Jul 2017 Archive, part a

*Didn't we have the Other Board to put stuff like this on?

I have been reading the original series as well as a couple of other missions. Has there ever been an incident where an agent has been forced to use some non-canonical method of dealing with a sue? I only ask because some of the methods used to subdue a Sue before listing charges seems a bit forced. I don’t know, it just seems a bit un-canonical to be able to subdue Sues from certain continua using canon stuff. I’m not criticizing, it’s all very well written. This is just my personal opinion which is why I am asking.

The sign of an actual Mary Sue is that they face no real challenge. The plot, the characters, and reality itself is structured to benefit and glorify them, and even if they face an insurmountable enemy, said enemy only exists to make them look good. Basically, what matters is the execution.

The fact that there's a crossover may change some people's opinions.

-Twistey

One reason to call "Mary Sue" may be that the OC is assumed to be quite young (teenage self-insert) and cannot plausibly have the twenty years of training canon characters needed to master a similar large arsenal of techniques.

HG

she believes she is ready to return to the Board, that she hasn't been allowed to return yet because we're unwilling or unready to allow her in at this time, and that she disagrees with the reasons we've given for not allowing her back. She also particularly disagrees with Granz's suggested course of action as it has not helped produce an improved mental state in the past.

(My thoughts:
1) Getting a summary of the state of the world "on paper" like Bram asked is a reasonable thing to do, which is why I'm relaying that. I also think this is a decent summary, inasmuch as it applies to us.

2) I disagree (well, there's a very slim chance I'm wrong) with Bram's self-assessment of her ability to return to the Board. This is going off of conversations we've had, among other things.

3) Note: I helped edit this a bit.)

- Tomash

(P.S.: No one involved expects anything to change as a result of this post, including Bram.)

First, I'm with everyone else: there's no way I'm comfortable with Bram returning any earlier than September. We are not marital or any other kind of therapy. If Bram needs that kind of support, she should seek it through appropriate channels.

Second, during my Board vacation, I still kept an eye on the wiki off and on, and Bram has been fairly active over there under the name TooPurple. As I understand it, when someone is banned, they're banned from all PPC community spaces, which includes the wiki. Shall I block them, or was staying off the wiki somehow not a condition of this ban? Please refresh my memory, it's been a while.

Also, are we lacking in wiki admins with the power to block people?

~Neshomeh

P.S. Hi, I'm back! Don't feel like making a separate post about it, though. I'll just slide back into things.

I think that September, at the very least, is the soonest I'm willing to change my mind. Part of this is because, as others have said, we are people who laugh at bad fanfiction and praise the good, not therapists, and I really don't see how coming back here in order to laugh at fanfiction is going to help a marriage. Part of this is because, as far as I have seen, which, admittedly, is not far, Bram usually feels very strongly on a position at any given time, but these positions can change. As someone who has all the consistency of a d1000000, I think that Bram not only needs to spend some time away from the PPC, but some time not thinking about the PPC. I know that Calliope isn't the only one Bram has contacted, asking to be let back into the Discord and/or the Board, which, to my mind, indicates that even while they have not been posting, they have been thinking about the Board, which isn't going to help with purely rational decisions. For myself, at least, when I feel particularly strongly on something, I have been making an effort to take in everything and let my emotions get blown about like a kite in a hurricane, walk away, do something else for a long while, come back, be blown about again, and walk away again, continuing this process several times until I've exhausted my capacity for violent emotion and can actually get logic and emotion to work together like they're supposed to. To me, it sounds like Bram has spent more time on running through the different emotional areas without taking the time to back away and truly not think about the PPC.

To sum it up, I do not think Bram should be allowed back into the Discord chat or the Board, both because it seems they would be looking for emotional assistance of a kind that we are not equipped to give, and because I feel they haven't distanced and distracted themselves enough mentally from the Board and their feelings about both it and everyone here to be able to reach a purely rational decision.

Is the "eim" thing some kind of in-joke or reference? I keep seeing it on Snapchat. Just wondering.

Bram is bad for the PPC and the reverse is equally true. Besides, whatever eir actual motives may be, it really comes off as trying to manipulate a newer member into letting em back in without the appropriate time having passed - a timescale to which e agreed.

I'd like to say I feel sorry for em, and a part of me genuinely does, but I really don't feel like being allowed back into a internet fanfiction community is going to save someone's marriage. If ey're saying e made a mistake with the timescale and that e thinks e should be allowed back into the community basically because reasons, then I've got three words:

Suck. It. Up.

I disappeared from six months. I learned. I grew. I changed. E can and e should and, if e wants to come back, e really rather has to. Sorry to be blunt about all this, but I'm just sick of the constant drama e causes, whether intentional or not.

The PPC is not meant to be a therapy group, and personally, I wouldn’t know how to help with any mental problems. I would abstain rather than actively oppose Bram’s return if this very request didn’t imply that the "finding help and personally improve" we had hoped for did not happen yet.

HG

While I do feel bad for Bram, we've already mentioned that the Boarders are not therapists. Given that Bram apparently wants to rejoin because of the issues in their personal life, I feel that Bram wants to use us that way, and I don't think that will end well.

I'm just going to be blatant here.

Being away from the PPC was supposed to give time to self-improve. What I see here is Bram throwing in the towel.

Having one's husband torn away from them is horrible. It seems like Bram is asking for support. But I have to say no, albeit a soft one.

I do believe that if anyone wants to contact Bram, do it.

I can't quite make all my reasons for that vote coherent, but I'll give some of them.

I've been talking with Bram for a while now. During those discussions, I was asked to make a post requesting her return. I explained to her why making a post like that (such as this one) wouldn't work and would be a bad idea in general (among other things, it makes her earlier departure look insincere).

Yet, despite that advice, which (I've been reassured) made sense and was understood, this thread is up on the Board. This means that, at this time, post-return mentorship might not actually work very well.

This, plus a general feeling that the self-improvement that Bram left to go do hasn't progressed as much as we'd like, leads me to suggest that we re-open this discussion in a few months at the earliest.

- Tomash

As I said earlier this year, I don't feel that the PPC is a healthy place for Bramandin.

I do hope eis husband gets through the military duty safely and soundly.

—doctorlit

But I have to disagree with you. I think it's straight-up too soon, and my conversations with Bram in the recent and not-so recent past make me think that e would not be helped by returning to the community.

And, honestly? If someone isn't stable enough that being excluded from a community that hurt them (from their perspective) is enough to cause serious issues? They need to be working on stability rather than getting back into the community that hurt them. The part where they also hurt people in this community only compounds that fact.

Bottom line is, from where I'm sitting (and from where a few others I've talked to who weren't comfortable speaking up directly), this really strikes me as being too soon, and all around a bad idea.

When they do return, I would also like to suggest some pretty strong guardrails - a mentor, or perhaps multiple mentors, with the authority to say "stop this conversation" on pain of kicking/banning if she doesn't. I think that's going to be necessary to avoid spiralling misunderstandings of the sort that have caused some of the problems in the past.

Bram is, to be frank, Hella Toxic.

They're like... I don't know... I can't put this delicately. Manipulative

Let's start at the relative beginning: Bram's first few missions. They posted it and everyone went ahead and gave their constructive criticism. Fairly par for the course. Put it is how they reacted to it that set off warning flares for me, specifically towards Iximaz. They accused Ix of completely and utterly hating them just because of some concrit.

Now Bram went ahead and disappeared shortly after this occasionally coming back to drop a mission or two, post a few messages, and leave. Ignoring any Concrit given as far as I know.

And then March happens.

We all know what happened in March.

Let's not remind ourselves about it or repeat it.

So Bram comes along and starts trying to communicate with Ix. Only Ix keeps on telling them no. Keep in mind that Ix is going through a lot of personal and mental stuff right. Eventually Ix has to go to the board... which starts this $#1+ Show.

Tl;Dr: Bram repeatedly tries to gain sympathy points, but the board looks at it and, in a broad generalization, says: "This is not somewhere where your sanity and well-being are safe. It's for your own good that we want you to leave."

So after a while, as well as some unwanted phone numbers being sent, Bram leaves for a bit.

Rounding up my thoughts on the matter: I fully and wholly believe that Bram should not be let back in. I don't want to see anyone get hurt more than what Bad Fanfiction brings, and if keeping someone out is what it takes then so be it.

I'm done with dealing with this whole Bram stuff.

Just cut me out from any of it.

What can an underage bloke do to get a drink around here.

Ey there! I'm Twistey, and I write both fanfic and (tons and tons of) original worlds. We'll get to my newbie gift for you at the bottom of this post.

That's pretty cool that you're already familiar with MST stuff - it's gotten somewhat obscure in these times. Given how you enjoy the missions and whatnot, you seem to be a good addition.

About the agents, no, they don't need to be from badfic you wrote! Sometimes we recruit background characters from badfic other people wrote, sometimes we even recruit Sues or borderline Sues (but only when a long list of conditions are met), many agents come from World One (aka IRL), and there are even some that come from goodfic! And about your characters becoming agents, you (the writer) choose which badfics your agents spork, so you can avoid NSFW or violent missions, or whatever you're uneasy about. Also, most of the time, PPC technology and training will protect the agents from being dead or worse, so they'll be safe in most cases. If you're interested, we can every so often exchange tips from olderbies about creating agents as we go through the process - I myself am also currently converting a few of my beloved characters and finally making my first agents. Lovely coincidence, eh?

And finally, about the newbie gift, I have several souvenirs and replicas from the iD Software fandom for you to pick from. Here's the list:
- Bunch of blue bricks found exclusively in castles from Wolfenstein 3D
- Bunch of used syringes from Wolfenstein 3D (may contain residue from the zombifying chemical, who knows)
- Replica Spear of Destiny, also from Wolfenstein 3D
- Replica "Call Apogee Say Aardwolf" sign from Wolfenstein 3D
- A very flat flamethrower
- A Supercharge item from Doom (it's a health item.)
- An Armor Bonus item from Doom
- Replica of Commander Keen's homemade spaceship
- And any powerup from the first Quake game.

Sorry if this overwhelms you. Hope to hear the reply!

-Twistey

Have one of my own shed feathers and a complimentary kit of Spikes!

Always nice to see a new face and a fellow Pokémon (Mystery Dungeon) fan. Here's a link to a cool NPR story: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/07/03/533676536/test-your-fake-news-judgement-play-this-game

In response to your question, they can be whatever works. A lot of people, myself included, make at least one of their agents a version of themselves. Recruiting inoffensive characters from badfic is also a viable option once you have your agent pair established; that's how about 6/8 of SkarmorySilver's characters showed up here. :P

If your characters are afraid, you probably shouldn’t expose them to badfic. Or perhaps it might be fun to write and read about them having to deal with it anyway. But then you need a good backstory about how they got into the PPC and why they don’t just run away.

One of the agents I’ve been talking about for years is a player character I once created in World of Warcraft. Since "protect and heal the world and all its natural inhabitants" is what I believe WoW druids do, and this may easily be transformed into "protect and heal all word worlds and their natural inhabitants – intruders beware", she is predestined to be an assassin in the DMS (and there is space for character development, because she will need to learn that not all OC’s are bad). I actually made the decision the other way round: realizing that I already had a prospective agent at hand, I hesitantly started to think about whether I might like to write PPC stories.

My other agent is a blatant self-insert. Thus, his home canon is what we call "World One", the AU version of real life where it is actually possible to be sucked into a computer, be trapped in that tiny corner of the internet where the PPC exists, and meet a fictional character you created.

About your newbie gift – I might just pretend that it is the advice you got. But since I have no further use for it after getting out, have this Pokeball.

HG

As a welcome, accept this block of ConCrit- stronger than concrete, now with twice the feedback!

How's that fanfiction writing going for you? :D

Please have some black-hole chocolates. Hope you're here to stick around for a long time.

For your newbie gift, take this Royal Ice Cream Container! It will give you any flavor you desire, and can double as an indestructible shield in a pinch.

As for how I decided it... weeeell... I mostly just went through a long period of revising and toying agent concepts that eventually lead me to my current pair. I can't really point at one spot and say, "Here, I decided here," except that I thought at one point, "Hey, what if I had a silly guy from a serious canon and a serious guy from a silly canon?", and I think it was at that point that Michael's home universe (which is the Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians series, by the way) was decided on for me, but I wouldn't be willing to swear by it.

Hey there! For your newbie gift, have a replica of the elder wand. Although, it has no function except for shooting harmless, but pretty, sparks.

'ello, 'ello, 'ello! Nice to meet ya!~

Here, have some pudding. Useful in dealing with pesky Glossarycks.

Welcome to the PPC, we're glad to have you here!

As your newbie gift from me, have two cents, so you can put them in during discussions.

Out of curiosity, what mission did you read first (if you remember) and what spin-offs have you started going through?

- Tomash

I know my handle is the Triumvirate, but the namey-name I use is Calliope (often shortened to Cal). So don't worry about calling me some shortened version of that long probably-Latin word!

For your Newbie Gift from me, have a full set of roleplaying dice! We have a massive group of tabletop gamers here (so many, you seriously have no idea, it's insane), so with these, maybe you can join in! Feel free to decide the pattern and texture and whatnot on your own.

Have an object of indeterminate size and color.

It's very nice to have newbies show up. Normally I just lurk on the Board, so you probably won't see me here often. As for a gift, take this wand of magic missile!

I do hope you choose to stay for a while!

Have a pile of multi-coloured pens.

Hey there, and welcome aBoard! Take this plate of SPaGhetti—it's made fresh just for you.

As to your question: Everyone has a different way of deciding things! My first agents were self-inserts of myself and my then-writing partner. Later agents were badfic recruits, or simply fell through plotholes from various continua where they had just existed quietly in the background before. Original characters are totally okay—just so long as they don't glitter. ;)

I have a question for you in return! What are some of your fandoms?

Harry Potter worldbuilding FTW!

-Twistey

I will try to stay away from Hype Station, though. Good way to ruin movies, that is.

Another notes-based review from dog week. Sorry.

Haven't read the Saga yet, but . . . are Meyerpires seriously this indestructible? Sheesh.

So, to me, the theme of this mission is the comparison of the behaviors between the agents and the Sue and her Harry. Both pairs are present in the Wizarding World, a fantasy setting, and both in a romantic relationship. The fic romance is filled with forced and awkward dialogue, and weighed down by the Sue's insistence on being much more magical and special than the other wizards around her by virtue of being a space princess wizard of a, let's say, critically endangered species/race/what really does all that make her. The agents, on the other hand, are a witch werewolf and a vampire, but still interact like recognizable human beings; in contrast to the fantasy setting they're present in, their primary bonding conversation is about making whistling noises through blades of grass, with other topics being piercings and Pokémon jokes. You did an excellent job of showing the overly grand and awkward fic romance for how artificial it is, not by quoting the fic, mocking it, and charging the Sue, but by presenting a much more simple and natural alternative within your own writing.

As a small addition to the above, I especially liked your inclusion of the scene where Ix relates to Sue'd Harry's desire to "fall on his knees and praise" a love interest. It's a good reminder that some situations do call for what we tend to generalize as purple prose, when they're used in appropriate amounts, and to describe things that are difficult to explain, like romantic feelings.

One typo: "Harry ambled right past Ron and Hermione without so much a second glance . . ." is missing the "as."

—doctorlit sometimes falls on his knees before his work lunch, but that's less worship and more low blood sugar

Except now it's not new because of the other one whoopsie!
I did enjoy it, and took a buncha notes as I went through it. Hooopefully they'll be useful?


“Can you stop whining for five seconds?” Charlotte muttered.
- Harry really hadn’t whined that much, until that one time in the story! If he did, then it wasn’t entirely shown in the mission, y’know? Either way, looks a bit early for her to get annoyed!
- The mention of Romania was bloody good, though - pointing out issues in characterisation, what the proper problem is, showing the agents know enough to know how it ought to be


‘We’ve still got badfic from the 1800s’
- What a horrendous clerical nightmare the PPC bureaucracy must be. Good grief.


‘The girl had long shiny jet-black hair. Her skin was so pale, but she still had a bit of pink on her cheeks. Her outfit was pretty tight. She was wearing black pants and a gray sleeveless shirt with a small black jacket to go with it. She was slim and looked really fit. Really fit. Harry realized that he had been staring at her.’
- So this entire bit is sort of, grabbed from the fic. It’s quite a large section, too. There was an opportunity to make her appearance appear, rather, from the agent’s perspective, instead? - it’s not necessarily wrong that that didn’t happen, but it would have been interesting to see, as opposed to just the section from the fic!


‘shoving a finger in her mouth’ - You do these a lot - little small sort of gestures, that break up the dialogue and characterise and all. They’re very good and they’re great details, in general. I should, er, probably work on doing them better, myself.
- ‘steadying Ix against a sudden timeskip.’ - and that, too! That one’s even better, a little thing that sort of, sums up their relationship and all - it is very clear to see that they’re, y’know, in love, even without pointing that out


The blade of grass part was adorable - little sort of slice of life bit, there. Sort of, going into their relationship and all, while also setting up their individual characters, rounding them out. And it was not cheesy or any such!


‘feeble whine’ - aw, poor thing. Good wording, there!


Love the subplot of their relationship sort of, advancing, all the slice of life bits - elevates it over just a mission where they go in and pointlessly kill stuff, y’know? There’s stuff to it, beyond the mission


‘the agents fell to the ground as the scene shot forward to the staircases’
- I sort of had to reread the paragraph, having missed this particular line! Bit of an issue, there - the description’s a bit bland, a bit limited. It’s just… they just fell, y’know? Could have them go ‘clonk’ or go 'ow' or some more description of it, y’know? Especially being a very sort of, actiony bit - it blends in with the rest of the paragraph, and probably shouldn’t


‘A flick of his wand sent ropes tying themselves around the Sue, and she fell over with an indignant screech’
- Bloody love how underwhelming it is - really captures the problems with a Sue faced with, y’know, reality - that difference, as mentioned in the story, between power and skill


Very classic sort of mission, but it was kept from being generic, or from mindlessly following the mission procedure stuff with the little bits of Charlotte and Ix’s relationship. That’s what makes a good spinoff! The focus on the agents, because while everybody has to follow mission procedure, it’s the agents that are unique to you. And of course, it was very well done - it felt very sort of, slice-of-lifey, if that’s a word. The way their relationship builds, and shows the interplay between their two distinct characters, as opposed to them being a Twilight-esque singular mass is real bloody well done, indeed! It doesn’t feel fake or forced or cheesy or anything.
Enjoyable stuff!

Also, that Sue was incredible. Chinky. Bloody chinky. Good grief.

But I did. ^^;

And I'm glad I did! Getting back into the saddle is great, and this was a nice return mission. The interactions between Ix and Charlotte are cute, and there were some pretty good gags in there. I think my favorites were Harry interrupting their kiss with ".", and "Me caveman. You sexy." I had to work hard not to laugh out loud at that one. Sometimes the low-hanging fruit is the best fruit, especially since you spiced it up with Ix's genderfluidity. ^^

I have some nitpicks for you; sorry if anyone else has pointed them out already, but I haven't looked at any other reviews.

- Watch out for often repeated emotes like sighing and eye-rolling. It might just be me, but I notice when the same ones pop up within a few paragraphs of each other.

- “And the time Supergirl crushed your to rubble?”

-- Either this should be "you" or there's a word missing.

- Sue enough, no sooner had Harry reached the park than he was literally running into her.

-- Should probably be "sure," though it's so apt you might just keep it. *g*

- “Jeez, you’d think by now people treating him decently wouldn’t be such a mind blowing experience.”

-- Should be hyphenated: mind-blowing.

- “MInd slave?” Ix muttered.

-- "Mind", unless "MInd" with a capital I means something I don't get.

- Should PPC agents be able to find an empty train compartment to hide in? Don't Harry & co. always have trouble finding an empty one?

- Harry ambled right past Ron and Hermione without so much a second glance, lost in thought of the Sue.

-- "Thoughts" plural, probably. If he's stuck on a single thought, that might be worth elaborating on for a joke. {= )

- Charlotte didn’t look entirely convinced, but she nodded and took a peek at the Words, placing a quick kiss to Ix’s temple.

-- I'd use "on".

- “This one was more trigger-happy than we’re used to, most just like to stand there while we read the charge list.”

-- The comma should be a semicolon, linking two independent clauses.

Not a nitpick: Ordeith?! That name rang a bell when I read it, so I looked it up and it turns out it's one of the names of this recurring villain from the Wheel of Time series. Good grief, right? I'm surprised I couldn't turn up anything on Kairia, since every other "original" aspect of the fic is stolen. Sheesh.

And now, back to work!

~Neshomeh

(I am literally swapping between reading the mission for the first time and writing notes in this post. Apologies in advance for incoherency.)

- First off, I'm liking the opening scene
- Even more specifically, the first three paragraphs do a good job of setting things up mental-image wise
- Lotte, I agree with Ix here. Nearly-disintegrated fabric that used to be clothes doesn't count. Put some actual clothes on
- Ix an Lotte arguing and teasing each other is funny (and a bit cute)
- Took me a reread to figure out that Lotte hadn't seen Ix with his clothes off, but that could just be me
- Back-to-back missions is rude, but typical of the Flowers.
- Polly appears to be a cute kitty
- "Gotta up the word count somehow". Good line.
- Ix, I also don't like this already
- "Badfic from the 1800s". Did that happen? Is that going to happen?
- In general, the snarky comments are snarky and well-executed
- Harry not wanting to leave Privet Drive seems like the right place for a CAD explosion
- Technician Tomash would like to blame all the CAD explosions on a horrible codebase that noone understands anymore, since anyone who knew how anything worked either retired or went insane. The Hornbeam refuses to authorize the budget and time to rewrite everything.
- I'm also not particularly inclined to believe that Author's Note, Ix
- Ix and Lotte doing the grass-buzzing thing is a really nice scene
- A slow-clap seems like the right reaction to "."
- Heh. The Pokemon joke (and followup) is funny
- "Me caveman. You sexy." is a good joke. The scene after it is made of feels
- "Not that I wouldn't be used to it" (and follow-up) Ow.
- Ix following the directions of the fic w.r.t all the boys was funny
- Hiding behind a sofa seems like a perfectly good place to explore unfamiliar bodily functions :P
- I'd forgotten Lotte was scared of spiders. Well-shown there.
- "I thought we were in a Harry Potter fic, not Doctor Who" was a good line
- Ix seems to be very good at shrugging
- [standard mission stuff, being annoyed at the Sue, etc., is standard]
- Ix did some good spellwork there. Not what I was expecting to happen, in some sense.
- Ix has a good meta-point about Sues standing there for the charge list.
- The ending scene is nice (is all I can say)
- And I liked the closing lines

General thoughts:
- The mission feels rather TOS-esque, which is, as far as I'm concerned, a good thing.
- There's a good balance of snarking at the fic, agent interactions, and misc. funny stuff
- Ix and Lotte relationship stuff is good reading
- This was also in a good spot length-wise, I'd say. It gives a good sense of how bad the fic is without beating me over the head with it.

- Tomash

Very on-point humor, and Ix and Charlotte's interactions were very sweet. ^^ Maybe Ix can get a better meal next mission?

(To all those of you who have no idea what I mean: Nicksmas is a semi-unofficial fireworks competition I attend on the Fourth and it has so many massive explosions. It's great.)

So, like I said to Skarm a couple weeks back, I'm jumping back into reading current spin-offs mid-season, so if there's anything I'm confused by that's due to not keeping up, just ignore that.

I'm also still catching up on internet stuff from that dog-sitting adventure and a schedule change last week, so this review is based on notes I took while reading it last week. I'm sorry for the stale review, but time and sleep haven't been kind to me this week . . . I do plan on hitting your other two missions you've got on the front page, as well, though it may not all be today.

I'm embarrassed to admit, I didn't get the pun in the mission title at first glance. I had a vague inkling that there was a real word that sounded like "fauxpilot," but I couldn't quite pull it out of my brain. Then I saw the fic's original title in the author note, and figured it out. I blame the sleep deprivation . . . anyway, this was a long-winded way of saying that your title is an excellent and clever pun.

I love that you have the Aviator and Zeb using a TARDIS as an RC. Aside from the fact that it makes sense for the Aviator's history, I like that it serves as a callback to the invasion, when the TARDIS distribution got dropped afterwards by pretty much everyone but Tawaki. I like seeing another, newer writer picking up on details from the PPC setting's past.

I like how you handled the lack-of-ending-puntuation issue. Quoting a bunch of paragraphs would have been clunky, so presenting it up-front through your own prose was a much better choice. I also like your explanation that it causes the world to slowly blend together bit by bit, since the "separations" between events and character dialogue are missing. My one cmomplaint on this regard is that you pretty much drop that detail after those opening paragraphs. To be fair, though, the Sue was doing enough throughout the fic that it was probably better to focus on him.

I really, really love that you've got two characters with PTSD-esque reactions to explosions, and you expose them to explosions, but then, rather than turning it into a big, dramatic thing, you let it become these really sweet, quiet moments of support between the characters. Very well done!

One thing I think you could have done a bit more is explain the canflict between Overwatch and Talon. This is the first Overwatch mission, so it would have been nice to get a feel for the nature of the conflict: what each side stands for, why Overwatch was disbanded and reformed, etc. This fic makes things especially confusing, since (if I'm reading it correctly) it seems to be trying to redeem certain Talon characters, like Widowmaker?

I have but one line to complain about:
“Bet you enjoyed that.”

“No amount of therapy sessions can compensate for that,” he said, nodding.
The way this is written, it sounds like Zeb is saying, "Therapy can't make up for how good that assassination felt," which doesn't make sense, since therapy also makes you feel good. I think, rather than "compensate for," you meant a phrase like "compare with" or "compete with?"

—doctorlit

(this is a partial slate of notes; varied reactions aren't written down)
- Ellie is cute, and I'm liking Ave's fake-frustrated here
- Zeb, no, don't you'll make the console go off ... and he did
- Well, now I know Zeb has a thing for Genji. I'm going to assume that was a bit of characterization for the guy, but I don't know what, since I don't know Overwatch
- Zeb with a lighting canon!
- "special hatred for putting punctuation at the end of the last sentence of each paragraph". Took me a re-read to figure out what that was saying (but that's probably me), and I can't figure out how it connects to the setting blending together
- I liked the scene where Zeb was teasing Ave about Tracer and the detective
- The jet exploded. Both agents involved have Problems with explosions. You terrible person.
- I like the line about Ave's mom
- The bit about Ave eyeballing the bar was a good bit of character development, I'd say
- Oh, god, another explosion. ... "Mission, not War". Poor them
- I want to see Ellie reacting to Zeb doing Overwatch impressions now
- Now you've got me thinking about purple v. beige prose
- Zeb, I know you (apparently) like Soldier 76, but please get your hormones under control
- Petition to get Zeb a mini-Bastion! Sign here: :P
- “THE BATTLEFIELD IS NOT AN APPROPRIATE PLACE TO SCOUT OUT A GIRLFRIEND!” was a fun scene
- "Wouldn't we both like to know." was a really nice line
- "Do you think that was typed with one hand?" No, you know it was
- Good luck getting that plane back into HQ, y'all
- Something about the dialogue straddling the line between the last two paragraphs felt off, probably because it took me a moment to realize that "Bet you enjoyed that" was Ave's line.

So, review-wise, pretty good, I think. I don't know Overwatch, so I expect half the jokes flew over my head, but the mission was interesting enough that I didn't feel the urge to put it down in the middle.

- Tomash

Gonna read this!

I remember when you mentionned that mess of a fic back on Discord... Was there anything canon even remotely respected? I liked the interactions between Ave and Zeb, and the throwback mention to the time Ave was... taking extended vacations in the Whoniverse (before the Time War). The type of mini chosen is also just perfect.

Oh, and Ellie... Can you say 'Za', 'Wa', 'Ru', 'Do', please?

The thing with the jet at the museum reminds me of a story of Whateley Academy. The 'villain' was robbing a museum for a scepter, and her cunning plan to escape was to use one old vehicle displayed there. She thought about it a bit more though... she had brought gas jerrycans.

It of course ended the only possible way: after an initial fakeout, the vehicle exploded, propelling her far, far away. Presence of a forcefield protected her from all harm, except the one done to her dignity, who was savagely slaughtered all along the story. Man, was that fun.

This is a PS4 HD remastering of the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy.

Yes.

Yes I will take one.

I will take one to play it.

And then I will take another one to cuddle it gently and sing me to sleep with the music from Hang Eight in Cortex Strikes Back.

(( I was looking at the neural-net generated fanfic summaries, and this idea jumped into my head, so let's go. ))

The Perfect Cow by alafaye Tomash
Severus and Hermione start a horcruxes

---

There was a knock on Severus Snape's office door.

"Come in," he said, setting down the essay he was grading.

The door opened, and a bushy-haired sixth year Gryffindor stepped in somewhat hesitantly.

"Ah. Miss… Granger. What do you want?" Professor Snape said coldly.

"I was doing some research, Professor—"

Of course you were.

"—and I had a rather theoretical question. About Horcruxes."

A moment of shock crossed the Professor's face before he composed himself. "And where did you hear of those, Miss Granger?"

"The Restricted Section, Professor."

Snape glared at her. "Do not lie to me. There are no works on Horcruxes in the Restricted Section." Because I personally made sure there were none once the Headmaster said he had removed them.

Hermione blushed slightly. "Well, Dumbledore told Harry that Voldemort had made Horcruxes, and he asked me to do some research. I couldn't really find anything—"

"Good."

"—but I do know that the idea is that, by doing something terrible, you split your soul, and then somehow put one of the pieces into an object, which makes you immortal unless the extra piece is destroyed."

"Yes, and?"

"I was wondering if you have to be human to make a Horcrux. Could a house-elf split their soul? Or a cow?"

"A cow, Miss Granger?"

"It was an example..." Hermione trailed off.

"I see," said Snape, somewhat dubious. "Why did you think to ask me this?"

"Well, sir," Hermione said, "you are the Defense Professor."

"So I am. But such questions are more a matter for the Department of Mysteries."

Hermione nodded.

"Now, do you have any other inane questions with which to waste my time? Whether ants can make wards, perhaps?"

"No, Professor. Thank you." Hermione quickly left the office.

Hermione made her way back to the Common Room, somewhat disappointed that she couldn't get the answer she was looking for. On the way there, however, she remembered that she did, after all, know someone from the Department of Mysteries. Well, "know" wasn't quite right. The man had come to talk to her last summer about keeping what she'd seen in the Department quiet. He'd been rather creative with the threats, and he had asked her to keep an ear out for anything the Department might be interested in.

It was a long shot, Hermione knew, but, as she settled down in front of the fire, she thought she'd try anyway. She pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill and began writing:

Dear Mr. Brown,

I've got a theoretical question about Horcruxes…

(( - Tomash ))

You're back! :D

Reaction to the Fandom News:
That's good to hear that it's a good movie with a diverse cast! I personally really hate it when a canon work focuses so much on having a diverse/minority cast that it ruins the plot. (Which is Steven Universe, in my opinion. Even some members of the team that works on it are radfem jerks. But anyway.)

Reaction to the Silly News:
Those story summaries are just the best... I love it when an AI has its derpy moments.

Reaction to the Serious News:
That's a pretty interesting story, haha! A video game forum saved the day! Well done, gamers!

Reaction to the Not News:
That's actually an interesting AU-crossover-thingy! I wonder who the other folks would be? (By the way, I can't see the photos. I think Photobucket has a new policy and that's why, because the things that are in place of your photos say stuff about 3rd-party hosting and have Photobucket links in them.)

-Twistey

You're back! I'm glad. ^_^

Oh, yay, the Spider-Man movie isn't terrible! I'll have to go see it soon.

-Alleb

Photobucket made some changes. They are now charging $400/year for the ability to post your photos to other websites.

This is, perhaps, the worst business decision I have seen in a while.

-Phobos

I need to see it, it looks really good!

My family's off to see it later today and we're all very excited.

Photobucket's broken for me, unfortunately, so I can't see the Justice League project.

In other fandom news, the long-awaited addition of Doomfist to the Overwatch roster has finally happened, and he's now available to play on the PTR! And can you say fun? I say fun. He's fun.

Friend of the Green sounds more like Swamp Thing for me :P

And I kinda want to see Homecoming when it comes out in Poland, but I more want to see Thor: Ragnarok, because of Doctor Strange's cameo...

Please have a black-hole chocolate cake with raspberry coulis.

If we both end up in the same voice channel at some point today, I'd be happy to sing you one of the Birthday Songs. (No guarantees about which one.) But in the meantime, have a cake! It's red velvet cake because of reasons, but you can swap it out for a cheesecake if you prefer.

Here's a cool video I only recently found out about that discusses Sues' history, classification, and why we always think of them as girls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2-GIY9RTqU

Felicitations!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
MAY ALL YOUR WISHES COME TRUE
HOPE NOBODY MAKES YOU BLUE
AND YOUR CAKE DOESN'T EXPLODE IN GOO!

*blows noisemakers*

you are very old, Matt. You are ancient. Your knees are weak. The years have etched themselves in the wrinkles of your face. A greying-haired blind and deaf old bat of 17 years old.

Happy birthday!

My gift upon you is a really big scythe, to make the Grim Reaper jealous and give you a few extra years (at the dusty old age of 17, you don't have long, friend) to survive while he tries finding a newer, bigger one so he doesn't look silly and weak!

I still need to read past the first chapter, but this is super interesting.

It's super good and creative, and I'm in love with the concept and characters despite knowing basically nothing about football.

Language warning, though, if that sort of thing bothers you.

Juice is by far my favorite character- what about you guys?

Department of Analytical Science

Flowering Leek

Journal of Investigating Veracity by Experimentation

As well as edits to existing pages as needed, such as the DMSE&R page and the Complete List of PPC Fiction. This work is not nearly finished; if you see something out of date anywhere on the wiki, please fix it!

And since I realize I haven't actually said this yet, I enjoy all of this and support it and want it to continue. {= )

~Neshomeh

Um, yeah. This is amazing, and I don't think I could have executed this idea given five years of writing time. I would gush more, but I need to get this typed out in the hour before I leave for work, so let's go.

Editorials
Actually, backing up, I just figured out the title is the scientists saying that are now mad scientists, where they weren't before. Clever!

I like that you manage to get across the personality difference between the Flowers within the bare-bones paragraphs of an editorial column. Love the little Thistle signature you made, too, in color even!

The Leek calls itself a "Leak," though.

Flashpatch
I like that the departmental flashpatch's watermelon gets divided into slices for the divisions. I like the pseudo-characterization you give all the ants to fit them, too.

Cladogram
Haven't actually started the Young Wizards series yet, but I've osmosised some stuff about it from you and Nesh talking about it on the Board. I love the implication here that the Manual represents such a universal good that even characters from other universes can be chosen to follow it.

Yeah, I've never really thought the family tree idea worked for Suvians, and a lot of the Latin names made over the years feel pretty half baked.

On #27 in both versions of the chart, the "terrible" is missing the opening quotation mark.

Stellar
I really like that you use one of the papers to address the idea that science can't necessarily answer everything, especially when limited by the minds and experiences of those performing it. And also the fact that different worlds have different laws, and that the same science isn't guaranteed to work multiverse-wide.

The ending is incredibly PPC to me, in light of the above; continuing to work together in spite of differences.

Narrativium
This was a bit hard to follow due to chemistry being my un-subject, but I do appreciate that you haven't reduced narrativium to an ordinary solid matter. I especially loved the puns inherent in the extractions.

The Rose
When I started reading this, I was excited by the incoming Dark Tower reference . . . but then it wasn't. So I got confused. Is this meant to be an Ardan native's take on TDT's rose? Or was this a separate concept in Tolkien's writings? Or a joke about the center of the universe being shaped like a d20?

Anyway, the formal-sounding Tolkien style in which Norlossë writes lends itself especially well to a scientific publication.

Cannibal
I liked that this got set up by an allusion in one of the earlier stories. Also fun was the callback to "Woodsprite of the North."

Under Sue #1, was the use of "DMSE&R" rather than "DAS" intentional?

Cookbook
The taste metaphors of the review types are quite thoughtful and funny.

As a person who constantly complains about the food culture in my own country, I especially appreciate that the animal agent doesn't comprehend the concept of eating fancy foods for enjoyment. Because no, zoo guest, I don't need to refill that animal's empty food bowl, because the food is measured out to be a day's worth of nutrients, and animals that have food in front of them all day will overeat and get fat, because eating is for survival, not for fun, and you don't get to tell me how to take care of wild animals, suburbanite.

Archaeology
Not much to say here, other than I appreciate the choice of species for this forced split-up gag. I was wondering why you wanted a train agent . . .

Ancillary Canons
I really love your interpretation of how agents of different backgrounds might look at this topic. The note the story ends on is especially nice, allowing that the work the PPC does is bigger than defining what's "real."

This one phrase seems to have an extra/missing word in it? "Containing a radically different view of Middle-earth's nature early days to that seen in the Silmarillion . . ."

Generic Surface
The escalating argument communicated via scientific paper is hilarious and well executed.

I most especially like that you managed to avoid actually describing much about generic surface; after all, the whole point of the stuff is that it's hard to describe! I suspect the scientists' squabble was engineered by Legal to ensure generic surface remains generic . . .

Oh, interesting theory about the light, too. After all, with no visible light sources, the light in HQ must come from the generic surface, yeah?

Suvian Biology
. . . This paper, in particular, must have been an hours-long time sink for you. I can't even imagine going through all those different writings and working out all the different species. The tables alone . . . wow.

You spelled Cocoa Puff's name as "Cocao" both times it appears.

I am sorry for not being as detailed as I usually am, but I'm covering days for my lead keeper's vacation this week, and the only way I could get this written out was to squeeze it in between shifts. I apologize for any mistakes I made in rushing to type this. I also have some letters to the editor in mind, but they'll need to wait for a separate post, as I need to leave in eleven minutes, and haven't brushed teeth yet.

—doctorlit, eating breakfast for the nutrients, not because he likes to eat breakfast

Something is apparently wrong with time flow in HQ. I am quite sure that I cannot have known agent Hieronymus for more than six weeks. We spent most of this time in the Third and Fourth PPC HQ Hunger Games and on missions, and I remember every single day of it. But the Third Hunger Games started in January 2016 HST and now it is July 2017. How can this be? I think this should be investigated by your scientists.

Sincerely yours,

Androia Avatar, DMS-HP

To the editors of the Journal of Investigating Veracity by Experimentation;

First off, I—what? Why are you reading over my shoulder?

Yes, I'm typing this out verbatim, what of it?

I suppose that is a valid point. Very well. First off, we must congratulate you on the establishment of what we are sure will become a most respectable publication. The PPC has been in need of a reputable scientific journal for far too long. While admittedly lacking in some areas, DAS-JIVE will no doubt fill a needed gap and help to bolster the development of pan-fictional scientific development for years to come.

That being said, I must personally confess to some confusion. As one of the preeminent PPC experts on cross-canonical technology development and artificial intelligence, I must question why I—and my team, I suppose—was not approached regarding this publishing. I have to assume this was some sort of oversight, and not some form of subtle retribution for the incident with the DAS coffee maker. As I explained both at the time and to the Thistle and Flowering Leek later, I had no knowledge of what the interns were doing and did not approve the installation of that additional piping.

In any case, my team and I look forward to the next issue.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Daphne St. Auguste (Sc.D., Ph.D.), DoSAT-T&A
(Also both Tess Jachowicz and Naas'Gehlen vas Headquarters, who were reading over my shoulder and offering comments during the writing of this letter. Your additions have been noted, now please go file your reports.)

((OOC: So I really enjoyed this concept of yours, and will post some more in-depth thoughts later. But reading the various reports brought these three back into my head, so I decided to do a brief silly thing first. —PC ))

That - all of it - was bloody great. I consumed it. Devoured it. Shoved it down my eye-gullets. As an introduction to the department and story type and... science, it was really bloody good! There's a lot of really fascinating, real deep sort've stuff explored throughout (even for a non-sciencey dope like me), but it always remains very entertaining and bloody funny. Mandy and Wei-Ling killed me, as did Laduquac's bits. And also what I presume to be the Thistle's little ASCII self-picture -|-cx. I approve of that. I saw your sort of, picking apart of the gag with the flashpatches and their designs, and that's brilliant, that (but you can still tell them apart! Eyyyy!) I was really wondering where the big mad scientist fellows had gotten to in HQ, and, ey, there they are!

I will admit to preferring the more 'story-ish' bits over the purely 'report-ish' bits- 'The Trials and Triumphs of Ancillary Canons,' while certainly still an interesting and fascinating read, was somewhat dull, compared to the ones with more sort of agent hijinks, y'know? Especially considering how well you do agent hijinks! But perhaps that is more of a personal thing - I would probably, by default, enjoy character hijinks over an in-universe scientific report - not that the concept of an in-universe scientific report isn't bloody good and that that sort've stuff should be done less, or any such. Anyhow, you get a real good sense of what each division does, and what all the characters are like, from each story, and they're all just so different, in terms of structure and all. And, yes, bloody well yes do I want to read more of them!
It's just, good grief, this must've taken a bloody long time to do!

So, how about, ah. Some sort of study into Generic Food? What's it made of? Does it taste the same across continua? If it doesn't, what are the differences and what causes them? What's it made of?

I imagine an attempt into studying the nature of irony in HQ would be the sort of thing they would try, too, with probable emphasis on the 'attempt' and 'try' bits of that. Just how far can you try to exploit irony in HQ? What are the limits of its reality bending capabilities? How many layers of irony on top of irony can you have before things get really weird? Or, er, some such. That all might be a touch vague.

*squirrels away for future reading*

Please please please can we come up with a pun so we can have a division called DAS-BOOT?

First, this is an awesome concept (and also ties in with a few ideas I had, but I'll get to those later), and I really enjoyed reading these. They're clever and funny.

Secondly, if Ned oybjf uvf dhnagn va n znaare fvzvyne gb n pregnva pnaba ur'f pyrneyl na nyyhfvba gb (the rot13 is So You Want To Be A Wizard spoilers, more or less), I'll be vaguely unhappy. Also, how dare you remind me of that!

Thirdly, re: flashpatches: with the departmental one, basically-black on black doesn't wore very well for me. I'm effectively guessing if there's supposed to be an ant there or no. Similarly, more contrast on DAS-VOID and DAS-SQUEE's ants please? They're quite hard to see, let alone distinguish.

That being said, I like the descriptions of the patches and why they were chosen for each devision.

Fourthly, "You can't get much more negative than this, Professor." was a good line, though I will admit to skimming the technical bits (in the grand tradition of paper-readers everywhere)

(Intermission: "like unto those we have observes" -> "observed" in the conversation between Maria and Ned).

Fifthly, the whole Maria/Ned thing was fun reading. And Peregrin is currently demanding observatory access from somewhere near the back of my brain.

Sixthly, reading Anglish is painful. Writing it must have been more so. Thanks for not subjecting the wider PPC to an entire untranslated article.

Seventhly, interesting bit of multiverse theory there.

Eighthly, I'm liking the interplay between the papers around the fridge getting raided and the samples being eaten. Also, more Laduquac please.

Ninthly, the bit about salt was one of the best lines in the cookbook (which was good).

Tenthly, Joan and Durand have the "agent pair that rub each other the wrong way" dynamic going pretty well.

Eleventhly, Mandy really needs to start talking to Building Maintenance more.

Twelthly, the review article is rather appreciated (on an in-universe basis) because there's never enough of those.

Finally, expect RC #112358's reactions to this sometime soon-ish (given that it's a bit past midnight already)

... OK, that ended up being more than a few thoughts.

- Tomash

I never really thought about something like that inside the PPC before. But now I read it? I can't believe The PPC went for so long without something like that. In my book, it makes it a very good idea.

Now, quick question. Will DAS also look over problems and questions concerning magic, whatever it's a form of magic tied to tecnhology or not? Because I think there ideas to be found there.

I think you've put the cart before the horse, trying to start a Suvian family tree with Sues themselves. I would never go so far as to suggest that our respected members of the scientific community have simply been "classifying" Sues as an exercise in coming up with silly Latin names, of course, but as we all know, most Sues are pretty much like most other Sues, making separating them into "species" a daunting task at best. Thus, attempting to begin with their minor differences to each other is backward and ultimately fruitless.

Let us consider first the wider ecosystem of fiction.

Your biology departments may wish to collaborate with DAS-DAMP and DAS-VOID to explore the inherent issues involved in fitting Sues into a broader understanding of the multiverse, but for now, let's just take it for granted that classifying fictional entities is not like classifying biological entities. It is not particularly useful to look at how they interbreed, for instance, and anatomy and physiology aren't much help, either. Not even DNA can come to the rescue here.

Fictional characters, you see, are not classified by what they are, but rather by what they do, and more importantly, how they do it. Protagonist: hero: warrior. This character bravely faces challenges head-on to prove that good will always triumph over evil. Antagonist: villain: evil sorcerer. This character sneakily connives for their own ends regardless of collateral damage to others, pulling strings and manipulating events behind the scenes. Etc. I trust you see where I'm going with this, with reference to well-known character archetypes.

One must consider the character's prominence in the story: are they a main character? a supporting character? a background character? What separates these from each other? I would suggest that it has something to do with inherent narativium.

Now, once we understand the basics of classifying fictional characters in general, we can turn to the finer details of classifying fanfictional characters.

One important question I do not believe has yet been addressed is the ability of Suvians to become non-Suvian with time, and vice versa. If they are a separate species from other OCs, how is this possible? I assert that it isn't. All characters, canons, OCs, and Suvians, fit into the classification scheme I've referenced above; the difference between them lies in how destructive they are to the surrounding ecosystem of the canon. Suvians have often been compared to parasites, viruses, and other destructive organisms. That's getting close to the truth: Suvians are, in fact, diseased forms of the character archetypes we all know and love. A Suvian is a character infected and mutated by glitter. This is well substantiated by numerous anecdotes of regular characters becoming Sued after coming into contact with glitter, and Suvians becoming de-Sued when their glitter load is reduced. It is also well-known that a good character can possess all the same surface traits as a Suvian, and yet not be one. This is entirely due to glitter.

Therefore, in order to properly classify Suvians, we must look at them not as a species in their own right, but as normal character archetypes afflicted by particular forms of disease that warp and corrupt their nature. Only then can a useful classification system be achieved.

~Agent Neshomeh, Archivist, DoP

(( Good lord, that's a lot of words. I hope some of them make sense. I don't have a lot of time to refine this idea right now, unfortunately. ^_^; ))

Would any Agents be interested in investigating the "Event Horizon of Suedom" (picturing the impressions Suefluence leaves on the canon to be similar to how everything in reality leaves an impression on the fabric of the universe via gravity)? How many typos does it take to warp a Word World - taking them more from just irritants to Agents to malformations for Word Worlds to play with?

On another note, what happens if a Sue is de-Sueified within the fic? Are there any documented cases of such?

... But I'm enjoying this very much already!

(Also: an encounter with a Manual? Do tell. ;) )

I may be back later with ideas for questions.

Very interesting and well thought out! I'll admit, this came as a huge surprise to me, but it's a nice addition to the PPC. Having the new department be based in DMSE&R is a nice way of tying it back into the pre-existing (insofar as we have that) PPC canon, and I'm interested to see what else might come of this new department.

(I liked the Suvian Cladogram and inorganic cookbook pieces the best, though Laduquac's reactions to the Suvian meatstuffs had me simultaneously giggling and grossed out.)

Unfortunately, not being very scientifically inclined myself, I'm not really able to think of any questions that would make for a very good prompt, so I'll have to think on that for... probably a good long while.

All in all, though, I enjoyed this even though I didn't understand all of it and hope you'll do more with it in the future.

All giggling at puns aside, this is interesting! Reading the first issue now.

It looks like you're expecting to have 12 options for each question, which sounds excessive. ;) Possibly a better way would be to plot all the celebrants on a 3-D graph (ie, give them 'scores' on three independent scales). You then assign values for some or all of the scales to each answer, and find the celebrant closest to the final averaged result.

Example: one axis would be how likely they are to be swayed by the Lone One's temptations. You'd place the Untouched at 0, the Undecided at, say, 5, and the Betrayed at 10. The Lone One Itself would be down at 15. Not sure about the Master Shark, you'd have to think about how he feels about death.

Then, for each question, you'd say how it affects that score. Taking what I think is the most interesting of your questions so far:

How do you relate 'friends' and 'fighting'?
-I fight for my friends. (2)
-I fight with my friends. (10)
-I fight about my friends. (5)
-I fight to control my friends. (12)

Other scales might include power, friendliness, how active a role they take... assuming those four, a statement like 'I fight to control my friends' might come out as (12 susceptability, -- power [ie, no value listed, ignore], 0 friendliness, 7 active).

You'd then average out the four scales after all the questions are answered, and see which celebrant comes closest to matching. How you did that would depend on what you were running it on, though...

On a related note: I shared this with the Board a year or two back, but I'm not sure you were around: I made Kaitlyn a Song of the Twelve scroll.

Image

It includes all the text from the book (along with a header and footer you'll probably recognise ^_~). I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

hS

I am very sorry for how long this took me. This has not been a productive week . . .

The opening banter is excellent, showing that Ix clearly thinks about her looks, but is also embarrassed to come off as Sue-like. It also shows the bit of strain this puts on their relationship, where it's difficult for Charlotte to complement Ix without making her feel self conscious. And you get it all across in so few lines . . . wish we could all dialogue like Iximaz!

I think the entrance into the fic is the best part of this story. The simultaneous drop into italics while Ix starts reacting to the moon out of nowhere are extremely disorienting, letting the reader share in the agents' feelings at that moment. Your descriptions of the fic using Charlotte's super senses right after correcting the italics is incredibly well-detailed as well.

I love that you mock the cartoonish hand-flailing presented as the Sue getting bullied by comparing the realistic racist teasing Ix had to live through—and really, the whole mission is some great side-by-side of a werewolf Sue and your realistic werewolf character, which hardly needs to be pointed out, since that was clearly your intent. And you summarize that whole theme just utterly perfectly in Ix's speech just before the assassination.

To give the author some credit, I am the type to wake up, shave, get dressed, eat, wash dishes, and then go back to bed until I absolutely need to get up and drive to work. So. That's something I have in common with a Sue.

I love the ending here. I love that you write Charlotte being so dedicated and supportive of Ix, in spite of the difficulties Ix's self esteem must give her. And I have to admit, when I hit that final line, my mind began singing ♪Tale as old as time . . .♪of its own volition. >.>

Oh, and before I forget: may I adopt Fortesque, if no one else has gotten him yet?

—doctorlit transforms into a competent adult every full moon, settles back into a nearly functioning man-child the rest of the month

Or follow less things at the same time? Nah, heresy.

Not really seeing that much angst here, neither unjustified one. The glitterbag is pretty much aping Ix's life, with no drawbacks and maximal speshulness, she's got more than a right to be angry andd go personal here (and I agree, throat injuries? Should be dead).

Seeing an agent facing a glitterbag mirroring their backstory is an interesting thing too. Might have to search something like that for Marina... That was a good mission in my book.

Yes, there were angsty bits, but they made me feel suitably bad for Ix (and helped convey why she was so angry at the Sue), which means they worked and were well-done. The heartwarming bits also balanced out the angst.

I particularly liked the charging scene (which was a nice charge of pace from straight "grab 'em, read the list, kill") and the "lets actually talk about our problems" bit.

- Tomash

'cause on the one hand, it's hilarious to reference the singer and use the ship name Ixielott. But on the geekier hand, I can't help but feel there's a lot of mileage in riffing off axolotls. Ixilotl? Only that works better spoken than written. It's a terrible dilemma.

Oh, yeah, there was a story there, too, right? ;) Two things I particularly liked were a) that I could jump in and figure out what was going on in the agents' lives without having to track down every previous mission, and b) the idea of an agent running into a Suvian who claims exactly the same problems as them, so allowing for a direct contrast of the two. Nicely done.

hS

That bit about the newspaper provided a nice bit of comedy, though I didn't mind the angst.

Ix and Charlotte continue to be wonderful.

Also loved the explanation for empty compartments! And the worldbuilding re: Madam Pince jinxing the books.

As always, thank you for writing! \o