Jan 2018 Archive, part a

Overall, I think you're looking pretty good! Just a couple things I wanted to flag:

First, from Mei's bio, stealing all the left socks is funny. Telling Potterverse canon children that "Dumbledore dies in the end" is less so. Be careful that Mei's pranks do not get too mean or actually damage the canon.

Second, somewhat related, your writing style seems to be straddling the line between serious and comic. I really enjoyed the humor in the second prompt, but the Cafeteria scene had me a little worried when it came to the mentions of silverware embedded in the walls and frozen coffee spears. In a totally comic setting with totally comedic violence, it would probably be fine, but because I'm not entirely sure yet what tone you're going to settle into, those things seemed a little too dangerous to be funny. So, watch out for that sort of thing, too.

Those two things aside, I liked both prompts. The first one quickly drew me in and had me interested in the outcome, and the second one, as I said, was pretty funny. I loved "Coffee went boom!" Poor intern. {X D

Assuming you meant Erron and Mei by "both characters," I'd support putting Sylendre in Floaters, once she's been trained up a bit. The more agents on a team, the longer the mission gets to give everyone enough screen time, so keeping it to two most of the time is a good idea. Having her still share their RC might be interesting, though.

(BTW, how is "Sylendre" pronounced? My brain wants to make it like "cylinder.")

I'd normally advise avoiding anything remotely connected to a Legendary Badfic for an early mission, but seeing as you've got your self-sporking lined up first, and "Im Not Okay" doesn't really look that dire, you may well take it in stride. I'm willing to find out.

So, with that, Permission Granted!

~Neshomeh

I beta'd the entire Permission document once, suggesting several changes. I didn't take a second look after those changes were made (I don't remember whether Pasty Greens didn't let me know they were updated, or whether I just spaced it).

hS

It's definitely cool to learn anything new about the Canon Librarian. I love the little glimpse we've gotten into his "nest," as well as some more vague hints at his physical presence.

The mood throughout this piece is great. I love that is keeps ramping up a more and more sinister feeling of foreboding, only to pull the rug out from under us in the last paragraphs and turn it very sentimental and reverent of Scape's work. Very nicely done!

The fact that the Canon Librarian seems to know what World One authors are writing for the PPC has intersting implications, especially considering he himself clearly isn't from World One . . . I must ask, though: what are The Everbright Glede, The Magical Adventures of Ladies and Gentlemen and The Kraken-Knights of Wintertide? I can't find mention of them online anywhere. They're not in the "PPC authors" cupboard, but they're in the same safe as that cupboard. What's the significance of those titles?

—doctorlit still wants to buy a copy of that book, Scapegrace!

Is this my first fanfic? I'm claiming it as my first fanfic. =]

Thank you for writing this. It's fascinating to look at the Canon Library, and a privilege to be part of the Restricted Section. I hope the unknowable entity that goes by the Canon Librarian enjoys Anomalies. =]

I approve greatly of buttons, and fandom tree toppers. We just packed our Weeping Angel away today.

Have one of my own shed feathers, plus a working replica of the Golden Snitch with a Pokeball engraving!

Take a flask of mjød, and a book from the Library of Prospero. Although be sure to have it back in before... oh. Nevermind.

Apologies for not greeting you earlier, but... well, y'know. Anyways, I'm Thoth, Almighty Sorcerer, and Crazy Liar. I'm not a Space Marine, but I play one on TV.

You seem cool, so be sure to pop by the Discord if you're feeling it, and just... generally have fun, even if you don't take me up on that.

Haha, we were talking about that chapter a while ago! I've even tried the Botnik writer myself, and it was... interesting.

Anyway, nice to meet you! I'm Twistey, an amateur creator who can't decide which medium to stick to, partially thanks to the 4 years that Scratch.mit.edu had me brainwashed into thinking that the site and its community was the center of the universe, leaving me with the idea that I can program my own games and yeah it's totally fine to program with colored blocks. (But hey, at least Stencyl is a step up. If I try I'll get somewhere.) I'm pretty active on here.

Enough about me, how about you? What are your fandoms? How did you discover the PPC, and what type of stuff do you plan to write for it? Any character ideas? Anything interesting you've already written? I'd love to know more!

Finally, for your newbie gift, here's a copy of a very strange story. From what I'd guess, it seems to be an outsider's misinterpretation of the Original Series. Not that they have any reason to, other than Wikia's adblock ban. If you stick around long enough, I'll inform you of its exact contents.

Nice to meet you! I hope you have a wonderful time here and welcome to the PPC!

-Twistey

I am also new - arguably more so than you since I only learned about all this stuff recently - but it's great to meet you! My gift to you is a spoonful of crystallized honey, with the hope that something long neglected in the darkness of a back cabinet and only now lifted back to the light can still bring sweetness into the world.

It's nice to meet you, newbie! Thanks for the gift; it's greatly appreciated. In return, I offer you a Generic Weapon of any type you want. I'd advise you to check out the Constitution if you haven't already. In the meantime, tell us about yourself! Who are you? What are your likes? Dislikes? What fandoms are you in? What stories do you read? What type of writing do you do, if any? We look forward to getting to know you. :)

Nice 007 shout-out, too.

Loving Corolla's lines, especially. "Great, we've got two of them now."

/Sends Good Vibes your way!

I was telling an outside friend of mine about this situation, and she shared with me the story of the butterfly's struggle, which I thought was very uplifting. I realize it may not be the right message for everyone at all times, but as we individually and collectively struggle with our various challenges, I hope it's because we're empowering our wings to fly.

There are several versions of the butterfly story out there; this is a link to the one at the top of my Google hits:

http://instructor.mstc.edu/instructor/swallerm/Struggle%20-%20Butterfly.htm

~Neshomeh

I realize this issue is rather moot now, but I still feel this should be added.

Yesterday, I had it pointed out to me that as a result of some circumstances that have/are hurt(ing) him, Sprinkles has been infected with (this is the best verb I can think of here) certain persistent patterns of behavior and conversation style that, in the aggregate, would (in the judgement of the person explaining this) almost surely cause something like this incident to reoccur if Sprinkles came into contact with other vulnerable people similar to X (the victim currently at issue). That is, there is very good reason to believe this issue would not be an isolated incident.

It was further pointed out to me that this was something that would be quite resolvable with some help, but that because of some circumstances Sprinkles is in, he wouldn't be in a position to receive such help at or near this time. This concern for X and other people that would be drawn into similar situations make the person I was talking to uncomfortable with having Sprinkles in the PPC Discord.

I'd like to reiterate that this doesn't make Sprinkles a bad person or anything like that. I hope Sprinkles can get away from the circumstances that are causing and prolonging this issue and get help and healing.

I have somewhat lower estimates of the probability of recurrence than the person who explained this to me did. However, I know basically nothing about this type of issue. In light of this information, I find myself rather unsure that my proposed solution would have actually solved anything. I am also, however, not entirely convinced that making Sprinkles leave under these circumstances would have been a precedent we would want to set.

I just don't know what we should have done anymore. I thought I had a good idea. It turns out that may not have been the case. So, even though we are not deciding on anything anymore, I (entirely symbolically) abstain.

- Tomash

Whether or not this continues, which I sincerely hope it doesn't, I am backing out of it. All of it. Having been involved with both concerned parties for a notable length of time, I am personally shattered that it ever came to this. I think I'm still in denial of what's happening; what I saw during the previous months is so starkly different from what's gone on the past few days, I can scarcely believe this is real. For that matter, I am deeply sorry. I'm sorry that this happened in the first place and I'm sorry for any and all pain I caused during this argument. If I've wronged you in any way, I acknowledge it and I apologize with all the sincerity I can muster. I feel as though I have lost my family over the course of this discussion and nothing about what seems to be the final assessment sits well with me, but it's apparently not my place to say. I'm not in possession of the full facts and I'm honestly not qualified to be here, making judgements. I am sorry for my hurtful words, I am sorry for overstepping my bounds, and I am sorry that I can't agree with most/many of you. I hope that in time, we can all recover from this, and that someday I'll be able to wash the bitter taste from the back of my throat. But for the time being, I need both time and space, so this is my goodbye.

This is doing more harm than good. A lot of hurtful things have been said here, and it's putting everyone through hell.

I'm not trying to gain sympathy points by saying this- Y'all can believe what you want about me, but I don't want more people to get hurt. I just want this fighting to stop. And, if it means I'm not allowed back into the PPC, then that's fine by me.

I make my apologies, and I'll keep my distance.

Goodbye, it was awesome meeting you guys.

Okay, now that I've read everything people have posted, I have to say I don't support the idea of Sprinkles coming back into the chat at this time for a few reasons which I'll lay out. Let me say something that's been said many times before by other people, but bears mentioning again: Sprinkles, I hope you get the support and help you need. I don't think you're a bad person; I just think the best thing for everyone would be to take a break for a while.

Now, as to why.

As I see it, Sprinkles has been abusing at least one person for an extended period of time, and that person reached out to others for help before deciding to block Sprinkles. I don't think Tomash's proposal is realistic precisely *because* it's ideal. People are not ideal. People make mistakes. I think it's likely that some kind of accidental interaction between Sprinkles and Person X will happen, and that that interaction could be harmful to at least one of them, to say nothing of the rest of the community as a whole if it happens outside PMs. Tomash has a good proposal, I just think it's not likely to be followed even if everyone has the very best of intentions (and I'm not saying anyone doesn't).

Now, I haven't been in contact with Sprinkles. I don't know his exact situation or what steps he's taking in real life. I don't know who Person X is, so I can't speak for them. Maybe other people know more and haven't said anything yet that could change my mind, and if that's the case (and people are comfortable sharing), I'd appreciate hearing it. Unless and until that happens, though? The safest option for both Sprinkles and Person X is for Sprinkles to cut contact through the PPC Discord.

What happens in PMs between Sprinkles and other people in the PPC is outside what I'm willing to talk about. I'm only suggesting he be asked politely but firmly to stay off the PPC Discord server for at least a few months... and most importantly, we should defer to Person X as for when (or even if) to let Sprinkles back in.

When I wrote the above post, I only knew Sprinkle's side of the story. I was not aware of the extent of the abuse, to the point where the interactions between Sprinkle and the victim that I was aware of did not even register as abuse to me, or the extent of the distress it caused them. Had I known about it, I would have featured it in the post; however I fully understand the victim's decision not to share it with me. I did attempt to contact the victim; both to try and set up a discussion between them and Sprinkle, and to find out their side of the story. They refused, a decision that I do not blame them for in the slightest. At that time however, I attempted to get their story even after they told me to drop the subject. I have already apologized to them in private, but that happened before I brought the discussion to the Board. Due to what I learned from this discussion, I think a second apology is in order. I am sorry for not respecting the victim's wish not to discuss the matter. I fully understand their decision not to, and should not have pressed the topic.

As to what happened, I do share the opinion that Sprinkle did not intentionally inflict abuse on the victim. I also think that shutting of Sprinkle was a good decision, or at least better than keeping up the abusive relationship. Was it the best option there was? I have honestly no idea. I think things might have turned out better in the aftermath if they had maybe asked someone they trusted to explain the situation to Sprinkle. However, I do not blame them for not doing so, and I am not sure if I would have done it if I had been in their situation.

Maxe's idea of a moderated discussion sounds like a good idea in theory, but, as they admit themselves, it is not practical in this case, and trying force both parties into it would be a horrible idea.

I support Sprinkle being allowed back, however I also think Tomash's proposal, possibly with a few tweaks and clarifications, is a good idea, but I'd be interested in hearing the victim's thoughts on it if they are willing to voice them, either themselves or through Delta.

One final note to everyone: There is something important to learn from this situation for everyone who offers emotional support to others. First, what you're doing is admirable. But you must never forget to take care of yourselves. Back in EMT training, we learned a principle that roughly translates to "Make sure you are safe before attempting to save others." It was mostly meant as a warning to look out for possible dangers and not to take unnecessarily risky actions. I don't want to say"Don't help others if you have mental health Issues yourself", in a lot of cases having experience with mental illnesses can be very helpful. I want to say that your own wellbeing is important as well. (Again, this is *not* intended as an attack on the victim, but as an important warning to others).

~Ak

This is a multifaceted issue and I don't know if I can really lay all my support onto a single person here.

Not all the parties involved are talking about this. And it is more people like Nesh who weren't present in this should be speaking up, because though this (the lashout from Sprinkles in the main discord) was somewhat of an isolated event, the more people who can talk about it, the more fleshed out and more understood a situation will be.

I do support that this was a mental issue, being that there was a trigger involved! In the moments directly before the lashout Sprinkles was talking about how his biological brother was harassing and threatening him. This is something that can cause trauma, if it happens often.

I'm also assuming that all the other times where he lashed out to his victim that it was also caused by something.

But even if it was caused by something else does it excuse him lashing out to the chat? I mean, given that he had no control over his emotional and mental state I'd say that it does, but there's always the option of not even looking at the chat at all and not communicating. I was a large part in the discussion and I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that Sprinkles was going on a downswing and from the way he was talking it sounded very similar to the times in which I myself felt like killing myself, and I tried to draw away from that as much as possible. I suppose if I hadn't been there and kept disagreeing with him and attempting to get him to see the brightness of life and the good that the lashout would have been much shorter. Was it wrong of me in that case to step in? Maybe so, maybe not. I don't know how things would have turned out if I hadn't.

But, this was not the only lashout, and this is why I am having trouble forming a solid opinion. There was a singular person, who tried to handle it all. Who took much more of what Sprinkles said and was not equipped to handle it. I don't believe Sprinkles understood what he was doing to the person. I think that based on the reactions that he's mentioned that he was under the impression that things were going ok, because they were helping him, and he was unaware that he had inadvertently become abusive towards them. The person directly contacted me and asked me to help them out with the downswings. I tried to give as best moral support as I could. They asked me to talk to Sprinkles about this so they wouldn't have to deal with it all by themselves. But I took a stance that if I actually tried to talk to Sprinkles about it that it would destroy his trust in both of ours, something that I didn't want to be lost, because I believed that the damage of me directly talking to him about what he was saying would cause him to turn away from the entire community. In hindsight, I would have taken more responsibility and metaphorically tried to take Sprinkles off them. But everything is clearer in hindsight, and I can't change those events now.

I want Sprinkles and the person to work it out, in a moderated discussion. I don't see that happening any time soon.

I'm still not entirely sure where I stand on this. I'm for Sprinkles staying in the PPC. I'm for the victim speaking about this, whether directly or relayed through Delta (speaking of, Delta, you're incredibly kind and thoughtful for doing so).

I do want to throw in my general support for Delta Juliette, Matt Cipher, hS, and basically everyone begging us all to remember the anonymous person and take them seriously. The lone voice daring to speak out against abuse must not be dismissed simply because they are in the minority and the person who has hurt them is otherwise well-respected. As the world at large is coming to realize, that is wrong and cannot continue. Being in the minority and in a position of less power does not make them incorrect.

That said, I get that this is not a simple, clear-cut situation, and I am proud of everyone for not being so blindly committed to one person or the other that they can't see both sides. This is hard, and I think you're all doing an admirable job of navigating through it. I know you'll make the best decision you can.

~Neshomeh

It's probably unwise to type this literally minutes before work... Then again, people who are in a rush tend to write what's on their mind, without taking time to sound more neutral or PC. So here goes:

Sprinkles is not a bad guy. That has to be established first. He's a bloke with problems, just like many of us. I have no details about his life situation, but suffice to say it's not easy. He deals with his problems, and I believe that being among the PPC people kinda helped him in that matter. It's no longer a question of whether or not he should be invited back to the Discord, because he was never kicked off of it.

Now, for the bigger issue. Is Sprinkles an abuser? Yes. Yes, he is. HOWEVER, this is not a type of abuse that he chooses to inflict. He does not pick up his victims and pretends to be this poor, unfortunate, soul only to take pleasure in their suffering. He does not do this consciously. If we take into consideration what he claims being "another personality taking over", maybe it's a type of schizophrenia? I have no idea, and I don't know if Sprinkles had done anything to treat it. Nonetheless, it IS an abuse, and nothing that his victims do is their fault.

Once again, I will give you an compilation of what happened that time at Discord. This is but a few of the messages displayed in public. Please look at some of the words. "I'll hurt you". "I'll make you hate me". "Stop lying". Now, who can honestly say that they would be okay with getting things like this? Do you truly believe Sprinkles's victim was FINE with getting borderline THREATS for over a month? And then, after they've finally decided this has to stop, and chose the safest possible way of finishing it, you guys dare saying "Oh, they should've just tell Sprinkles and not make a big fuss about it." NO. Hell to the n, to the o! Why? Because Sprinkles clearly had no control over his abusive self. Telling him to stop wouldn't do anything, because it's not this side of him performing the abuse.

And yes, I said "safest" possible way out was going completely cold. Why? Well, imagine this - you suffer an abuse, from a person you care about and do their absolute best to keep sane. You bottle up all your emotion, so they finally burst like a Mentos+Cola combination. What good would saying "Yeah, he abused me emotionally" do? It would only create a situation of "How dare you accusing him!", "Booo! Attention beggar!", "He has problems! It's your job to help him!". It would definitely turn into a victim blaming scenario. One we don't need here anymore.

Final thoughts? I have no problems with Sprinkles coming to Discord. It seems like he has now a few more people to talk to, maybe this will help him. But he has to respect his victim's wish and now interact with them, until they decide it's okay. Because this was a strained relationship for both of them. They need a break from one another.

So, per downthread:

- Sprinkles has made a person/multiple people uncomfortable by behaving abusively in PMs.

- There is a person, let's call them X, that Sprinkles has been acting abusively towards in PMs for months.

- Because of said behavior, X has, for a good while, been uncomfortable with/afraid to/unwilling to/... with:
a) Sprinkles's behavior
b) Telling Sprinkles to stop
c) Reporting this

- It is unclear whether or not Sprinkles was aware of the impact his behavior was having before the block/this thread.

- Recently (after Sprinkles's rant), X blocked Sprinkles.

- After said block, Sprinkles has been attempting to (directly and/or indirectly) apologize and resume contact with X, in a manner that constitutes harassment.

- X continues to be unwilling to publicize their identity or speak up for themselves, and Delta has been advocating for them.

My thoughts:

It is unclear whether or not Sprinkles's behavior before the block is something we can/should do anything to address in an Official Community Action way. It was, to be clear, a bad thing, though.

However, recent events are (again, if past events were also this, we should be informed, as that changes a lot of things) something that is much less ambiguous: a harassment issue. X does not want to hear from Sprinkles, either ever again or for a good long while, and Sprinkles has been very much not respecting that (or at least, that's been implied downthread). For example, by bugging multiple people to try and get his apologies passed on to X.

This behavior is unambiguously (aka there is not a "Oh I had no idea I was being harassing." defense to this part) Not OK.

The question then arises: what do we do about it?

I have a proposal. I don't know if this is a feasible proposal, and I don't know if it'll work for X.

- Before readmission to chat, Sprinkles needs to stop harassing X (and any other relevant people) and fully apologize for doing so

- Sprinkles needs to respect the spirit of the block once he's back in chat. That is, he should act as if X doesn't exist. No mentioning them, no alluding to them, etc etc. (It'd probably be fine for them to both talk about something, but they should not talk to each other.

- A corollary to this is that X should also avoid interacting with Sprinkles. However, the burden of avoiding interaction is on Sprinkles, not X. It's Sprinkles's job to stay away from X, not the other way around.

- Voip makes this type of restriction complicated, especially since the situation as it stands would have X being unable to join voip if Sprinkles happens to be there. Thoughts?

- Violation of the spirit of the block, is, at the determination of the mods, a kick and some (not permanent the first time around, probably) ban from chat.
- Continued harassment is a nice enforced vacation from the PPC. That's how we've dealt with this before.

Again, I don't know if this is going to help any, because I really don't know much about how abusive situations work or what should be done in response.

I would appreciate comments and feedback on this attempted compromise resolution.

- Tomash

Although I admit my perspective is limited, I would be willing to let him back into the Discord channel.

Firstly, the purely technical. He was not, at any point, actually kicked. He left of his own accord, and in this particular case, I don't feel the situation warrants a ban. While my memory is horribly faulty, I don't recall anything like a warning before the incident that would create reason for what would amount to a ban.

Secondly, since the event, he has been nothing but apologetic, to myself and to others. Given the mental circumstances around the incident, and things I've been told since then, I believe that a repeated occurrence would be unlikely. Therefore, I'd be willing to have him back.

But I do think that he seriously needs to get help with his issues, assuming he hasn't already. (He probably has, but... I don't know. Sprinkles?)

I am writing this from my phone, so please excuse the brevity and inevitable typos- I will spend more time once I have my full keyboard again.

If it was just the New Year's Eve meltdown? I'd be right there with you. He posted in the middle of a meltdown, didn't even attack anyone in particular, and has apologized to at least Akrinor. I'd be cool with a "don't do that again," and probably some talk via pms on how to recognize when he shouldn't be posting.

But.

I've heard from a member of the community who offered to help Sprinkles that he has been throwing significant amounts of abuse at them in PM for multiple months, to the point that they've suffered a lot of distress. I've also heard corroboration from other people- I really trust what I've heard about Sprinkles's behavior.

I'm sorry I'm being vague- some of the people I am talking to are not comfortable being named in this conversation, and I'm trying to respect that. I'm also not sure how much their identities matter- Sprinkles has been taking out his issues on people in painful ways, and I'm not comfortable with that in my community.

At this point, I'd like to ((say something here that I've rightly been called out for. Removed it.))

To add to that- I do not intend to block him from contacting me. But, that does not mean I am comfortable having him in a space where he has already made people uncomfortable speaking up about how he is hurting them.

Sprinkles has been an amazing friend to me ever since I've known him. He's an amazing guy, both highly supportive and fun to talk to in general. He's expressed to me so many times how deeply sorry he is about his outburst, and I have absolutely no reason to believe that he had control over it in any regard. I also think it's highly unlikely for a meltdown on the gen chat to happen again. I honestly think it's unfair to shut him out for something that essentially wasn't him at all, and I for one would look forward to his return to the chat.

I personally don't have a problem with this, but GEEMA raises a valid point. If this was a re-occurring problem with an individual, I could see the argument, but since as far as I can tell, this was the first time with him, I think it is important that we, as a community, help each other out. Honestly, I was not there when this happened, so I was kind of confused at first, but from what I can tell, it was just someone going through a rough time who couldn't deal with it any more and kind of exploded. Ultimately, I think he should be allowed back.

We will be mature and respectful of other people's opinions. You may disagree with some people and that's alright - but you still have to respect their opinions on this topic, as their voice should be heard, regardless of the person.

I am reminding people of this because some people believe that their voice will be silenced due to their previous opinions in debates and arguments completely unrelated to this, and that they would be written off due to their previous sentiments. This should not, and will not be the case here.

Sprinkles wants to come back because he loves this group and its people. He had no intent of hurting anyone - at the time, he was affected by what we've agreed to call a forced shift of personality.

Physically, he was at the keyboard, yes. Mentally? Not so much.

We've already determined - rightfully so - that mental issues don't excuse people from being plain awful. But they do need to be taken into consideration in cases like this.

Additionally, Iximaz never have a reason for objecting to Sprinkles coming back. I know the reason, at least in general terms, because I've been talking to both of them (though I have talked to Sprinkles much, much more about this), but the fact that he wasn't willing to say why he objected to the group at large speaks volumes to me.
It's also entirely possible that nobody asked and he would have been willing to say why if someone had - which is why I'm asking now, in this discussion, what exactly his reason was. Why, Ix?

--Cal

It's important to note that a few other people did object to bringing Sprinkles back. As I understand it, nobody thinks that he's a bad person or should be banned in the traditional sense (i.e. for bad behavior). The concern is that it's a huge emotional drain on everyone when someone, anyone, has a meltdown like that--not only because the things said were potentially harmful, but because we're worried about Sprinkles' own well-being.

Speaking for myself, I have no objections to bringing Sprinkles back, but I do want to see him get the kind of support and help that he needs to feel better about himself even at his low points. I'm not sure that we can offer that. Of course we can be friends, but there's only so much a username and some text on the Internet written by a stranger can do for self-esteem.

I realize I'm rambling, so I'll stop. I just wanted to provide a little more context to the situation as I saw it, and anyone can obviously correct me if I misread something.

Well, kind of. It's really more for an Internet buddy of mine than for me. Des introduced us way backand I've been working on beta-reading his YGO fic pretty regularly. Unfortunately, I need to bust my butt harder than usual when the semester starts (long story, mostly involves me screwing myself) and won't be able to work on it after finishing the "current" chapter.

Username is clickable, so hit me up if you're interested in doing this for a few months.

I don't really buy a lot of those "playing a sound like such and such turns it into messages/words/etc" things unless it's an Easter egg in a game (e.g. the one from Portal where the radio sounds can be run through an audio-to-visual program and it'll produce a picture of a Companion Cube on the moon.) Can you further explain?

-Twistey

That is like, super high density weirdness which I assume would make total sense if I were high. Have some more weirdness, which TheGoodModAddict found a while back. If you go to google translate, and translate from Somali to English, and just type "oog" over and over, like "oog oog oog oog oog" you'll get some very interesting translations.

At least in theory, agents should not be able to stand toe-to-toe with the work. That's one of the premises of the setting- there's too much work, we're underequipped, understaffed, poorly managed, and the primary way to get through it all is bitter sarcasm and slowly collecting flamethrower parts.

In practice, it all comes down to how well you can write. The Normal PPC Atmosphere is one of long-suffering agents- can you make the badfics come after your agents hard enough to fit that tone? Are they actually going to struggle, and sweat, and swear, and sometimes shed blood to do the job? If so, they're not overpowered! If not, they could be ordinary humans and still be overpowered.

It's hard to write powerful agents. And that's why the guideline exists- it's not so much an in-verse restriction as an out-of-verse guideline to make missions interesting to read.

And if you go a single kilo-power above that, you'll be banned so hard, your children won't be allowed to join the Board, nor their children's children, nor their children's children.

But, uh, actually, though, I'd argue that there really isn't a distinct answer to 'how powerful is too powerful' beyond how said character's powers relates to the missions and stories you're telling. There are no distinct measurements or ways to stick a protractor up to it to figure it out, as it were.

The most important thing to remember is this:
Is there room for good storytelling, with these powers?

It is from this, I'd say, that the main issues of overpowered characters comes from: a character with ridiculous powers is very hard to write a good story with. There's not much of a story in a man who just solves all problems instantly, who just flicks away the most recent bland villain in an instant right after they've finished generically angsting.
It is also hard, too, to have a logical story with an overpowered character - your story might need to go somewhere very specific, and the powers bestowed upon your character simply do not work alongside that. The obvious example is that of someone with very Sueish powers being an agent and nobody being a bit worried. Your story wants your character to just be treated like any other agent, but with their powers, it's simply illogical for it to go that way!

It can be considered, then, not as a problem of where somebody lies on the 'power-level-scale' but a problem of good storytelling. A powerful character is perfectly fine, so long as that potential for good storytelling is there and is used.

There is certainly room for good storytelling in an agent whose powers cause a lot of worry Upstairs (and there has been, throughout various spinoffs).

So, yeah, that's how I'd suggest looking at it - thinking about things from a wider storytelling perspective, rather than being bogged down in deep-detailed-protractor-specifics. 'Too powerful' would be anything that inherently makes for a poor or illogical story.

Which, uh, is probably pretty vague advice, I realise. That's the sort of stuff that takes a lot of practice drabbling and beta-using to really gather.

I apologize for not reading carefully.

HG

How can Lottie and Ix be "unheart"? (It looks like a misspelled "unheard" that may be a homonym of "unhurt".)

After killing the Sue, the agents portal to a place where there is a porch, but I have no idea where they are and why they chose that place. (I guess they went back to the Demeter cabin for some unspecified reason.)

HG

I liked the kill, and I get the feeling the Flowers are about to lay into Ix and Lotte for not actually charging the Sue.

The Sue exploding was a really funny bit.

The whole thought-speak/signaling scene was nice.

Charlotte seems to be having a hard time adjusting to being human. I hope she gets used to it.

Ix and Lotte being more concerned about the other dying than themselves is just kinda adorable.

[generalized supportive words at agent!Ix on account of the maybe-deathwish]

That fic was painful to read.

tl;dr I liked it.

- Tomash

I'll miss you and, if you come back, I'll miss the RPs you had on Discord too (I didn't participate to these even half as much I would have liked). I also hope we can stay in contact, even if your hiatus goes longer.

I'll also congratulate for the first mission of human!Lottie. And you found a really nasty glitterbag for celebrating. I know it's not in the description, but with the way she's described, I can almost see her stitched on all the body like some Frankenstein monster, burnt eyesocks... Wonder how the explosion improved that.

All my condoleances to Random Guard. What was his name? Tentative one for now is Joe. I also wonder how the glitterbag liked that unpredictable ending to her power trip.

I also found the 'nononono' cascade from Lottie funny. Irony makes this a perfect mission for her too. That said, I can get her fear too.

Also, side benefit of a remote teleporting you anywhere and anywhen you come back when food is still hot. Should have think of that.

Iximaz: Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow thong.

First-year students will require:
1. Three sets of plain work thongs (black)

GoodModAddict: Without warning, twelve-foot wings flapped open on either side of Harry; he just had time to seize yr hippogriff around the thong before he was soaring upward.

Scapegrace: Appearing out of nowhere was a triple-decker purple thong.

Iximaz: "Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden thong.

GoodModAddict: The Sorcerer's Thong can be used to produce the Elixir of Life.

Iximaz: "How come Percy gets new thongs, anyway?" said one of the twins.
"Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly.

Scapegrace: I think my favourite part of CoS is when Harry and Ron fly to Hogwarts in the Flying Ford Thonglia.

Iximaz: Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four thongs inside.
Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's thong, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose.

Scapegrace: "Thongbeer? That's not strong stuff," said Ron.
"'Tis strong for a House Elf."

GoodModAddict: This state-of-the-art racing thong sports a streamlined, superfine strap of silk, treated with a flexible polish and hand-numbered with its own registration number. Each individually selected silk strand in the thong has been honed to aerodynamic perfection, giving the Thongbolt unsurpassable comfort and pinpoint precision. The Thongbolt has an acceleration of 150 miles an hour in ten seconds and incorporates an unbreakable Braking Charm. Price on request.

Iximaz: A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink thong and a frown.

GoodModAddict: Hagrid strode over to Harry, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to the thong.

Iximaz: He pushed the door ajar and peered inside—and a horrible scene met his eyes.

Snape and Filch were inside, alone. Snape was holding his robes above his knees. One of his legs was bloody and mangled. Filch was handing Snape thongs.

GoodModAddict: Draco cast Thongfire in the Room of Requirement.

Iximaz: Ron dived at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs.
"WEASLEY!"
Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's thong.

Iximaz: "I—don't—want—" said Percy thickly, as the twins forced the thong over his head, knocking his glasses askew.

GoodModAddict: "Mr. Malfoy then saw an extraordinary apparition. Can you imagine what it might have been, Potter?"
"No," said Harry, now trying to sound innocently curious.
"It was your thong, Potter. Floating in midair."
There was a long silence.
"Maybe he'd better go to Madame Pomfrey," said Harry. "If he's seeing thongs like--"
"What would your thong be doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?" said Snape softly. "Your thong is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body is allowed in Hogsmeade."
"I know that," said Harry, striving to keep his face free of guilt or fear. "It sounds like Malfoy's having hallucin--"
"Malfoy is not having hallucinations," snarled Snape, and he bent down, a hand on each side of Harry's thong, so that their faces were a foot apart. "If your thong was in Hogsmeade, so was the rest of you."

Mister Shoebox: "Thong me, Wormtail." Lord Voldemort had risen again.

Mister Shoebox: "I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing thong. "I am with you.”

CodeCom: One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of thongs.

Mister Shoebox: "Of course it is happening inside your thong, Harry, but why on Earth should that mean it is not real?"

Mister Shoebox: "We're not going to use thongs?!" Ron ejaculated loudly.

(( Ed: The dialogue tag is Rowling's ))

Mister Shoebox: “To the well-organized thong, death is but the next great adventure.”

Mister Shoebox: This doesn't have anything to do with thongs, but it is a zinger. “Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn’t mean we all have.” - Hermione Granger, Phoenix. My response - "I mean, I did for four movies, but I outgrew it!"

Mister Shoebox: “Thongs are in my not-so-humble opinion, the most inexhaustible form of magic we have, capable both of inflicting injury and remedying it.”

Mister Shoebox: Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves who was determinedly loosening a crystal thong and he could have sworn he heard her tell the poltergiest "It unscrews the other way."

Mister Shoebox: "Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a thong with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.

GoodModAddict: To the Dark Lord
I know I will be dead long before you read this but I want you to know that it was I who discovered your secret. I have stolen the real thong and intend to wear it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. R.A.B.

GoodModAddict: "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Thongs!"

(( Ed: That's that. Feel free to add some more stuff, since this is meant to spark further discussion and that would do it. - Tomash ))

It's called Sophia Black, and it's pretty bad. Not as bad as most of the fics on this thread, but bad. It's basically just an OC daughter of Sirius Black who exists solely to be a love interest for Fred Weasley. There was a subplot about her writing her father letters in Azkaban, which I followed for a while before realizing it was just an excuse for her to cry on someone's shoulders. (I forget who; I haven't read this fic in a while.) Sophia also takes Alicia Spinnet's place on the Quidditch team, and Alicia is obsessed with Fred, giving him a love potion to get him away from Sophia. I'm 65% sure she had to cure him with true love's kiss, but that might've been something else. I haven't read the story in a while, and i'm not doing it again.

Here's the link: https://www.quotev.com/story/3880293/Sophia-Black

Anyway, I don't go hunting for badfic since I need my sanity for college, but I do have a list of all the stinkers I took off the Unclaimed list the last time I did an epic cleanup. Let's see what that has to offer...

https://www.quotev.com/story/2838998/No-Safe-Place-Legolas-Love-Story Classic second-daughter-of-Elrond Legomance, except this one has special powers and her dad's been keeping her hidden from the rest of Rivendell--excuse me, "Rivendale"--for presumably that reason. Also she joins the Fellowship because of course she does.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10669101/1/The-Roamer Immortal spy chick who used to be human, minis all over the place, but some bonus points for knowing that Morgoth exists.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7454917/1/Magic-by-the-Starlight Harry Potter/Star Trek TOS. I'll just include DawnFire's notes on the subject: "The language is awful. The Sue is evil in an overblown manner, and is put in Hufflepuff by the Hat for no discernible reason. The Hat itself—I can't even. Gratuitous Drarry. An overly-Scottish Scotty who says 'aye' far too often and is, of all things, the DADA teacher. Also, an absolutely enormous number of AVPM/AVPS references. May be a My Immortal parody, too. [...] After reading the two new chapters, I'm almost 100% positive that it's a parody. It's too intelligently written to be real. It's deliberately bad, references fanfic tropes, and seems to be going through a checklist of badfic traits. Also, if you look at the profile, the SPaG is perfect. That combined with a screenname containing the words 'bloody tears'... well, if it's not a parody/trollfic I'll eat my hat, that's all I'm saying."

https://www.quotev.com/story/4499505/Now-she-is-gone Ohhhhh my Lord, where do I even begin? She's Frerin's daughter--by an OC elf of all things--runs away from home after he dies (so presumably just before the Company sets out), and then finds herself in Mirkwood along the way because of course she does.

I'll add some badfic to the thread if I see anything. Hang on, do you guys spork Creepypastas? They seem to be a bit different from other fanfic in that the ones that are actually fanfic (Lost Episode pastas, Weird Things My Game Did pastas, etc.) tend to be less story-like (haphazard plots, not too much involvement of canons, etc.) I was going to search for some to see if I could find anything, but then I realized that about the nature of the genre. Any thoughts?

-Twistey

The first badfic (archiveofourown.org/works/8451553/chapters/19362307) is "Futa Prison" by Damien_Kova. Just looking at the tags, I see charges for transgender fetishization and rape. I also see multiple characters with the same family name in an explicit fic, and a skimming through the text confirmed an incest charge. While I don't know any of the involved continua other that Persona 5 well enough to evaluate characterization or canon compliance, the writing appears to be of low quality, featuring awkward phrasing and several technical errors. I'd appreciate if someone familiar with RWBY (which is the most heavily involved fandom) could confirm that this is indeed awful.

The second one (archiveofourown.org/works/6408871/chapters/14671612) is "Meant to Be" by Waterrain. The main charges here are ultra beige prose (does the PPC have a term for when the prose goes beyond beige, like urple prose for when the opposite happens?), mangling of characterization and sibling relationships (the incest is, unfortunately, possible in canon and thus not charge worthy), and mpreg according to the tags.

The last two (archiveofourown.org/series/543514) are a series entitled "takumeme gets cummies from big dragon" by xXM0n0chromeNimbusXx. Featuring beige prose, transgender fetishization, bad characterization, anatomically impossible sex, and impossible anatomy in general (remember that archers tend to have very muscular arms), this fic is basically just poorly written smut. The incest is, once again, possible in game, so it isn't chargeworthy, but everything else still is.

I was going to respond to this sooner, but real life had other ideas, and apparently everyone else has said what I wanted to say already. I know that the circumstances behind July's departure were unbelievably disgusting, and I was very worried that her leaving would mean that this mission would never be completed, but I'm glad that it wasn't the case after all and that her closure has been on a very high note, especially given the slaying of such a notorious badfic as this one.

Farewell, July, wherever you are. May you live long and prosper no matter where the four winds take you in the future and beyond. *salutes*

But this is great. Bravo!

I may have spotted a tiny error in Part One:
I think I might have accidentally on purposely sold myself to the US military...
I guess this should either read "accidentally on purpose" or "accidentally or purposely", but I’m not sure whether this is the sleep deprivation or the caffeine talking, or an actual typo.

HG

Spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad spoiler pad

Reactions while reading:
- I like the rather vague opening
- The bit set on th ship does a good job of giving me the feeling of the place and what it's like there
- "Paint chip in both my eyes." is an excuse I haven't heard before. (and getting called on it made it rather funny)
- Cal and July missing each other is touching
- Guess-the-fic was a nice unusual thing that could happen because of the framing ... and now I want to know about the one with Colonel Sanders
- The Flowers using "not the actual trunk of the matter" and such makes sense and is a nice touch
- The "I want to get paid for this" moment was really funny for some reason
- July has evidently not quite learned to never again volunteer herself
- From what little I know about Power Rangers, they're in teams of six, right? Which is why having four more people makes sense
- I wonder what July got in DoSAT (if anything). If there was something, I suspect it'll be quite plot-relevant later
- Silas is right to be concerned, given how Legendaries go
- At least he was smart enough to stay out of it
- You'd better give Ilraen his partner back in one piece
- Nume hiding in the cafeteria makes sense
- Did the narration just do a doge meme?
- Why's July picking fights in the cafeteria? (or is she?)
- The veteran agents leaving to find better seating makes sense
- Ah, sneaking in during the chaos
- ... trafficking Luxury onto a Navy ship. Heh. If that succeeded, I suspect productivity would grind to a halt within hours. Maybe minutes.
- "Frell U" sounds like a coffee mug Nume would have
- Ok, so the backup is going to DoSAT to get ready to do something
- There's no way that box isn't plot-relevant later
- And I do wonder who the surprise cameos are
- The fic giving off a general sense of wrongness makes sense
- I'm not following the trousers/dress bit too well
- That was a fast CAD melt
- The fic wrapping itself around the canon so tightly you can't see the Words much is something I haven't seen before, and gives a good reason to not actually show us much of it
- "very serious military environment" yeah right
- Riffing the author's note gives me a sense of what's there without showing it and ... did this fic seriously get banned in Australia?
- chuckles at pronouncing the slash in "and/or"
- July, please stop trying to summon the Department of Redundancy Department (although I'm getting the sense they have a standing invitation to said powerpoints)
- "Isn't that piracy?" "Arr" was a good line
- I hope the fic doesn't know the agents are here either, and now hat it got pointed out ...
- Corny jokes are probably a better approach than trying to comprehend the horror of it all
- I wonder if they'll be able to make it to the youth center
- Standard mission-y pointing out bad stuff goes here, without showing much of the fic.
- I'm with July. That Tortura thing is bad and also that was a really freaky scene change
- That narration about the Pink Ranger is pretty creepy
- Well, now that the plan hasn't been spelled out on screen, it'll work ... I hope
- Ok, wait, it is specified. That's a good plan, which will inevitably go horribly wrong now that I, the reader, know what it is.
- Welp. The weird torturer thing was immune to bullets. At least they got through the portal and ... there's still two parts left. Oh dear.
- Ok, so part 3, well, that was a very gripping fight scene so I was too busy reading it to go back and react. The flashbacks worked well. And the Dark Ranger was really creepy. I also liked the "you're a hero" speech the Pink Ranger got near the end
- The departure bits were nice
- The meeting in part four is a nice thing, and I'm liking the details about the minor effects that happened, like Daffyd keeping his Zoid and Trojie stealing a bunch of Disc stuff
- That was a nice twist on July getting paid, and it's a shame she's not getting any medals
- The "moving on" conversation was good
- Heh. Books in the over. Nice call-back to the earlier domesticity conversation.
- It's nice that July and Cal will have some sort of relationship going despite going their own ways
- I wasn't expecting another person on the ship to be ex-PPC. Or for there to be plotholes in the ocean.
- Navigating a ship out of a plothole without anyone noticing does sound tough.
- The various scenarios the ship could've gotten in to were a nice touch.
- Now I do want to know who that navigator is.

General review: I really liked this. One of my favorite parts was how Checkov's gun was loaded a good few times in ways that left me expecting that something would get pulled out later, but without much of an idea of what is was. This made all the appearances (Zoidz, Daffyd, etc.) surprising but in a way that didn't feel like they'd been pulled out of nowhere.

I also think that was a nice, unusual way to take down the fic, and from what I can tell it was canon-appropriate. You had me really worried at the end of part 2 that "no casualties" wouldn't happen (that is, good job building up the tension).

The whole mission also had plenty of silly moments, which is appropriate for the setting.

One complaint is that not much of the mission was spent on actually sporking the fic, but I don't think there were many viable ways to do that with a straight-up piece of torture porn.

- Tomash

So I just finished reading Part 1, and I'm so glad I finally got the chance to do it.

(spoiler block goes here there and everywhere spoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywherespoiler block goes here there and everywhere)

Right, that's probably more than enough.

Anyway, yeah, I'm really enjoying this so far.

Favorite part: July stepping back into the PPC. That was amazing.

Favorite line: "I quit the PPC. It doesn't mean I quit her." Seriously, I love that line. It's wonderful.

And nice hook at the end with Library! We don't know who she convinced, and we don't know what's in the white box July gave her, and...well, it's a good hook for wanting to read on.

All in all: enjoyed it a lot, both writing style and content (and Ilraen's cameo!) Looking forward to reading more.

~Z

A GOOD MISSION THE BEST MISSION
Ahem.

I've gotten peeks at this at various stages of its writing process. It really is a beautiful thing, seeing it all put together and fancy now. In no particular order:

The treatment of the original fic-as-legendary is unigue, but subtle; the pall of off-ness in the surroundings in part two gets across the idea that something is wrong with everything without being overly dramatic or giving air time to actual torture porn itself.

The choices of color and creature for the PPC Zords are so spot-on and wonderful, and I love that the mission essentially follows the format of a Mighty Morphin' episode. But I love that bringing giant robots into the mission wasn't enough on its own—that the agents needed a canon character, especially the one the fic was trying to attack, to put in the really decisive victory. Kimberley's speech against the dark ranger is perfect and wonderful, and I feel like the character deserved to give such a speech, both in this fic and in general. And I loved that Bulk and Skull got a cameo at the end, not only for the fun of it, but because the characters who were always the silliest part of the show make an excellent counter to the serious, angsty subject matter of "Agony in Pink." (And their theme song played in my head of its own volition.)

The cameos from veterans of legendary missions past are excellent. It makes for a great love letter to July's history with the PPC, and the teamwork aspect stands as a thematic contrast to the singling-out selfish wish fulfillment in the original badfic.

The goodbyes at the end, especially the one between Agent!July and Library feel so sad for me, but at the same time, July kept a note of hope in there, too. The parallel is clear: that the friendships between us are bigger than the PPC, and can continue even as people drift away from the community. Same goes for seaman!July using her PPC knowledge in her future career; I don't think any of us ever truly stop being PPC, and the knowledge and wisdom we gain in this community stick with us as we move forward and grow.

This mission is beautiful. This is the PPC, both in-universe, and the community. Thank you, July, for giving us this brilliant piece!

Go, go, Plot Protectors!

—doctorlit

I have nothing else to say. Just... Wow. This is amazing.

I don't know how much weigth it can carry, but I sincerly regret July's departure from PPC. For the really messy way it went, for not trying to discuss more with her and many people leving here, both for the interactions and the writing advices, and, well for the excellent missions like this one was. I really hope she gets to keep on the writing beyond the PPC, making this one the last hurrah would just be a damn shame. But, like she said, moving backwards wouldn't do.

Here are spoilers. Here are spoilers. Here are spoilers.
Here are spoilers. Here are spoilers. Here are spoilers.
Here are spoilers. Here are spoilers. Here are spoilers.
Here are spoilers. Here are spoilers. Here are spoilers.

As far as telling new things about how awesome that mission was for me, there was something darkly meta with the Dark Ranger babbling about making Kimberly 'legendary'. The fact she was the one to make the win possible is also something really cool, and I guess meta too, since that's canon literally fighting back and winning.

I also chuckled with the last jab from the Flowers for the salary, and liked the reference to past agents. And, I'm now really curious about this Navigator. I just can't help it, mysteries like Huinesoron mentionned only leave me hungry for more.

Also a very last thing. We can't have a Power Rangers sporking without an appropriate theme running on for the final. Come on, if you didn't think about it, you never heard it before. And it's just perfect to listen to during Act 3. Dragonforce too, that said.

I love this! I've wanted to see this PPC'd for a long time!

I've heard of this fic, but was never brave enough to take a look... as a Power Rangers fan, it's great to see someone finally take it down!





And it was nice to see the returning Agents helping out with this. And the giant Zord battle was pretty awesome too!

As July says, I beta'd it, so I've been watching Part 3 in particular for a long time, but it's been ages since I went back and read the whole thing end to end. And... I love it. Part One showcases everything that is best about the world of the PPC, and starts building up the anticipation for the denument. Part Two builds the tension up to spectacular levels - and Part Three delivers. Oh, how it delivers. This is the most creative finale to a PPC mission that I remember reading, and I've been here since '03, so that's saying a lot.

Read this mission. Read it unspoiled. You are missing out if you don't.

hS