Kowalski didn't end up the bumbling one note comic relief like I feared.

The reveal of Grindenwald actually surprised me, and I got the feeling that he allowed himself to be captured. After all, he probably is capable of wandless magic.

Also, I like how the ending with Jacob hinted that he did remember something, probably with the help of Queenie.

This is (we hope) the recording of the reading.

Neshomeh was the narrator, Iximaz was Reicheru, Yuki (I think, and maybe someone else, and Matt Cipher was several people, including Lucy, Reicheru's father, Minna, and Sensei Hanayubi. The spirits were voiced by most of the chat collectively.