Jan 2018 Archive, part b

Please say so. If you don't like it, don't care about it, don't think people would care about it, please say so, and explain why. I might be missing something extremely important or simple here. I know I can be a little dim at times and if I've seriously missed something, just know that this idea is and was in earnest, with good intent. I am really just looking for any feedback at all on this.

"What do you mean you don't have any other clothes?"

Cass sighed and flopped onto the bed like a sack of studiously indifferent potatoes. "I don't need any other clothes, Em. That's what the Disguise Generator's for."

"Oh. My. God. You have not been wearing the same outfit for the past three months." Em clambered out of the armchair and folded her arms, her foot tapping indignantly on the floor. "Like, have you even been doing laundry?"

"... Spells count, right?"

"You are unbelievable."

"You're a weregerbil."

"Don't change the subject." Em twitched her nose. "We are taking you clothes shopping and don't even try to get out of it."

"Look, Emma, if you want to go clothes shopping, I won't stop you. Go. Take my purse if you want to, I know you blew threw your money for this month already. I just don't care about how I look. It doesn't matter to me."

"Huh." Emma stopped tapping her foot, deep in thought. "Damn. You hate it that much?"

"Hate implies I care about it."

"Huh."

The clock in the corner of the room ticked. Every one seemed louder than the last. The RC beeped the beep of the righteous. The bathroom mirror prophesied their inevitable doom, which told them it was a Tuesday.

"Can I ask a question, Cass?"

"You may."

"Pedant. Anyway, were you serious about me taking your purse shopping on El Worldo Uno? I know how you are with money."

"If it got me out of a shopping trip I would let you have my friggin' kidney."

"Wow. Uh. Okay. I mean, uh, I knew you didn't like it? But... yeah."

"I'm technically an adult, and adults get to decide what that means. In my case? Wear one set of clothing until it's basically a bunch of loosely connected holes, then buy the exact same outfit. Clothes shopping is an experience akin to having both my legs broken with a hammer and I never want to do it again."

"Fine! Jeez. Like, you made your point."

"Hey, I wouldn't make you go to LeakyCon-"

"Ugh. Gurl, for real, can you not with that name? I know what the history is, but it just sounds like a bunch of old folks packed into a convention centre talking about adult diapers."

"My point exactly."

"Dude, I said you already made your damn point. I get it, okay?"

"Yeah. I... yeah. Sorry."

"It's okay, Cass." Em sat down beside her and ruffled her hair. "You're okay. You don't have to do anything you don't want to ever again, okay?"

The clocks kept ticking. Louder and louder. Filling the silence until Cassie could speak again.

"Okay."

[REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~]

"Ohfercryinoutloud. Cass, you wanna get that?"

"Sure. Um. Wow. Potterverse AU where all the magic is replaced with spy gadgets. This seems... dumb."

"Oh, jeez. At least it's your wheelhouse."

"And I know you came from KP, so the spy stuff? Your wheelhouse. Come on, Em, let's get the DG out. Black cargo trousers and T-shirts ahoy."

"Sweet. Just... Cassie?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't forget your pants."

The completely out-of-place 'Once you are dead, you are nothing' between all the raunchiness is kinda hilarious, honestly.

There is an interesting mix of lines that make me remember that these people were writing from a very different cultural context and lines that directly mirror things people write today. I agree, some of them really do remind me of 'Texts From Last Night'. I suppose in many ways we are not that different from the humans of two thousand years ago...

Apologies for the belated wishes. Happy birthday, EPL! I hope that the day itself was enjoyable.

Now what present should I give...?
*rummages through Trainer bag*
Let's see here...the usual Delibird will not suffice...here we go!
Have a plushie of Lars Lion the Bakugan and of Lars Lion the Pokémon!

Congratulations on your continued survival!

Also, those sound like awesome presents!

I'll give you ths black-hole chocolate cake with red berries coating, and black-hole coffee to go with it.

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Happy Birthday to you, eatpraylove.

I wish you the best for your 23rd!

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Here, have a triple chocolate cupcake (chocolate with chocolate chips and chocolate icing)! Don’t forget to blow out the candle and make a wish!

I've got some poetry which I really really should get around to publishing in a magazine or something. Currently just sitting around, just existing, I guess.

But recently, I've been working on a short story, which I suppose I'll turn into a novel, if it goes well enough. Gotta get those creative juices flowing, and start writing more of it though.

And lastly, I'm tinkering with a nonlinear story. I tried to swap between the present and memories, but after having it reviewed by a couple beta's, it isn't prominent enough, and I ended up confusing people, instead of bringing new understanding to the writing.

Write more, write often. And if you feel so inclined, make yourself some cocoa as you work. :)

all in the planning stages for years at this point.

"Because We Like You"
The chronologically next story of my spin-off, this takes place immediately after "Pick Your Poison" and shows my little Sue kid recruits being officially inducted to the PPC. It's actually a fairly complex interlude, with a handful of cameos and, I think, the first really detailed description of the nursery we've had yet? If anyone knows of an existing one I may have missed, let me know. But yeah, this one kicked my butt for literally years, and I'm glad it's in the beta stage and close to release. Just waiting for feedback from one more beta, Nesh! :)

* * *

"A Fistful of Hs"
My Thirty Hs mission, now into its second draft. I'm trying to make this mission fairly unique and different, and not to turn it into "oh no the badness is so bad," out of respect to the folks who find it legitimately entertaining. I'm trying to keep it pretty silly, but still have a plot surrounding it. I had quite a lot of fun drafting it, actually. There's also going to be a mini-mission side story of my Cafeteria agents going into Thirty Hs in search of edible substances.

This one will take a while to release, as there's another interlude I need to write for Doc and Vania that takes place between "Because We Like You" and this one, covering the 2013 Blackout.

An unbetad excerpt?
Vania nodded to Doc and started forward. “Let’s do this.”

“Wait. But.” Doc glanced from his partner to the scientist. “Disguises?”

“Do not bother,” said Minutia. “None of this story actually takes place on the surface of the Wizarding World.”

“Okay, that was some very suspicious phrasing you just chose, there.” Doc continued talking even as Vania dragged him towards the portal. “Nobody said this was a crossover, and I don't see where a Harry Potter story could take place other than oh my God we’re in outer space.”

Indeed, they were. The Potterverse version of Earth, geographically indistinguishable from World One’s, stretched out below the agents for a seemingly endless distance (with the British Isles facing them, appropriately enough). The moon loomed huge ahead of them, and the sun, still too far away to look any bigger, was somewhere behind them, allowing the agents vision.

Doc began to scream for a split second, but then clamped his mouth shut with his cheeks puffed out. He pressed his back to Vania and moved around her in a circle, flailing his arms. As his cheeks began to darken, he sank down at Vania’s feet, grasping at her hand briefly until the hand fell and he went still.

“Doc, please stand up. You're embarrassing me in front of all the celestial bodies.”

* * *

"The Garden Spells Trouble"
This is going to be a weird interlude, even by PPC standards. It appeared in my head fully formed after I read Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, an obscure little romance with a very light dash of urban fantasy. It's somewhere in between an interlude and a mission, and will finally reveal the Cafeteria Division's head after all these years. And will also connect to Phobos's Catastrophe Series, somehow. I doubt anyone was clamoring for Yoof and Séverine to get their own big episode, but uh. It's coming.

This story is actually ready for a third draft before betaing, but I've been putting it off since it takes place so far in the future from my current writing. I wanted to bang the whole thing out right after reading GS, so I didn't lose the idea.

Another unbetad excerpt:
Meanwhile, Yoof had been checking out what food was available. Uneaten food that required reheating had been carted back into the kitchens by the previous shift. (Nonperishable food was left out in the Cafeteria to keep agents occupied while new food was prepared. Less popular foods of this variety tended to sit out for weeks before either getting eaten by a desperate agent or managing to escape on its own.) The kitchens also featured massive walk-in pantries, refrigerators and freezers, containing various raw ingredients and unprepared food acquired from various fics and canons.

"What are our options today, Yoof? Sound off leftovers."

Yoof stood rigid and saluted. "From the leftovers! Slowpoke tail! Frosted guano! Meatloaf!"

Séverine rolled her eyes. Even all this time after the Blackout, the meatloaf was hardly getting touched. Didn't agents understand that not eating the meatloaf was what had caused Slorp in the first place? "And what other ingredients can we use?"

"From the freezer! Belgian fries! Sea salt ice cream! Maui's dolphin steak! Ants! Meatloaf!

"From the fridge! Spinning leek! Rukh eggs! Ham and jam and spam!"

"A lot?"

"Yes! Also, Superfast Jellyfish! A few good taters! Armored goat milk! Meatloaf!

"From the pantry! Dehydrated dextro-amino foods! Kupo Nuts and Deku Nuts! Beebles! Monkey biscuits! Some DHARMA supplies! Meatloaf!"

"Excellént, excellént." Séverine rubbed her hands together, mentally combining ingredients. She moved each of the mixing bowls to a separate counter. "We will put the guano and meatloaf back in the fridge. We need the food to be eaten this time." She paused again, glancing between the doors. "Okay. Yoof, I am going to begin mixing Kupo Nuts into dough. Please go knock some Beebles unconscious."

"Yes!" Yoof grabbed a large metal mallet from a corner and dragged it into the pantry, which was filled with tittering laughter. Unnervingly, the sound only increased with each loud thwack, but Séverine was too focused on mixing to notice.

—doctorlit, the slowest writer

Which are, uh, partially why I took so long to respond to this.
Also, procrastination.

By 'a few thing', what I actually mean is is that I have two main projects:

1. My first actual PPC story spinoff! Finally, after two years or so of being here, I've nearly got the spinoff, er, begun. Not to imply all that time was spent on that spinoff, because that would then imply that the thing has had more effort put into it than it has, therefore implying that it's better than it probably will be! That was mostly just finishing school, and, and trying to figure out what I was even doing and, uh, procrastinating.
It will consist of a bunch of short stories all connected to a larger one. It will have no missions or sues and it will be about an Operations division that's had basically nothing written about it.

Dos. A weekly prompts thingy with Alleb.
I would actually really recommend this, if you lot have troubles with motivating yourself to write things - it was for this reason that Alleb and I started doing it, after all! It's also useful for that whole worldbuilderitis thing, which was also partly why I started doing it.
It's essentially a workshopping thing - one of us will find a prompt, we each have a week to write a thing on that prompt, and at the end of the week, we look at each other's stories, and beta them. Repeat next week, with the other person finding the prompt.
Thus, you manage to:
- Get writing practice done (which is a bit important considering that the only way to get better at writing is to write things)
- Get a bit of betaing practice in
- Get your writing consistently critically looked at
And so on and so forth.
Also, you get to talk consistently to cool people about your stories. At least, I do.
I've been using it as a way to help me to further expand and look at my own original universe - using the prompts to write little vignettes within it. Which, of course, is very good for further developing it, and the like.

I've been writing bits and pieces of a PPC mission (that I probably won't publish) of a fic that I'm not sure is badfic-bad but otherwise has a Gary Stu, uncanon, contrivance issues, consistency issues, general stupidity, and writing that goes from being not so great to sounding pretentious.
Even though I might end up not publishing the mission, I'm writing it as an exercise and as a way to vent out my dislike on the stupid and annoying parts of the fic.

Ozzielot

A number of months ago, a friend (hi Thoth) and I were discussing the horrors of A/B/O dynamics and I got so mad I decided to make something with A/B/O that wasn't horrible. It's nowhere near done, and there's no beta yet so of course it's kinda gross but here it is, I guess. :D Really the only reason I'm posting this is so I'll have a better incentive to keep writing it.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jXIp75yKyyNpYUiAIWD4qvfJOBKcpTYfVT7rkTbHWP4/edit
Also if anyone wants to beta for me, I will pay you in souls.

I've come up with 5 different works for future Badfic Games and other joke badfics, but I haven't worked recently on anything legitimate I have. Oh dear. I need to go do that...

But if you guys want to know what any of my legitimate works are, I can elaborate.

-Twistey

First and foremost, I continue to write my Magic: the Gathering blog. I'm rather proud that I've kept it up this long.

I'm also working on that Baron Phobos story that I keep saying is almost done. In my defense, it is more almost done than the last time I said it was almost done. So...

Also, I keep meaning to go back and figure out a way to take the suck out of this mission I've been writing. I should do that.

-Phobos

Aka, the pile of files I have open that I could see getting bigger at some point.

- Honors thesis (the experiments are done, I just need to write the thing, due by May)
- An interlude set after the RP in which Kk'kttak fell into HQ (aka, the one where he's been arrested)
- Two short stories
- An effectively abandoned recruitment interlude for Peregrin (like, I might maybe get back to it eventually, but probably not anytime soon)
- A dormant Young Wizards/Animorphs crossover (... there's an outline! I have a plan! Sort of...)

And as to questions, do any of y'all have this problem where you sometimes get a project blocked by fleshing out the middle of a story? Like, you know where you are, you know where you'd like to end up, and you have a general notion of how to get from here to there, but you need much more detail than that to write the thing. If so, how do you deal with it?

- Tomash

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Hey Thoth,

I recall you've seen my own sort of take-on-the-PPC-that-isn't-a-PPC-spinoff; I've considered rewriting it to more closely resemble the PPC continuity since. Unfortunately, some of the elements conflict too much with what's established and existing to make it compatible with the PPC continuity, so Watanabe & Smith has unfortunately been in limbo for the past little bit and I'd like to discuss the direction I'm going in with other people. I'm currently leaning toward continuing on the road I'm on, and just keeping the disclaimer that it's not endorsed in any fashion by the PPC.

I've also been working on writing a couple essays and how-tos that I also intend to put on my website for different pieces of advice. One that I've thought to add includes a more expansive take on what I'm calling the "micro-story" method of describing a character or as an exercise to brainstorm when building a character. I've mentioned it here before although it was on the tailing end of another discussion. It's a method of using small, short descriptions of what your character does or has done, rather than use adjectives. I find that adjectives are inherently subjective and open to a wide amount of interpretation depnding on who you describe your character to and in many cases can be extrapolated to fit almost any character at all, wheras what they do say much more about them. That's why I champion the "micro-story" method so much and why I like to share it with other people. After that, we'll see what else I have to offer.

Unrelatedly, I might add some musings on the (extremely sad) state of computer security at the consumer level and some tips to stay safe at a later date.

Even though things have been going much more slowly than I'd like, I wanted to mention that they're still going.
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And by that I mean I'm stuck in the World Builder's Syndrome, unable to even write an opening, but spending hours nitpicking every possible aspect of my universe.
.
.
.
.
.
Send help.

The first bit of this popped into my head almost fully formed while I was in the shower a few days ago, and the second bit followed fairly easily. Then I spoke about it with a friend of mine who is a songwriter, and she's going to help me make it into an actual song next month. Apparently February is album-writing month. ^_^

First two verses on my dA. I'm holding off on sharing any more until I know what the final form is really going to be. The title (new today!) may not be the final title, either, but it's what I like right now.

Also:

- 1 active cowrite
- 3 dormant ones (one of which will become active again whenever hS can work it in; dunno about the other two)
- 1 interlude set in the near-ish future
- 1 regular mission, barely begun
- 1 epic sorta-filk
- Been thinking about working on my Skyrim stuff again. I chugged out many, many words, some of which might not suck!

All the irons. All the fires.

~Neshomeh may be slightly overextended, but doesn't care.

Yes, really. I know I haven't actually edited the document in over a year, but Real Life happened and then I decided to get rid of one character because they were pretty flat. I'm just trying to think of a good character to replace him, then I'll have to re-do the prompts.

I haven't been writing much lately, and nothing for here, but I'm definitely thinking about the problem and hope to have a few concepts down Soon(tm).

In a less facetious sense, I've been working on stuff for my degree. My first major assignment, a 1500 word essay and accompanying 500 word critical reflection concerning how colonialist ideology affects writers of speculative fiction, was handed in a few days ago. It went well! I... think. =]

Other than that, well, I've been tidying up Trenchbreakers, working on my first actual literary book review (a compare-and-contrast article about Rivers Of London and Full Dark House), polishing a new division's introduction, hammering together the next couple of Doktor Trollenfisch und Gabrielle missions, thinking about an interlude involving Algie and Lola, and putting together a plan for my next Wobbles and Notary PPC Power Hour.

Also: would anyone be averse to me swiping teaching material from my course and posting it to the Board as writing advice? It might help people out. =]

I think everything that's been mentioned so far has come up before, and I have no objection to any of them going on the list. The more I think about it, the more I realize it's no skin off my nose one way or the other, so I say have your fun. {= )

~Neshomeh

...but "Latias' Journey" seems like a good candidate. It has at least three pages of hits on Google, it was published between 2004 and 2009, has its own TV Tropes article, and is pretty well known among dA and Reddit. I've been told that at first it seems innocuous enough, but then there's this bit from the TV tropes summary:

It's absurdly long, surreal and bizarre to extremes, interspersed with plenty of lightheartedness, and plenty of fight sequences. And sometimes it's really, really dark, squicky, messy, and all kinds of disturbing.
Oh sorry, we should've mentioned this is rated M. Pack your security blanket and Brain Bleach.

The whole Tropes article itself is here, and includes a link to the fic itself:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/LatiasJourney

And then there's "Sweet Apple Massacre", which I've also mentioned before... It was published in 2011, has its own KnowYourMeme page, and again, turns up three pages or more of hits on Google. And I think it caused enough of a stir in the MLP fandom back in the day to qualify as well.

I'm still not entirely sure if Latias' Journey is eligible for adding to the list, since I think Legendary Badfics are outright BAD from the get-go and there do seem to be a few tidbits of genuinely good writing in the midst of all the grossness, but I believe Sweet Apple Massacre certainly is.

A 40k Potential Legendary: Squad Broken (https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7535246/1/Squad-Broken) (NSFW, NSFB), uploaded to FF.net in 2011, but seemingly around long before then. Almost certainly a troll. It caused the 40k fandom to react loudly with shock and horror, and is still known within the fandom today, years after its publication.

The term 'Legendary Badfic' is exactly that - a story that is widely known for being so bad there is little to no people saying good things about it.

(Granted, before joining the PPC, I myself only knew 2 out of 15 stories listed on our wiki...)

I'm all in for finding new gems who can be considered "oh, so terrible", but I think the Legendaries we have now are pretty much a closed chapter and a piece in our Hall o' Fame.

I think the most important bit is that lots of people have to be talking about it across the fanbase. It doesn't necessarily mean everyone will have heard of it—that's why we came up with the criteria we did, to get around the problem of most PPCers going "well, I never heard of it, it can't be that big a deal." But we don't all share fandoms, and we're not all active in fan communities outside this one, so that doesn't necessarily carry much weight. {= )

It's possible, though, that godawful badfic doesn't create the kind of buzz it did ten, fifteen, twenty(!) years ago. Perhaps fandom at large has grown jaded to that sort of thing?

~Neshomeh isn't active enough in other fan communities to know.

This... this is too perfect. {X D

---

"John, I have been watching you while you did some pop culture referances. Your skilled. VERY skilled."

"Oh, yes, John is great at it" said AERYN.

"INDEED. maybe the greatest. Look at Johns body. His torso! His elbow! His nose! Its like he is built for pop culture referances! Every aspect of his perfect physique built for that one divine purpose. "

"I am thus going to officially invite John to the pop culture referances championship!" continued the talent scout.

"We are going to the championship!?" said Aeryn

"Yes, the ticket has a +1. And you both go straight to the final!"

"Awesome!"

"But you will be fighting against someone else that made it to the final...someone you know well....Scorpius!"

"Then its settled" said John. "We go. We cant let Scorpius win at anything. Even pop culture referances."

---

It's funny because it's true! No one in the Uncharted Territories beats John Crichton at pop culture references! {X D Whole thing here, I think.

~Neshomeh

I can't select text, can't scroll smoothly without some poorly-coded Javascript causing it to lag, and to be quite honest it's practically unusable without opening the page in Reader View. Anyways, I'm pretty impressed by the fic generation capabilities of it.

It's actually been brought to the Board before; I don't remember exactly when, or who found it, but it was a number of years ago and we had a lot of fun with it. I might even have some of the results still saved somewhere, though by now I couldn't tell you which they were or why I wanted them saved.

I think they've upgraded the settings, though--it feels like there are more options. Certainly I don't remember the presets...

(And of course I tried it this time too. And *of course* the results of keying in Jacques & Co (with pairings set to 'any') gave me the villain (and more or less Ra's al Ghul) Mary Sue sending him to assassinate President Luxury, only to completely fail at that, be told there was some sort of prophecy, and finally marry Luxury after having some sort of intense relationship with *himself*. And the whole thing was titled 'Revenge of the CAD'.

It was pretty wild.)

~Z

Except one time it randomly gender-bent Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader? Ah, well, so do badfic authors.

-Twistey

I was wondering how the generator would attempt to customize the story to different characters, before I realized that it didn't have to - because it is emulating something where people tend to act out-of-character, it doesn't care if each 'hero' is the same apart from their names.

Harry Potter:


"Who are you guys anyway?"
"Yo, yo, yo I am Snape" said Snape, pretending to be cool.
"Yo, yo, yo I am Voldemort" said Voldemort, who was actually really cool!

(Oh darn, apparently I hit the Create Post button by accident. Oh well.)

Whitney cleared her throat, unsure of where to begin. She hadn't seen this many people in RC #88224646BABA before, and she certainly hadn't had any experience with hosting a crowd event, let alone the New Years' Gift Exchange like she'd attended like what, two years ago? Still, it was worth a try.

"Alright everyone," she said. "Welcome, come one, come all, to the annual PPC New Year's Gift Exchange! I know it's been a while since New Year's Day, but I guess all's well that ends well, as the saying goes. Apparently, I'm going to be your host for this year, and I'll try my best to be a good moderator. So, shall we begin?"

There were murmurs of assent all around. Whitney cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention.

"Before you is a collection of Party Balls from the Super Smash Bros. series, all of which have been enchanted with, in the parlance of a certain famous literature series, an Undetectable Expansion Charm. You will not be able to guess what each contains, but once you pick one, you'll have to stick with what's inside. Unless you want to steal a gift, of course - but remember that a gift can be stolen up to twice, and you can't steal back a gift once someone else has taken it."

She smiled warmly before continuing. "Each of you will have received a ticket with a randomly selected number, so you will go in numerical order. We will go around from 1 to 18 until everyone has received a gift. So with that, let the gifting commence!"

(The rules of the game can be seen here, and the spreadsheet for the participants and gifts can be viewed here. Have fun, y'all!)

Let me give you a black-hole chocolate cake with red berries coating, and my congratulations for all the time you passed here.

And, my results:

http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?t1=24&t0=31&c0=38&c1=31&j1=19&j0=45&m0=55&m1=12&b1=10&b0=64&s0=62&s1=7&p0=36&p1=29&e1=40&e0=40&prag=67&femi=24

Can I just say, I have the absolute worst flag ever? Just magenta, nothing else. Not even a dot or something. I'm half tempted to try the test again to see if somehow I get a better flag.

My results

Not quite sure if this is entirely accurate since some of the statements seem to be really up to interpretation.

Because sadly I can't participate in it. My computer blocks political/activist sites (and I can't say I'm sad about that...)

-Twistey

My results.

Neshomeh's colors? I didn't do this intentionally.

HG

Surprisingly, I'm about equally communist and capitalist.
http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?j1=38&j0=43&e1=43&e0=40&p1=40&p0=40&t1=36&t0=48&c1=14&c0=79&s1=29&s0=67&femi=71&b0=62&b1=24&m1=26&m0=52&prag=67

Humanity > Equality fight me Tomash. :-p

Am I still a port city, hS?

Here is a link to the results I got...
http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?m0=64&m1=10&e0=50&e1=24&s1=7&s0=76&j1=17&j0=50&t0=21&t1=43&c1=31&c0=38&p0=52&p1=5&femi=43&b0=55&b1=19&prag=67&mona=67

Unsure about them, but oh well...

I've... uh, just spent a couple of hours reverse-engineering how the flags are created. :-/ As y'do.

As expected, the flag is created deterministically from your stats. It can have up to three colours and one symbol. In the list below, the symbols are ranked from 0to 7 [rather than 1-8, because I found the double-X symbol right at the end and didn't feel like renumbering); the active symbol with the rank closest to 0 will be shown regardless of their respective stats. The colours, on the other hand, are picked based on the stats and the priority list. The actual layout of the flag is determined by the number of colours (2 or 3 - 1 is just a plain field, obviously) and the values of 'Internationalism' and the Reform/Revolution bar.

It's not possible to make any flag you want: you can't have a fleur-de-lys without white on there, for instance, or a shield without blue. But with this, you can manipulate the URL to your heart's desire to get any possible design.

---

Constructivism: c0, 'Equality', purple @ 40%, no emblem.
Essentialism: c1, no motto, no colour, double X @ 85 (w/ Punitive) (ranked 0).
Rehab: j0, 'Justice', no colour, no emblem.
Punitive: j1, 'Order', no colour, double X @ 60 (w/ Essentialism) (ranked 0).
Progress: s0, no motto, no colour, no emblem.
Conservative: s1, 'Family', blue @ 40%, shield @ 60% (ranked 4).
International: b0, 'Humanity', no colour, star circle @ 70% (ranked 6).
National: b1, 'Fatherland', brown @ 40%, no emblem.
Communism: p0, 'Socialism', red @ 60%, hammer and sickle @ 80% (ranked 3).
Capitalism: p1, 'Work', yellow (w/ laissez-faire) @ 40%, no emblem.
Regulation: m0, no motto, pink @ 40, no emblem.
Laissez-faire: m1, 'Liberty', yellow (w/ capitalism) @ 40%, no emblem.
Ecology: e0, 'Ecology', green @ 40%, flower @ 70% (ranked 5).
Production: e1, no motto, no colour, no emblem.
Revolution: t0, 'Revolution', no colour, star at 60% (ranked 7).
Reform: t1, no motto, no colour, no emblem.

Anarchist: anar, no motto, black @ 91%, no emblem.
Missionary: reli, no motto, no colour, no emblem.
Radical Feminist: femi, no motto, no colour, feminist logo @ 95% (ranked 2).
Pragmatist: prag, no motto, no colour, no emblem.
Vegan: vega, no motto, no colour, no emblem.
Complotism: comp, no motto, no colour, no emblem.
Monarchist: mona, no motto, white @ 51%, fleur-de-lys @ 51% (ranked 1).

Colour Priority

Black > White > Brown > Blue > Yellow, Red > Pink > Green > Purple

Red OVERRIDES pink & yellow.

Yellow is ranked by laissez-faire's position.

Shapes:

2-colour:

Default = 2 columns.

Reform @ 40% = 2 bars.
Revolution @ 20% = diagonal split.

Internationalism @ 60% = Nordic cross.
...+Reform @ 40% = 7 bars.
...+Revolution @ 20% = diagonal bar.

Internationalism @ 1% = zigzag.
...+Reform @ 40% = 5 bars.
...+Revolution @ 20% = long triangle.

3-colour:
Default = 4 squares (1-2,3-1).

Reform @ 40% = 3 bars.
Revolution @ 20% = chevron.

Internationalism @ 60% = 4 squares.
...+Reform @ 20% = canton + 6 bars.
...+Revolution @ 40% = chevron + 6 bars.

Internationalism @ 1% = 4 squares.
...+Reform @ 20% = canton + 4 bars.
...+Revolution @ 40% = chevron + 5 bars.

---

And just to prove I'm not making it up:

The French Monarchist American Flag

hS

My results are http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?t1=26&t0=48&p1=12&p0=67&e0=33&e1=43&b0=81&c0=81&c1=5&femi=76&j1=5&j0=76&s0=95&m0=90&prag=100

I took the thing twice, actually, and my scores were rather stable under retakes with the exception of the communism/capitalism axis, which was a bit more commie the first time. Eh. Economics is hard.

- Tomash

I'm not particularly surprised by my stats. Here they be!

http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?reli=100&p1=76&p0=5&j1=33&j0=26&t0=24&t1=45&s0=26&s1=57&c0=19&c1=69&b0=40&b1=31&m1=50&e0=14&e1=62&prag=67

-Alleb, who now returns to intermittent lurking and generally being devoured by Real Life

https://i.imgur.com/fXKPsRW.png

I guess I'm just a soft and squishy neutral in most of these

I wondered what would happen if you hit the same answer for every question, and realized I could click through rapidly, so I found out! For posterity, here are the results:

Absolutely agree
Fatherland - Work - Liberty
All bars 50/0/50
Additional characteristics:
- Anarchism (strong)
- Pragmatism (strong)
- Complotism (strong)
- Veganism (strong)
- Monarchism (strong)
- Missionary (strong)

Somewhat agree
Fatherland - Work - Liberty
All bars 33/34/33
Additional characteristics:
- Pragmatism (weak)
- Veganism (weak)
- Monarchism (weak)
- Missionary (weak)

Neutral or hesitant
No words
All bars 0/100/0
No additional characteristics

Rather disagree
Fatherland - Work - Liberty
All bars 33/34/33
No additional characteristics

Absolutely disagree
Fatherland - Work - Liberty
All bars 50/0/50
No additional characteristics

Observations:

Apparently the additional characteristics result from selecting "Absolutely agree" (strong result) or "Somewhat agree" (weak or no result) on certain questions.

Answering with all anything but "Neutral" generates the same three words. No idea what that means.

All "Neutral" and all "Rather disagree" both generate a blank white flag. The former makes sense. The latter confuses me.

~Neshomeh

This is what I choose to put a reply on. Oh, well. This is my thingy.

http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?c1=5&c0=71&e1=29&e0=33&p1=24&p0=31&j1=14&j0=48&t1=62&t0=14&b1=12&b0=62&s0=62&s1=10&m0=55&m1=7&femi=38

My results.
Certainly not the worst test I've taken, but some of the questions seemed a bit strangely worded to me. Still, it seems to have hit decently close to the mark for me. Not entirely sure what the constructivism/essentialism stuff is about, though, and I think my ecology score was a bit low, but I suppose that's down to me abusing the neutral/hesitant option.

My results. I think I have the highest support for Ecology-over-Production so far. Come on, guys! The planet we live on matters!

And my, but we are a very pragmatic bunch, eh?

—doctorlit, not terribly surprised to see he is significantly more left than in the past. A Trump presidency can do that, he supposes.

Here's the results.

That was a lot of questions there!

--Kaitlyn

Full Results

The wording on some of these questions seemed overly comlicated.

-Phobos

Not unexpected, though avoiding the neutral option as much as possible may have shifted the scores.

http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?comp=67&e0=24&e1=48&c1=81&c0=7&femi=14&b0=5&b1=71&j1=43&j0=29&t0=29&t1=45&reli=67&s1=62&s0=14&p1=50&p0=19&m0=45&m1=24&prag=100

http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?t0=19&t1=40&e1=43&e0=29&j1=19&j0=52&s0=69&s1=12&p1=62&p0=21&b1=14&b0=57&c0=48&c1=26&femi=43&m0=52&m1=17&prag=100

Huinesoron, where is my town on your map?

Full results.

These questions are hard and don't always have simple yes or no answers. {= P

~Neshomeh

It tasted horrible.

Aaaanyhow: http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?p1=14&p0=48&e0=36&e1=40&c1=10&c0=60&femi=57&j0=64&s0=79&m0=60&b1=10&b0=69&t1=48&t0=19

That's what I got. Humanity, Justice, Equality. Er. Whatever those are referring to.
I think the general conclusion is that I am a bleeding heart liberal soyboy, gobbling soy down by the sack, soy spilling from my lips and getting on my shirt as I gulp it down, yum yum, gulp.

http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?b0=83&m0=90&s0=95&c0=93&p0=76&t0=67&t1=17&j0=98&e0=52&e1=31&reli=67&femi=81&anar=100

I actually took that test a while ago, back when only the French version was available, and while I don't remember the exact results I'm pretty sure I have much more of La Revolución now. The "Missionnary" bit is interesting because, well, I don't actually have a religion.

We did this back in 2016, and 2015... and 2014! It's heaps of fun, I make maps of everything by plotting the two axes as... the... wait.

Hmm.

This is going to take some thought.

Okay, first of all, my results: Humanity, Equality, Socialism. Shockingly, I am not as extreme as Scapegrace. ^_^

Right, now for the fun part. In 2015, the PPC inhabited an idyllic medieval landscape, except for the evil fortresses in the eastern mountains, the vast metropolis, the fractious nomads in the desert, the warlike woodsmen of the northern forest... okay, so scratch the 'idyll' part.

In 2016, the Age of Brass dawned. Cities roamed the landscape, some even taking to the seas. The Central City conquered the nomads, the nomads conquered the forest, a great fortress ground its way in from the east... it was a terrible time, though kind of awesome to watch.

The war between Central City and the brazen castle of the Uber Overlord was devastating. The landscape roiled around them, and when the fires died, the time of technology died with them. From the ruins emerged a new power: the coruscating glow of mana.



-Product of the First Huinesoronic Mapping Expedition

The cities of the great continent of Plortitics are mapped by not two, not even four, but eight different standards. Simplest, of course, are geographical location: north-south [Conservative->Progressive] and east-west [Capitalist->Communist]. Of the four cities mapped, three stand in the ruins of ancient settlements: Scapegrace, Huinesoron, and Hardric. The town of Quincy Jones has been founded since the war ended, in what was once the Great Desert.

Almost as simple is altitude [Nationalism->Internationalism]. The cities of Huinesoron and Scapegrace stand high on their bluffs, facing across the valley of the Fabled River.

When the expedition set out, they expected population [Punitive->Rehabilitative Justice] and urbanisation [Essentialist->Constructivist] to go hand in hand, but that turned out not to be entirely accurate. Certainly, the city of Scapegrace is both the most heavily urbanised, and the largest - but the other three towns hold equal populations, though Quincy Jones is almost entirely rural.

The environment [Production>Ecology] in the four towns is almost identical, but there is one environmental factor that divides them: mana [Laissez-faire->Regulation]. The lowland towns at Hardric and Quincy Jones are almost devoid of it, while the mountain fastnesses of Huinesoron and Scapegrace practically sing with it.

So are the cities of Plortitics at peace? Hardly! The three towns stand in rough alliance at the Lawful end of the scale [Reform>Revolution], but Scapegrace holds itself in opposition. Though open war is yet to be declared, the vale of the Fabled River is the site for numerous skirmishes...

... or so we think. It may be that this map is in error, and that more data will change completely the way we think of the world.

((All eight axes are shown on the map. Constructivism: level of city vs. houses. Socialism: how far west. Rehab justice: size of settlement. Regulation: number of Mana sparks. Progressivism: how far south. Ecology: base colour (currently all grass-green). Internationalism: height. Revolutionary: black walls for revolutionary. Values are calculated as (value of longest coloured bar + half value of 'undecided' bar).))

All maps will be updates of this one. Go for it, people! :D

hS

PS: I love the flags, incidentally. And I love to imagine that the chief cause of conflict between Huinesoron and Scapegrace is 'what order should the three parts of the motto go in'. :D :D

Equality. Socialism. Humanity.

Not sure my answers were entirely accurate- did this kind of on the fly. But this was fun! :D Here are my results: http://politiscales.la-commune.net/en_US/results/?b1=17&b0=43&s0=55&s1=26&m1=19&m0=45&c1=43&c0=38&femi=29&t0=19&t1=45&j1=19&j0=45&e0=36&e1=33&p1=26&p0=21&prag=67

Also I would just like to note that my browser has refused to log me in for the past week or so and I've had to manually input my name and email so often that it's been saved in those slots :|

I really enjoyed the tone of this. Just calm and peaceful and simple, and really no PPC weirdness or supernatural whatever drawing focus from the characters. I also like the shift from the beginning, when Ix is unsure and Charlotte is supportive, and the reversal after Charlotte gets sunburned, where she becomes panicky and needs to rely on Ix's experience to stop the hurt. It's a creative way of getting to the proposal as well, without the usual set up for that kind of scene.

One error!
Ix’s palms were slick with sweat by the time they got past the Security Dandelion guarding the exist, and when the heat of World One’s sun hit them, it only got worse.
Dandelions may guard the exist, but remember that tires don exits.

—doctorlit heavily recommends "kids" sunscreen for anyone spending time in strong sunlight. It's at least as effective as the adult stuff, but a bit less questionable-chemicals-y.

• Ix giving up her bed for Lotte is probably going to come up later, isn't it?
  - Shame about the knee, thank goodness Ix has magic
  - Using a wand to summon the TV remote would be pretty awesome, I agree with Ix there
  - Ok, yeah, that is going be an argument at some point
  - Lotte massively falling down the ranks at Overwatch makes sense, and now I'm wondering if she'll earn her way back up
  - Poor Ix. (re: the indecision about New Cal)
  - I can see why Ix'd want to avoid making a scene, given her backstory
  - "how different she was". Ouch, kinda.
  - Ok, yeah, general comment now that I'm on the clothing-picking scene: I do hope Ix can somehow work through all this crap she's been through and the self-hatred and the like
  - Ix does seem generally down around the bottom of page two
  - But still, kisses and relationship fluff!
  - Oh. Ix is going to come out as genderfluid.
  - Lotte is doing a very good job of reacting to this. Then again, she already knew.
  - Ok, so now Ix is going to do the "I'm worried you'll break up with me because werewolf" angst thing
  - ... Charlotte, if only you know who was writing you
  - Charlotte getting sunburned was really funny for some reason. Probably the rapid mood shift.
  - Awww, necklace thing
  - Why doesn't Ix want [Lotte] to look down?
  - Yeah. Right after morphing wasn't quite the right time, I think.
  - Huh. They might be getting married at some point.
  - It's nice that Lotte is being considerate of Ix
  
  Overall: That was a nice interlude. It did a good job of advancing the relationship and gave me good windows into both Ix and Lotte's heads.
  
  - Tomash

Seriously, if you hurt them even more, I swear I'll... ughh, I don't know what I'm gonna do... I'll be more upset! Ha!

Anywho, let's review:

“Why did I think a cat was a good idea?”
Because you're more of a dog person? ;>

The opening scene is solid. It's nice to see IxWolf wake up by something other than nightmares. Also, kinda cute to see her making coffee the Muggle way; but then still has that little kid side in her. 'Yep, I'm doing all the witchy stuff!'

Lottie getting sudden sunburn was absolutely hilarious :D

*does a happy dance* My fluffy ship is sailing mighty fine! As always, fantastic job!

Morning talk is also nice, like the Overwatch reference (crosses 'Overwatch' from a potential topic for my agents. Not gonna be a copycat). Also, did I miss anything? I must've missed something, but what was the meaning of 'fwai' once again?

I have a question, though. IxWolf conjures up a blanket. In New Cal. Is there some sort of field around the main base that stretches out and lets the otherworlders keep their otherworldliness? I understand inside the building, but far enough outside?

"We don’t have to worry about an unhappy ending dealt to us by a sadistic author."
You better not...

So! First off, to prevent people stumbling across spoilers: shout-out to the aerialists just sorta hanging out on hoops in full arabesque in the background of the circus shots. That pose is hella painful and they were rocking it. This has been a spoiler block.

Elephant in the room: That was almost entirely unlike P.T. Barnum's actual life. He started poor, made a fortune primarily in showbiz, and had a slip into financial trouble when a business didn't turn out. And that's it- everything else in the film is made from whole cloth. His tour with Jenny Lind was wildly successful, his circus never broke up or burned down, the one big financial problem he had was when he tried to get into major real estate. (Although it was then his circus people, many of whom had gone on to their own acts, who got him back on his feet. But it wasn't a moment of desperation. And his home burned down during the process, not his circus.)

The music was incredible. It was perfect- because it was, very specifically, circus music. Too much story to be pop or modern dance, too much beat to be theater, and I've got half a routine choreographed for each of those songs already. It's very cirque nouveau, specifically- the modern circus movement that's more about telling stories than just spectacle. All of it makes me want to get back into the air.

And the choreography... I'm still a bit envious. That bit in the bar, particularly- that was such a circus piece, a discussion and decisions and dance, and the choreography was glorious and small and fast. You couldn't perform that piece for an audience of more than ten, because nobody else could be close enough to see all the details that make it sparkle. The big stuff was equally good- both the choreography and the performance.

So, now drifting into the stuff that wasn't so good.

You're right, the whole thing felt rushed. They banged around from scene to scene, it really feels like they could have let all of it soak in more.

I'm not sure I see that one failing as a movie-ruiner- it's the arc of Barnum's story. He keeps chasing bigger and bigger things, and never stops to think about what he has- and that piled-up karma leads to his ruin. Jenny bails on him, destroying his fortune, the circus burns, Charity leaves- all of that crashes down on him in the fourth act. (And it's an extra twist of the knife to have Jenny singing "all the stars in the sky, and it's never enough...") That's the consequences of his selfishness, his lack of awareness. And that moment where the people come back together? That's not just "a moment of doubt," it's full-on ruin. His money is gone, his credit is shot, his properties are ruins or foreclosed, by the way he'd been seeing the world, he had nothing- except for the people he'd given a family.

Some of the editing also really didn't work for me. That moment at the end, where Barnum suddenly runs out of the bar, jumps on a train? I had no idea what he was doing. Was he running away? Were they jumping ahead to when the Barnum and Bailey circus traveled by train? Was it something else entirely?

Final shoutout- Zendaya worked hard to play an aerialist, and it showed. She... well, she wasn't doing anything terribly difficult? But she had really good form, and she sold it so well. And for someone who only had months to learn, she must have worked really hard.

The gang!

I am particularly fond of how spiky the Notary looks. It fits her character very well. =]

I did two: one based on my username and one based on my nickname...

http://makemegoogly.com/1XRHV

http://makemegoogly.com/1ZB9L

These both look kinda weird. I am first a weird purple squirrel-thing and then a creepy predator. Both with sheep horns. It's weird.

-Twistey

Huinesoron & Kaitlyn. Apparently I am a flightless bat, and my wife is a... sort of bear crossed with a fiddler crab.



The Illian family - Dafydd, Tanfin, Jasmine, Belladonna, Daphne, Oleander, and Constance. :D Mooooost of them seem to take after their mother, though Jas' has inherited Dafydd's spines.

This is super surreal. :D :D :D

hS

*happily skips off to find out what sort of adorable creature is a Neshomeh*

...

Oh.

...

Oh dear.

Um.



*wibble* You poor, poor misshapen thing. I... I will love you always, for I created you. II^II

~Neshomeh has a sad now.