Jun 2018 Archive, part b

No need to explain why that's great. ;) Happy birthday.

-Twistey

I know it's not a fire lizard, but this little smasher is Draco volans, a species of gliding lizard from Southeast Asia.

pls accept.

=]

Because you don't just require cheers on the big day itself. Have a black-hole chocolate cake, with optional red berries coating.

Also, quick question: In the interest of keeping the Pern flavor here, how would you like some shooter where you dispatch Threads, except there's... that bill written all over them?

I hope you'll have a good day, and some good food.

Iloilo, the fabled "brown-out capital of the Philippines," has finally gotten 24-hour electricity thanks to new solar farms.

And if it's any compensation, the FCC would probably have to get past over half the states to have its way and they've still gotta defend their new rules in court. So it's not the end of the world and even though we do have a way to go before the 2015 rulings can be reinstated, I guess it's better than nothing.

I'd offer you klah, but it looks like Thoth got there first. Have a plush fire-lizard instead!

Take a steaming mug of klah. It certainly can't hurt.

I can't give you anything substantive for your birthday. But I can at least say thank you. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have Permission, wouldn't be busy procrastinating from writing by playing Skyrim (I'd just be playing Skyrim instead), wouldn't have spent my last few weeks of school reading Pern novels in class, and wouldn't have met a pretty awesome person. Because you wouldn't be there.

I think most of those are good things? Hey, at least you've made a difference. :-P

Would a triple chocolate cupcake (chocolate with chocolate chips and chocolate icing) help? And maybe a hug too? I'm kinda frazzled myself...

She'd gotten the invitation to this "speed dating" event, and she'd thought it was a good idea to come. She wasn't really looking for romance, but she'd only been in HQ for a few weeks now, and thought she'd come and get to know some people. Before heading down, she'd given her mane a more careful trim than usual.

(( Now, being flirted with by Jacques: - Once Peregrin had realized what was happening, it'd set him to reminiscing about his youth and also explaining he's not that interested. - Taq would be kinda weirded out by this - Kk'kttak's reaction would be along the lines of "crazy humans" and being pretty uninterested if/when he noticed the attempt - Farah would likely flirt back a bit, though it probably wouldn't go too far. - Florian is Not Interested. They're also basically a Dalek with a bunch of fire hoses and water canons and such attached, and so probably not prime flirting material. ))

He'd changed out of his usual things into a black silk tunic and boots that weren't scuffed and dusty, and his hair was braided even more elaborately than usual. He spotted Jacques at one of the tables and waved, but decided to sit elsewhere. He and Jacques had seen each other plenty of times in the past; no need to hog his favorite partner at a speed dating event.

He took a seat and looked around interestedly.

((As for how my characters would react to Jacques:

The Aviator would flirt back with heavy sarcasm Zeb would be like "Oh, are we on another date? :D" Charlotte and Ix: Well, you know, Dax flirts back Lorson sits there stony-faced Farilan laughs derisively Alex just grins And Olivine gives him a puzzled look and goes "Hang on, are you flirting, Squishy?"

"...So anyways, that's why systemd is the worst."

"Tom," said Talia, rolling her eyes, "you're acting like I don't know all of this already. Or like he cares."

"I don't", Dagger was quick to opine. "In case you thought I did." The surly Dragonborn trailed slightly, as if trying to distance himself.

"Fiiine... I'll just leave my fascinating technical trivia by the wayside, then." Tom sighed. "With my winning personality, I'm sure people will be throwing themselves at me..."

Talia grinned. "Oh, don't worry so much. I'm sure someone will want to hang with an absolute doofus."

"Well, I'm not that bad." Tom frowned. "No, my real question is, what the hell is Dagger doing here?"

"That's easy," said Dagger. "Free food. I got recruited out of college. Never broke the habit of not turning down a free meal."

((Yes, everyone but Thoth. I wanted to give them all a bit of time to shine, because he's the one who gets all the focus usually. :-(.

Anyways, responses to flirting:

Thoth - Depending on the mood, explain he's not interested, brush it off (possibly with a side of condescention), or find some way to mess with whoever's throwing it at him.

Tom - Seeing as we're talking about a guy, he's be horrifyingly embarrassed, awkward, and uncomfortable.

Talia - Go along with it. Possibly with some snark on the side. Unlikely to take it any further than that.

Dagger - Most likely, outright hostility, sarcasm, and general bitterness (contrast his usual apathetic grumpiness—wait, you haven't seen enough of him to do that yet). Even if he finds the guy attractive. Yes, he is into guys. Is this surprising? :-P))

He was dressed far more casually than usual, in dark jeans and a deep purple t-shirt of a soft fabric that clung pleasantly. His favored black military jacket was draped over the back of his chair.

He was glad this event was happening, even if not too many people had shown up yet. It felt nice, having a break from missions which was specifically set aside to talk to people. Who knew how many strangers would show up? He'd been an agent for five years, but that (unfortunately) didn't mean he'd managed to meet the whole of HQ's population. For one thing, HQ was big; for another, not everyone frequented the same places, or any places outside their own RCs. Moreover, new people were coming in all the time...

This was going to be fun. He could already tell. Who knew how many friends (and 'friends') he'd manage to make here? And he could get to know people he already knew a bit better--he could see a few of them in the room...

Yes, this was definitely going to be fun.

Gall thunked her third glass of mead down on the table and stared across it at her partner. “You’ve never cooked for yourself? Not once?”

“Why would I?” Derik glowered at her, taking umbrage at her extreme disbelief. “More to the point: when would I? My time was thoroughly occupied with studying, then raising a dragonet, then being a dragonrider.”

Frowning in skepticism, she held out her hands as though to encompass a simple object. “But it’s, like, a basic life skill.”

He snorted. “It’s called division of labor. I sing, they cook; I fly, they cook; I mission, they cook.” He indicated Rudi’s kitchen with a gesture.

“But . . . you never even cooked out or anything? You know, meat on a stick, fire, something even the biggest, dumbest idiot should be able to do without totally screwing it up?”

“With that attitude, I suppose you’re some sort of culinary expert.” He chuckled, plainly very amused with the notion.

Gall regarded him quite seriously. “My father and I lived in exile for eight years. You met my father. Who do you think made that whole thing work?”

That gave him pause. “Well, all right, but feeding yourself isn’t the same as cooking. Like you said, any idiot can roast meat on a stick, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “Freya’s tits. That’s it. You. Me. General Store. Now.”

“What? But—” He gestured to the half-finished food and drinks on the table, but Gall was already up and tugging on his arm.

“Now!”

“All right, all right!” He downed the last half of his ale as he rose and just managed to get the glass back on the table upright as he was dragged out of the pub.

Twenty minutes later, Derik found himself sitting in the moon-lit Courtyard with his sleeves rolled up and his fingers sunk into a mound of barley and wheat flour on a flat, freshly scrubbed rock. A small fire, courtesy of Fellrazer, gave additional light. Occasionally, a horse or a wolf would wander by to see what was going on, but the presence of the dragon, curled up on a patch of ground he’d toasted to a comfortable warmth, discouraged them from getting too close.

Gall hovered at Derik’s elbow, watching his progress. “Okay, you’ve got your flax, your lard, and my personal very secret ingredients that you will not share with anyone on pain of asskicking. Now just work it until it comes together—carefully! If you mess up that well, your bread is screwed. Here, look. Like this.”

She pushed up her own sleeves and slid her fingers in with his. Derik followed her guidance, and together they pulled the dry ingredients into the wet, first mixing, then kneading. Their hands got slick with the grease and flax, and slid easily over each other. After a few minutes, they had a uniform round of dough.

“There. That’s good.” Gall nodded, then gave him one of those looks, like she expected or hoped for something from him.

After a moment spent deciding how to respond, Derik folded his hands in his lap and said, “So now what?”

Gall shrugged. “It rests overnight, and we get fresh, hot bread in the morning.”

“Really.” Derik raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see an oven.”

“You don’t lug an oven around on a raid, genius.” She punched his shoulder for his quibble. “It bakes on a rack over the fire, or you wrap it around a stick. In this case, stick-bread. Only one rack to be had around here, and it ain’t for baking.” She grinned.

Derik’s mind resolutely sidled around the come-on. “In the meantime, we’ve got a lump of dough sitting on a rock in the middle of the Courtyard. What’s the plan for that?”

“Wanna camp out?”

“You don’t get enough of that on missions?”

“That’s because we have to. This is because we want to. It’s totally different.”

Try as he might, Derik couldn’t fault her logic. And it was nice to be safe from Suvians or rogue time skips under a wide, starry sky, even if it was fake. He couldn’t think why he didn’t come here more often.

“You don’t think it’ll get too cold?” he said.

“Well, if it does,” Gall started eagerly, and then, with a visible effort, turned the remark in a different direction. She’d tried the spooning for warmth tactic before, to no avail. “I’ve got Fellrazer,” she finished. “Anyway, it’s not like we’re in the Archipelago or somewhere it gets proper cold. This is nothing.”

“True enough. All right, I suppose I don’t mind. And in the morning, we’ll see if this recipe of yours actually turns out edible.” He got up to go wash off in the nearby stream.

Gall sprang up after him and gave him a shove, setting him off-balance for a step. “No, we’ll see if you aren’t a completely pathetic waste of space when it comes to practical skills.”

Once recovered, he shoved back. “I have many practical skills.”

“Oh yeah? Name one.”

“Functional literacy?”

“Nah, that’s a fancy-pants Harper skill. Try again.”

This continued while they scrubbed the fat off their hands and while Gall wrapped the bread dough in the empty barley flour package. Finally, they settled down on the grass under a large elm tree and went to sleep.

In the morning, there was fresh, hot stick-bread, it was indeed edible, and both partners considered it time well spent.

---

Viking flatbread recipe yoinked from a YouTube video I've since lost track of, based on findings from this study.

The stick-bread comes from commenters on the video, who remarked that the recipe sounds similar to something still made in Scandinavian countries today.

I kinda want to try this myself... we'll see.

~Neshomeh

The morning, like all other mornings in RC 112358 over the last few years, began with the sound of bells. Peregrin woke up and read the (Arban) date off the clock tower he'd built in the RC. Two hundred and forty six years now, he thought, plus or minus a day. It was, unless HQ had been messing with time to excess, his birthday.

I wonder if I should make an announcement. Peregrin thought, as he was sitting up and getting out of bed. Back home, a birthday generally passed with a remark at a meal with an accompanying toast, or possibly during Proventer. Headquarters, however, was much too large for these types of communal gatherings. So, his last three birthdays had been quite small affairs. Last year, his now-former partner Tomash had taken him to a rather nice restaurant in New Caledionia, for example.

Or I could organize a party. he continued thinking as he wound the tower. This wasn't something he ever needed to do, as the clock had to be able to keep itself running when he was on missions, but the mechanism made the RC a bit closer to just another extremely remote math. But who would I invite? he wondered. And the organization would take significant energy so that is a bad idea.

Pondering potential birthday plans and wondering what the giggling child a fewt doors down was up to got Peregrin through to lifting the weight on the clock all the way up to the top of the tower. I suppose I could simply go to Rudi's, maybe invite Tomash or Taq. he concluded as he walked towards a chair. Yes, that is a reasonable way to mark the year. Yes.

"Taq?" he asked his partner, who was also waking up.

"Sir?"

An annoyed look crossed Peregrin's face. "Would you be interested in—"

[BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!/Dong, dong....]

The console went off, along with the bell sequence for Voco that was meant to replace the beeping.

"Thought he'd fixed..." Peregrin muttered as he shut off the alarm.

"What'd you want, boss?" Taq asked once the noise had died down.

"Birthday plans." Peregrin replied. "Not important at the moment." I should have seen this coming.

(( - Tomash

Thanks to Thoth for checking for typos. ))

Loosely based off a true story.
------

In a moment of pure and utter shame, Jordan picked up his phone, and called Harris.

"Oh hey Jordan, wait just a moment so I can put you on speakerphone. I'm in the car right now."

As he listened to Harris' fumbling in the car, Jordan grimaced.

"All good now. What's up?"
"So, I tried making pasta, and it came out horrible. Got any advice or special tips I should know? I know you don't cook a lot, but you gotta know something."
"I mean yeah, sure there's ways to cook well, but pasta? You just take a pot of water and boil it, and shove some spaghetti or something in. It can't be that bad."
"It really, really was that bad. Can you please please please just give me some instructions? I'm making penne for Aaron tonight."
"How can you mess up pasta terribly? It's two ingredients. Pasta and water."
"The pasta caught fire; just tell me what to do."
"Wo-HAH WAIT HAHH WHAT HOW HAH HAH HAA-"

Jordan hung up while Harris was cackling, and poured the ashes in the pot into the trash. Another night of takeout, he decided.

Ce’rana of Borune glared at the pan as yet another of these thin shells tore and muttered irritably as she was forced to scrape it into the filling garbage can. “Ridiculous thing,” she grumbled, reaching for her bowl of batter to begin the process once more. “How is it that you are so fragile and people can still make you work?”

She sighed as she ladeled it into the pan. “The only reason I bother with you is that someone refused to share. If he wanted it all for himself, he could easily have waited for me to leave - but no, he had to show off how well he could do this. On that note, how is it that he makes it seem effortless to keep you in one piece? Is there some mysterious technique that I have failed to discover yet?”

The Dryad managed to become more and more irritated as she spread the batter around, perhaps a bit thicker than was strictly necessary this time. “And if I were to ask him how it is that he makes it seem so easy, all he would say is that he has more practice than I do. So if there is some secret that I am unaware of, he would not tell me, merely leave me to figure it out on my own, infuriating thing that he is.”

She glanced over at the tub of Nutella, which had been locked up and covered in chains until Alex came back. “And this. I am not that bad with chocolate, Alex. There really is no need to take such measures with it whenever you leave the room. As though I could not get past something so simple.” She chuckled to herself at that; he had no idea of her past hobbies, obviously, or he would have taken measures a bit less flimsy than a pair of two-pin locks.

Of course, that was just too tempting to the IO. The container fell from its shelf, popping open when it hit the floor, dragged by the weight of the chains she had left around its base. The resulting mess spattered all across the floor.

Ce’rana simply stared, first at the goopy brown mess, then at the garbage can full of failed crepes, then the shell that was presently trying to burn.

“What smells like burning crepes?” Alex stepped into the room, a cheerful grin on his face which faded immediately as he beheld the absolute mess on his side of the room. “Ce’rana. What did you do?”

She looked up at him helplessly. “I…” Words failed for her for a moment before she came up with a simple, effective answer. “I have no idea.”

Alex walked over and sighed. “If I make you a crepe, will you clean up your mess? I was hoping to get sleep at some point today.”

The tiny agent looked around for a moment, taking stock of exactly how much cleaning she would have to do. Well, I suppose this is mostly just scrubbing the floor, she decided. “That sounds like a very good idea. Though would you be offended if I ask how it is you manage to make them not fall apart?”

“Sì, certo.” He moved in to carefully pour and spread the next crepe. “It is all about being gentle and slow. You just have to wait until it’s nice and ready, then carefully slide the rod under the delicate batter. Get it nice and loose, then pull it up and quickly flip it over. Then, it’s finally time to fill it.” He began to spoon the leftover nutella onto the crepe, getting it ready.

Ce’rana close to ignore the massive pile of hopefully-accidental innuendo (though she couldn’t avoid what she hoped was a small smirk) in favor of leaning a little closer to make sure she could see exactly how Alex was going about getting the shell ready to be flipped.

Once the nutella was in the shell, Alex folded it over and easily scooped it onto a plate. “Merda,now I want one.” He poured out another shell’s worth of batter as he offered the plate to Ce’rana.

She took it with a smile, then stepped away to grab a pair of forks and a second plate. “Thank you, Alex,” she said sweetly.

“Va Bene.” He started to get the shell ready to flip, smiling softly. “Don’t feel bad about not knowing how to do it easily. I’ve been learning how to do it properly since I was six years old. With that much practice, it was bound to get easier.”

And just like that, the shell tore. Ce’rana couldn’t keep herself from breaking into laughter at his expression.

“Oh, figlio di-”

Elanor looked up at her mother, tiny brow furrowed in confusion.

"You blow out the candle and you make a wish," the Aviator repeated. "It's a—ELANOR, NO—"

Elanor licked her hand while her mother was talking and smashed her palm down on top of the candle wick, extinguishing it. She giggled and clapped her hands together. "Again!"

"Maybe we should just eat the cake," Zeb suggested hurriedly, and Elanor nodded in agreement.

"Cake," she crooned, and grabbed a handful of cake. Her mouth was soon covered in sticky blue frosting.

The Aviator grinned and shook her head. "Here you go, kiddo," she said, cutting a slice around the missing fistful of cake and setting it on Elanor's high chair tray. "All for you. Just don't get any in your..." She trailed off as Elanor promptly mashed a handful of cake on top of her head. "...Hair."

Zeb laughed and accepted a slice for himself. "You're going to miss her doing that," he said, elbowing the Aviator gently.

"Yeah," the Aviator said, watching her daughter proceed to smear cake around the tray. "I will."

Though in a different vein from Delta's. For the most part, I'm not planning new spin-offs--I'm planning to go back and develop and write for characters I already created who may have gotten a little sidelined, or just plain had their stories delayed. I also have ideas for arcs, and partially finished stories lying around. This is a combination of all that. I do already have a sense of what I’ll be working on first, but I’d love to know what people are interested in!

Without Me (You'll Be Cold in Summer)

"[...] To say that a Klingon has no honor is to provoke a fight to the death."

Allison was gaping at him. "That--that's--"

"We are a very warlike people," Kozar said helpfully. When his new partner continued to gape he grinned at her, sharp and amused. "I have had a Terran partner before, Allison. I know how to make allowance for innocent mistakes."

This is a planned set of interludes, with probably a couple of missions as well. The focus? The epic tale of Kozar's first DIC partnership (in 2013-14), with a human named Allison Brown. She and her character arc actually predate Kozar; even so, I'm glad I didn't start off with her, because she's now had the chance to develop a lot, and I like how she's turned out. She's been mentioned here and there without a name, and recently got her first appearance in this interlude, where Kozar dreams of her.

Essentially: Allison Brown, a mostly comics- and parody musicals-oriented young American woman, wakes up in the PPC and soon finds herself partnered with an alien from a series she knows nothing about. Kozar, meanwhile, has finally gotten repartnered after his move to the DIC (following a tribble incident. Of the sort where his human partner refused to get rid of one). This new partner? Another human. Somehow, it works. Unfortunately, tragedy is waiting in the offing...

Mission: 'Partially Kissed Hero,' or It Gets Worse

Dawn McKenna whistled to herself as she wandered through the grey hallways of the Headquarters of the Protectors of the Plot Continuum. Had anyone she knew been in earshot, they would have been unsurprised to recognize the Pirates of the Caribbean theme; as it was, only the walls bore witness.

Dawn McKenna and Jacques Bonnefoy go on a mission to a Legendary Badfic. It is quite possibly the weirdest mission either of them has ever faced. In short? It’s Partially Kissed Hero.

(Yup. This is happening. It’s going to be fun, y’all. And I’m not even being completely sarcastic.)

Mission: 'Blade,' or "...and razed you from hobbition"

"Give me a new partner,” Brenda insisted. "One that wasn't a Suethor two days ago."

No.

“Why not?”

It’s DMS policy not to switch partners before the first mission.

“You made that up.”

The SO shifted some paperwork around on the table and didn’t reply.

Once upon a time, I got Permission with agents Brenda Loringham and Charlie Shoe. They, uh, fell to the wayside somewhat, appearing primarily in an April Fool's Day mission, the comments section of several Multiverse Monitor theater reviews, and quite a few unpublished (or unfinished and unpublished) interludes and missions. One of these unfinished and unpublished missions was their first, to a badfic called "Blade."

Now, I want to rewrite and finish that first mission of theirs.

Senior agent Brenda Loringham and recent OFUM graduate Charlie Shoe try their best not to kill each other while taking on Laiqualassiel, Grelvish-speaking half-elven healer and last of the nymphs of Middle-earth.

Untitled Jacques-Calaquendi Interlude (2014)

Jacques Bonnefoy stood on a grassy Rohirric hill, swaying slightly in the wind. Faint glittery smears on the grass were the only sign of the Sue he’d just pushed through a portal to the current location of a pack of Wargs.

In 2014, Jacques Bonnefoy ends up accidentally visiting the pair of First Age Elves he did a mission with earlier on in the same year. A friendship continues to unfurl between Gurnirel and Naergondir and the human they spent days with in Hobbit disguise, who turns out to be a weirdly immortal human with a still-settling personality.

The ’Verses Aim to Misbehave (Blackout Interlude)

“Sherlock? Sherlock!”

“Ssshh!” A. J. Crowley rounded on the flatmate of the consulting detective in question. “There’s a meatloaf monster running around! Sstop yelling!”

Yup, this is the Blackout Interlude, as I started calling it ages before giving it a proper title. Set during the 2013 HQ Blackout, this is the ongoing, ever-growing “interlude” that, uh, isn’t finished yet. Involved in it are a large cadre of characters, as one might expect: it begins with Dawn, involves the author getting thrown into the mix, featured the original first appearance of Kozar and the Reader (as written by me, anyway, the Reader may have already shown up in the Continuity Council planning?) and just plain has a whole bunch of canon characters in there as well (from Supernatural, Sherlock, Good Omens…) And that’s not all! Tune in for more parts (the first three were posted, and at some point I started overhauling it…?) to find out where Castiel wandered off to, why exactly Kozar, the Reader, and Sherlock are finding people hanging upside down from lampposts in HQ, how Jack Harkness knew the Doctor had been in the PPC (see the end of Lily Winterwood’s interlude for reference), and where in the world Jacques came into this mess…and even more!

…in short? A Blackout romp, featuring many canon characters, the recruitment of an agent pair, the first meeting of future friends (also agents), and a mystery or three. Also, a nice little handful of meta. The original versions of the first three parts can be found here; the ‘first lines’ above are technically from the beginning of one of the scenes in the fourth part.

The Wandering Baron

Eshakhar sat in a nicely, if simply, carved wooden chair in her study at the Castle of Dawn.

A Plort story, in which newly-minted Baron Eshakhar reflects on her new status and the fate of her old friend. Set about a year ago.

Untitled Reader/Naya Piece (Interlude)

It was a nice day, probably, the Reader thought.

The Reader tries to come up with and perfect a gift for Naya. There is poetry. It is bad. Kozar makes an appearance.

Dawn's LotR Nightmare (tentative title)

Jacques woke up, oddly enough, to a familiar voice telling him to get up. Or, well, it seemed to be talking to him...it was a little hard to tell.

“Ardir,” the voice said. A gentle hand squeezed his shoulder. “Ardir, you must awaken. We will soon have guests, and I will have need of your help. Make haste.”

“Listen,” Jacques said, and began to open his eyes, wondering as he did so why no one else was in his bed, “I think you might have the--”

Here he stopped, and stared.

An old, about half-written idea that I think was meant for April Fool's Day (and semi-canonical at best), in which Dawn and a small handful of other agents wake up to find themselves acting out the Fellowship of the Ring events (with some additions)...in disguise...and without any PPC technology. Follow along as they try to figure out how they got there and what they can do to stop the story and get home!

(Aka, the one in which many, many people for some reason resemble Dawn, only a handful of people are real, there are First Age Elves playing Hobbits, bookverse characters exist, there are some suspiciously Sueish characters floating around, and it's very possible the whole thing started with a bit too much fun with a LotR dollmaker on dolldivine.)

(This isn't currently that high on my list of stories to finish, but...I'm curious to see if there's interest in it).

Untitled Reader/Naya alternate meeting (short AU)

Naya had been looking forward to the party, in a way that was really partly just about getting to see her partners in a party setting.

An alternate universe story in which Naya didn't attend a TARDIS repair session and the Guardsman and the Reader never resolved their differences. Instead, Naya meets an awkward young Time Lady at a social event and has a sharp discussion with her partner to finally set the record straight. (Not co-written, characters used with permission).

---
Survey link here!

Twice over the years, I've had dreams that were basically fully plotted stories. I wrote down everything I could remember immediately after waking up . . . unfortunately, I was unable to find the paper with the notes tonight, so they may be dead in the water. But just for the sake of sharing the ideas with you folks:

[the one where zookepers secretly worship an ancient nature deity]
After discovering something primal and powerful buried underneath their land, the higher-up zookeepers begin to follow a dark path, and the lives of neither the animals they once cared about, nor their own human coworkers, hold much value to their rapidly slipping consciences. But then again, their new god holds their lives in equally low regard.

[the one that I barely remember but basically looked at a haunted property from a historical perspective throughout many decades]
Before it was restored and remodeled into the modern-day community center, that building has been many things over the years. The warm, safe home of a broken family. A hideout for Prohibition-dodgers. An ostensible dormitory that morphed into a college party house. A sanctuary for the homeless. But two things have always been constant: the deaths, and the black cat.

So yeah. If I don't find those notes, I'll need to do some serious focused thought on these to be able to recreate all the details from the original dreams. And I'm more focused on my PPC fiction anyway, so. Probably don't count on seeing these published ever? But here's a just-for-fun poll, all the same.

—doctorlit, found by stories in his sleep

Because I've got a bunch of different spin-off ideas running around, and no clue which one I want to write most. Here's my favorites!

Friday the Thirteenth

Grace Trouble Hopper Byron Null knew it was going to be a bad day when she found the first note. It simply read Sorry, in her own handwriting.

(Time shenanigans. Grace Null is many things: slacker, bartender, HQ kid, time traveler… and she and her TARDIS are often the thin line between HQ and Emergencies. This is made slightly more complicated by the nature of HQ, time, fandom, and the part where her moms are around in the present.)

Fish and Feathers

“Talia,” Sarah said, oddly calmly, without looking up from the shattered display case that a tense shift had thrown her into. “I am probably going to burst into flames in the near future.”

(Department of Redundancy Department - who are now very overworked by the load of time-loop fics. Sarah thought she was from World One. She thought she was human. And then she got chucked into a magical artifact from her homeworld, and now she's trying to balance being an Agent, being the partner of a very polyamorous Trekkie, and being a phoenix, too.)

Procedural Codes

“You should just kill her,” Nala said, not breaking eye contact with the black-clad figure in the interview cell, as her fingers itched to hold the lightsaber at her hip. “She’s Sith, it’d be a kindness.”

On the contrary, the Tiger Lily said. We’ve recruited her. Nala Sage, meet Beshaura Kell. Your new partner.

(Department of Internal Affairs - Nala Sage was a Jedi. Then she was a fugitive, then she was a DIA Agent. Now she just has to worry about not murdering her partner. Or getting murdered by her. A procedural, with lightsabers.)

Duct Tape

“I’m sorry,” Julia said, pointing across the lab, “I’m actually over there right now.” The agent turned, saw Agent Dann in profile - and in that moment, Julia ducked and scuttled under the workbench. Out of sight, out of mind, and she breathed a quiet “sorry” in the direction of her doppleganger as the agent who had been bothering her set off across the Lab in pursuit of Dann.

(Department of Sufficiently Advanced Technology! Newbie Julia takes on the multiverse, asking fun questions like “why is this broken?” and “how does that work?” and “why does this ‘Dann’ guy look just like me?”)

The survey!

I just wanted to see where the votes were without skewing the results, and I had to vote again to do so.

(Gravity's Embrace is obviously the best, btw.)

I wanted to participate here much sooner.

Okay, these two are ideas who have been boiling inside my brains for a while, and would like to write someday. So I'll be writing concepts rather than the elevator pitch. I'll be happy for any comment about them (including which one you prefer, of course).



First one is a fantasy one. The itch I have in mind for now is 'Magic has been used so recklessly it savaged the world. Nine mages pulled out a ritual to bind themselves to the nine (Life, Death, Light, Darkness, Fire , Water, Earth, Air and 'High Magic') different parts of the magic 'spectrum' to stop it, becoming pretty much 'gods' in the processus. And they've to groom successors to take their place eventually, because the monitoring of this monumental energy? Not Good On Your Sanity'.

Includes (of course) at least one of the group feeling not warm and fuzzy at the idea, up to using some sorts of soul-eating demons as an army to help with that disagreement, reincarnation as a feature of the world, not (exclusively) antagonistic use of undeads, desire to build and explore at length an entire world, with culture trying to avoid the 'nation of hats' while eventually having nine major protagonists (the mentionned successors) eventually coming together to take care of the situation.

Including various actors out for their own gains, and said gods become gradually more unhinged, including cataclysms of 'wild magic' when the control slips...



Number Two is a fantasy one too. It's one less developped, by here are the ideas I kept for now. A world stuck in a tug of war between the vile 'demons' and their humans thralls and mankind, supported by the luminescent 'angels'. Protagonist ends up in problems when he shows aptitude to the demon's brand of magic, rather than the humans' elementarism or the holy magic taught by the angels, and something as a pretty surefire sign of demonic allegiance. Cue problems and story.

And eventually a nasty revelation: both demons and angels are pretty much eldritch veings waging a multi-worlds war, with the local planet being only one more battlefield, and none of them as a species (of course outliers exist) care about the local tools.

Even less because... Well, magic is pretty much an extension of the ecosystem as I see it in this setting, and while demons-controlled lands already look like the sort of wastelands they favor, the angels are crafty enough to use humans mages to soften the blow where their presence is the heaviest... Because Bleak Desert of Endless Still Order isn't that sexy of a presentation to the drafted locals liking crops of food and this sort of nice things. Meaning the big stakes become taking care of both sides of this war to make sure the humans can live their own destiny, and have a planet to live it.

Talking about my WIPs while they're still WIPs is kind of anxiety-inducing for me. But it's always good to get feedback, so here goes.

The Orktili Invasion (Working title)

The architecture in Pergamia had been specifically designed to hide the fact that people lived there from the eyes of hunting dragons. This is most likely the reason the Orktili chose it as a base of operations when they came from beyond the stars.

Sci-fi and fantasy happily married, as they were always meant to be. Aliens invade a magical country ruled by a power-hungry despot. It's up to her daughter, her banished younger brother, a peasant, and a pirate to figure out why they're here and how to get rid of them.

The Adventures of Laura Davidson (Also a working title)

Laura Davidson learned her first swear word from the aspen tree across the street. Aspen Trees, as everyone knows, are foul-tempered things with no concern for Manners or Propriety or, indeed, for the Children, and as Luck would have it the only one in the neighborhood of Forthington Square was directly across the street from the house she grew up in.

Urban fantasy, inspired by all the tall tales my dad told me when I was a kid. Welcome to a world where it is possible to walk to school uphill both ways. Someone has sabotaged the Propellers that Make the Earth Go 'Round, but the only person who knows is seven-year-old Laura Davidson and no one believes her.

And here's the form!

(Upon further reflection, it seems to me that I tend to be bad at naming things. Alternate name suggestions are welcome as well!)

So I made my 20k goal for my 2009 NaNo, but it doesn't have a title. It's the story of how the king's gadabout second son finds his calling as a military leader and saves the kingdom from invasion (yay!), but also gets stuck having to be king (boo!). Oh, and along the way he made a deal with a mysterious old man to put in a good word for him with the king in exchange for critical information about the invasion. I'm sure it's fine.

This is a prequel to the main events.

There was a bee on the windowpane. It buzzed ineffectually against the green glass, apparently unconcerned with the distorted image of the world beyond; only drawn to the light.

Apparently I started a story in the main plot for a 2011 NaNo, but forgot about it. Seriously, when I opened the file, I thought it was going to be something else. I have no memory of writing the thing it actually is. It has a title, but it wouldn't be the book's title, so eh.

Snow swirled down from the heights of the mountain peaks, driving through the gaps between peak-roofed houses in the tiny village of Finleen huddled below and gathering in drifts against crosswise walls. Through the dark, icy winter air, a baby's wail arose from one of the houses, cutting through the low moaning of pine trees in the wind.

(Dear god, that run-on. Ow.)

The something else isn't a novel. Probably it's a chapter in the same book as the 2011 thing. Again, there's a title, but not one I'd actually be using. Eh.

The celebration of the Spring Equilux, which marked the end of winter and the beginning of the new year, was always an important event in the divided kingdoms of the north, and none prided themselves on their festival more than Wickham.

... I think I'm bad at first lines. And titles.

All that stuff is in the same world, anyway. It's middleweight fantasy—there is magic, but it's not abundant; some fantasy creatures like elves, vampires, and dragons exist, but they're part of the natural world and obey meta-physiological rules. The Powers That Be are just another order of being (but some of them have big heads about it).

And I have no idea how it all fits together. Plot? Hahahaha. Ha.

A couple other ideas I've toyed with, but haven't put any serious work into:

Moon magic

Modern fantasy. People are born with magic at various power levels according to location and phases of the four moons. Heather arrives in the right place at the right time to be the biggest magical deal in about two thousand years. As she comes into her power, all the major magical/political players want to control her, but she has to deal with the reccurrence of a major lunar alignment that spells big trouble for the world if she can't learn what she needs in time. Fortunately, there's an eccentric but endearing guy with a foreign accent who says he knows what's going on and can help! I'm sure nothing bad will happen to him.

Supernatural SWAT team

What it says on the tin. Badass normal newbies Sophia Hue Phan and Tim Gurney join established team members Joe Donovan (a vampire) and Ban MacCormac (a werewolf); have to deal with witches, hackers, and confusing but steamy relationship polyhedrons. I dunno, I'm pretty sure I just wanted to make up pretty people with cool names.

No vote, because seriously, there's nothing to vote on. I'll let you know if I actually work out a decent plot for any of these at any point.

~Neshomeh

Just a heads up, it's not gonna be a wide variety of genres. Or... ideas for that matter of fact. I'm a one-trick pony unfortunately, and it's a matter of picking the most interesting idea:



Number Thirteen, Zauber Street

You do NOT want to visit this house... unless you're mad, desperate, or somewhere in-between.

A ragtag bunch of miscellaneous magic users and a collection of stories about their odd-jobs. Featuring: a junkie shaman, an African Spider God, a Russian witch, an androgynous empath, etc.

________________________________________________________

Cerberus

Like the Hound of the Underworld, we stand guard so that no filth escape their settlements.

Once again, urban fantasy. This time using the principle of Three Ms: Magic, Murder, Mystery. Cops, guns, investigations, vampires, monsters and shapeshifters.

_______________________________________________________

The Hunters/The Magicians

This one is tricky, as it's two series set in the same universe. So, I'm gonna kinda cheat and summarize both:
- St. George Hunting Company revolves around professional monster hunters and their inner scandals
- The Baskerville Society is the magicians' cabal answering directly to the Queen of England




Let's see if <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEJA7s29KxPGi6RcdIravIa0nZF0D6vV4ktgprvmH50MxHQ/viewform?usp=sf_link">THIS LINK works

The Bone Man

In a small back room, cool against the heat and dimming out the harsh afternoon sun, the doctor cracked his knuckles and went to perform a miracle.

Urban fantasy. A young Ten-Pound Pom girl in 1950s Australia is training as a nurse under a Reiki practitioner and osteopath. These quack medical practices... actually work as advertised. Think Harry Potter meets Call The Midwife with a healthy dash of cosmic horror.

The Little Old Man From Number 22

Well, there goes the neighbourhood.

Horror fantasy. Two alternating viewpoints in a small corner of slowly-gentrifying Deptford: one a serial runaway teenage girl who's been adopted by a hipster couple with something to hide, and the other a little old man who's been there forever. Literally. One of them's the villain. It's not her.

Fleabag

My sister's cat has filled the entire bloody house with fleas.

Zombie apocalypse story with a difference: this time we experience it from the point of view of Patient Zero in the outbreak. What does zombification really mean? How does it affect your life? Aside from, y'know. The obvious.

International Klein Blue

You're looking at a blue rectangle mounted on a wall and you're thinking "My kid could do that" or "How is this art?" or variations on a theme of fatuous closed-minded martinetry.

Combination Lovecraftian cosmic horror and... art history lecture? Sophie's World for the horror genre and modern art movement combined. Formless beings and strange old men and what we have to do to survive.

---

Voting happens here.

For reference, I voted for The Words Of The Voice. It sounds the most interesting, if REALLY similar in concept to Will Self's The Book Of Dave.

So... I don't really do novels; I've tried, and I can't write good descriptive language for the life of me. However, I can draw, so my goal is to get a graphic novel published eventually!

I'm only working on one at the moment, so there's no need for a survey, but it'd be really nice to hear if people are interested in the concept or not.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Maelstrom Trio

I'm starting to see why no one wants this job. I mean, it's not like it's not fun to get beat up by demons on a daily basis, but I certainly don't get paid enough for it.

Urban fantasy/comedy. On an Earth where magic and monsters have been a fixture of life from the beginning, G.U.A.R.D. ensures that normal people get the protection they need. Details the misadventures of three G.U.A.R.D. agents - a mild-mannered magician, a trashy and foul-mouthed elf, and a human woman as good at kicking butt as she is at keeping the other two from killing each other - as they do their best to protect their assigned neighborhood from assorted heinous monstrosities while trying to deal with life, each other, and the friendly tentacles they can't seem to evict from the kitchen sink.

Truth be told I've barely even started most of these projects, but I think they're the most likely to go anywhere if I ever actually apply myself to writing a proper novel.

The Bastion Walls

The sun beat down, the Walls rose up, and six sets of hoofbeats drummed out a canter on the red desert sands

Fantasy. A bright young dragoon captain, one of the few survivors of the Eight Bastion, must set musket ball and sabre against demon fangs and claws, and lead his men to safety.

The New London Paranatural Society

For the first time in forty years, Gregory Allen Fielding stood beneath a silver sun, and found nothing.

Urban Fantasy-ish. Just about every myth and monster exists, they just left. Their world's the High Road, our world's the Low Road, but you probably won't end up in Scotland if you follow that first one. Sort of like Van Helsing in the 1800s, only with harmonica rifles and Werewolves in waistcoats.

H.O.M.E. Away from Home

Something's following us, I'm sure of it. I'm going to prove it, I'm going to catch it, and who knows, maybe this will finally convince my boss to give me a raise?

Soft sci-fi. A gunner on a rundown space station is sure she's spotted something moving in the dark, and she's fairly certain human ships don't have quite so many tentacles.

The Bloody Harvest

I haven't actually got an opening line for this one shhhh

Fantasy, with some horror/mystery thrown in. A man seeking to marry science and magic moves to the village of Orchran Hills to pursue his craft in peace, but when he's framed for murder and black magic, he finds there may be more to the small town than he hoped.

Google Form (I'm not sure if this link actually works, I've never used Google Forms before)


Now, as for your pitches, I was really torn between the first two. I like the sound of the Kraken-Knights setting, but The Next Great Wizard won out. It just seems like the kind of story that appeals to me. That "Or is that just me?" Bit at the end of the first line just grabbed me.

The Words of the Voice also sounds like an interesting concept, and holy hatstands do I love the first line for Gravity's Embrace. That is a hook and a half, sir. Well done.

(The Nanovels I have no longer hold my interest, so these are actually just ideas I have bouncing around, some of which I've done some writing on, some of which I have not.)

---

And It Goes All the Way Down

The elevator shaft in the heart of Brinten Complex is four square meters of empty space, and it goes all the way down.

Soft sci-fi. Brinten is a Class-III city planet that has just been unified by a relentless warlord. At least, the top one hundred levels have been unified--no one really knows how deep the city goes. Lord Asher is eager to find out.

Invincibility Isn't As Fun As It Sounds

My name is actually "Bulwark," but everyone calls me "Chump Block."

Superheroes. Lux City was supposed to be an international utopia, where anyone could live and prosper in peace. Unfortunately, the supervillains took over a long time ago.

Congratulations, You've Been Abducted!

"Unidentified ship, this is Ensign Mary Starwright of the Archimedes University of Galactic Navigation, aboard the Greenspire 221. Please state your name, origin, and intent."

Soft sci-fi. A promising starship captain is abducted--to be a contestant on an intergalactic game show.

Should I Major in Chemistry, or Alchemy?

Student loans almost got me killed by a dragon.

Fantasy. In an effort to pay for her degree, Jamie takes a summer job as a housekeeper in a secluded Highlands mansion. When she arrives, she finds out that the owner of the mansion is actually an alchemist, and she's looking for an apprentice.

Which one, which one?

---

By the way, I put down The Kraken-Knights, but it was a very close tie between that and The Next Great Wizard, and honestly, I like the sound of all your pitches. I would read any (or all) of them.

Thanks for starting this, hS!

-Alleb

Here are a couple of the different stories that I've worked on, or am working on.

One of them actually did get picked up by a local publisher, but they went out of business and I never got to see it come to fruition. Can you guess which one? :P

I only have three to offer, rather than five. Sorry!

The Pureblades (Urban fantasy)
What happens when you gain magic that was never yours to begin with?
A young boy learns his older sister is a member of a group that hunts demons, and joins as well, taking what was rightfully his best friend's place.

The Cycle of Worlds (...Fourth-wall breaking humor? Is there a genre for that?)
So, yeah, you died. And the author's gotten lazy and decided your role is to save the multiverse from a megalomaniacal tyrant. Have fun!
When people die, their souls are ferried across the boundaries of reality by Death to be reborn as an entirely new species on a completely different planet. Most people don't remember their past lives, but a rare handful do.

Neither Heir nor There (portal fantasy is the right term, hS?)
This is why you don't put children in charge of Mac Guffins.
Two friends had a sleepover as children. One of them lost an amulet that had been passed down through the family. Years later, long after falling out of touch, the other found the amulet, just in time to get kidnapped into a fantasy world and proclaimed the heir to a world-saving power.


Google Form

Is the summary for Gravity's Embrace suggesting that the spaceship itself is approaching him? That's the impression I'm getting, anyway.

I'm reminded of the Basque language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language

Now, in fact. I'm going to review as I go along, so watch this space.

hS

It really saddens me that you're leaving this place for good (and while I'm using it, and had RPs, RPGs and other things on it, when I look at the drama it spawned and Boarders it made leave... Is Discord worth it?)...

Sorry for not reacting more about Blank Sprite (And I was feeling similar feelings when I posted my missions... Pot? Kettle called. He said you're black.). I've been reading the whole story, and fully intends to post a C&C of the final chapter on the site... but Real Life has been getting busy with job searching lately (Welp, eight monthes of being jobless, but things quickened up in June), and I have at least three other C&C for other stories I've been following are on the backburner too. And I'll join your beta-readers, the story is an excellent one.

And I'd very much want to read Teiko's fourth lission myself. And I'm sure other on this Board would want to.

I'll also gladly read that original book, and would really hope I won't miss when it's published.

Duck I hated when the goodbyes began when you left, I hate them as much now. Still, good luck for the future.



P.S.: For the drama... Really? I know I tend to avoid it when it seems like boiling, but every time... I hoped te situation was getting better.

Good luck to you and whatever you do next!

I'll keep an eye out for that future book. /Optional!Hugs

Currently I'm finishing reading the Original Series as part of my preparation for a Permission attempt, but now that the Wiki has been discovered as miraculously unblocked on my computer, Blank Sprite is going on my list. Just for a fellow PPCer.

I understand your decision and I wish you good luck with whatever you do next.

-Twistey

A lot of that down was down to not having any idea what was going on by the time its existence came to my attention, and feeling like I didn't have the time to start at the beginning with various other goings-on and priorities, both life and media-wise.

That being said, I do agree we have a general problem with not reviewing or at least acknowledging we've read stuff around here - so I'm going to make my Nth call for people to at least drop an "I read your thing (nm)" on stuff they read because it's better than cricket noises.

- Tomash

I must confess I haven't read Blank Sprite. I've wanted to, but there's always been something else to read and I was honestly intimidated by the length.

...OTOH, I don't noticed the drama quite so much. Maybe because I do my best to stay out of it, Maybe for other reasons.

Ah well.

I wish things could have worked out differently. You seem like a cool guy, and I wish I'd been able to get to know you better.

The music for 4X games has to really build character for the game involved, since there's not a huge amount of pre-prepared story a lot of the time. Here are a few of my favourites from the wonderful world of turn-based strategy:-

Shoshone Peace Theme (Civilization V: Brave New World)
This is an emotional piece, recalling the experiences of the Trail Of Tears and the genocide committed against all of America's indigenous civilizations whilst still sounding absolutely majestic. It also makes a great companion piece to...

America Industrial/Modern Theme (Civilization 6)
Civ 6 is unique in 4X games for having music that actually shifts and becomes more complex as you advance through the game. This track is from the midpoint in the game, and is based (as are all the America tracks) on the parlor song "Hard Times Come Again No More". This is a triumphal piece of music, full of hope and optimism and sounding like the OST of the greatest Western you've never seen. For something meant to represent the United States, that's a good indicator that things've gone right.

Across The Drift (Riftborn Theme, Endless Space 2)
It has to be said that the historical 4X games have it quite a lot easier than fantasy or sci-fi ones - there's already a culture and body of work upon which the music can draw, rather than obliging the composer to come up with one or imply one exists. This theme for the transdimensional time-manipulating Riftborn sells their cold, ordered, but compassionate nature really well - the ticking metronomes and clocks in the background is a great touch.

More later, if you want.

I don't think you can go wrong with the ones of the Atlus games.

The musics from the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games are always suited to the scenes they're played in, going from epic to dramatic to sad to fluff to epic godslaying... Rock was never so awesome before. And acid jazz for Persona 5. All of it coming mainly from composer Shoji Meguro (guesss it's no cance they decided to create dancing game spin-offs of Persona 3, 4 and 5.

And to name an individual track, Magus' Battle Theme from Chrono Trigger is juuust what the doctor ordered.

Knuckle Sandwich is an upcoming indie game, which is a sort of RPG kinda thing in the stylings of the Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga games and Earthbound. I, in general, recommend it a lot. Play the demo! It's really funny and fun and also gets really really dark.

But, anyways, one of the central parts of the game, as according to its dev, is the soundtrack - indeed, from what I can tell, of the five or six people working on it, everyone but the lead dev is a musician.

My particular favourite songs from the demo are Back Alley Beat and Ninety Eight. The music uses a lot of kind of sampling of human voices and so on, and, in general, fits the kind of quirky, goofy tone the game goes for.

Also, I'll just recommend Nelward, one of the game's musicians, as a whole. He's what drew me to it. It's kinda hard to describe his music, except as, well, sort of goofy electronic whatever such? Love that guy, anyway.

Let's give 'em a look, shall we?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8P_raHQ4EoWTSH2GMESMQA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeZLO2VgbZHeDcongKzzfOw

https://www.youtube.com/user/ongakuconcept

-Twistey

Stuart Copeland (the drummer from The Police) did the soundtrack to the Spyro The Dragon PS1 games - aka. The Good Spyro Games. One of my favourite tracks in the whole series is Fireworks Factory, which really sells the level's themes of rocket ninjas without resorting to tired Orientalist leitmotifs. Check it out here:-

Fireworks Factory (Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon)

I'm really looking forward to the Spyro: Reignited trilogy, whenever that comes out, purely because of the music.

Speaking of remasters, the N. Sane Trilogy had some fantastic music of its own that updated the tracks (which were done by one of the blokes from Devo). This, ICYMI, was the Crash Bandicoot original trilogy remaster from last summer that I drooled over. There's some pretty nice music in there, and one of my favourites is the updated Hang Eight theme, with its jungle surf theme. Another choice track from the N. Sane Trilogy is the updated Road Crash theme, which has a brilliant '50s vibe.

Hang Eight/Air Crash/Plant Food (Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, N. Sane Trilogy)
Hog Ride/Road Crash/Orange Asphalt/Area 51 (Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, N. Sane Trilogy)

Hope those are interesting.

I admit I don't know enough about music to really delve into the intricacies of how they're written.

But I will take the opportunity to gush about one of my favorite soundtracks, namely to the musical Hamilton. An obvious pick, yes, but I love the clever lyrics, use of different music styles and the way the story is told. The words flow together smoothly and the music reflects the character and story beats (and being me a history buff doesn't hurt my enjoyment of the musical one bit... even if there are some creative liberties taken).

Sorry for the simplistic terms, I'm not smart enough to understand all the technical details. I could link to someone else who understands it better than I could...

I love id Software. The board ought to know this by now. So let's start there. IMHO, Wolf3D doesn't stand the test of time, so on to the next one.

Enough has been written about the Doom soundtrack. It's great. It's also MIDI, so everyone will probably hear something slightly different. Anyone remember MIDI? Yeah.

Also, it just rips off a ton of metal. All the metal. Still great though.

Quake! Wait, Quake had a soundtrack? Yes. Yes it does. Composed by Nine Inch Nails, no less. You probably haven't noticed it because it's really ambient. Well, except for that title theme. If you have the Steam version, you may never have heard any of that, because Quake had a Redbook soundtrack. Read: the CD was actually an audio CD, and the game won't play the soundtrack unless it's in the drive, because it doesn't exist on disc. So the Steam version doesn't even contain a soundtrack. Thankfully, there are ways to get it working again if you download a modern sourceport.

Quake 2 got hit with the redbook problem too. Which is a shame, because speaking as a metal fan, Quake 2's soundtrack is killer. I mean, listen to this!. Q2's soundtrack is the best part of that game, easy. Which isn't hard, because it's the weakest Quake game, also easy. Throwing out the horror and oppressivenes for sci-fi action and space marines killing borg didn't serve the game well, and neither did the endless brown and grey. The Edge was a bangin' DM level, though.

And finally, Quake 3, the best deathmatch game ever devised by man. I know that's high praise, but I really really really really really like this game. They brought in a few bands on this one, including the Quake 2 guys. Sonic Mayhem 1 and 5 are particularly memorable, but the one that sticks out to me most is probably this one. Because it seems to play whenever I load up Q3DM17, which is probably the most played map in Quake 3 by a mile. It's also not a very good map, but that's another story.

But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Unreal Tournament, Quake 3's competition. Because that game also has a soundtrack, and what a soundtrack it is. Alexander Brandon is widely regarded as brilliant, and this more theatrical soundtrack doesn't disappoint. The song everyone remembers is Foregone Destination, which backed Facing Worlds, the UT99 equivalent of Q3DM17. Well, that and the fantastic Menu theme. That thing is great.

Even better, and by the same guy, is the theme to Deus Ex. Oh jeez. I can listen to that all day.

More to come, probably.

So two things: 1. I don't understand music on the same deep level of notes and such that twistey does, but there's some cleverness to the songs in this game I still want to bring up.

and 2. I realize this is a super tiny, minor fandom no one else here cares about but uh . . . I think this is at least somewhat interesting anyway?

So, for being an ultimately sub-par game, Epic Mickey has an utterly gorgeous and creative soundtrack, composed by James Dooley. The basic mechanic of the game is that you can advance past obstacles either by using paint to create new objects, or to brute force through things by dissolving existing objects with thinner. Most of the game levels (themed around Disney park attractions) have a music theme with five separate variations: the "base" version, a version where you're mostly using paint to get through, a version where you're only using paint to get through, a version where you're mostly using thinner to get through, and a version where you're only using thinner to get through. The paint-oriented versions tend to be focused on high-pitched chimes, and are generally gentler and more light-hearted feeling than the base version. The thinner versions tend to become very slow, with creepy violins and deep baritone notes added.

This feature was also used to hide musical easter eggs in the soundtrack. One level has the Micky Mouse Club March hidden in its music, at 1:02. It's identifiable, but the notes and tone are way off. Using lots of paint restores the tune to a more recognizable form. (Same point in time.) Using lots of thinner, though, appropriately wipes that tune completely out of the song!

—doctorlit hopes this is at least marginally interesting to anyone else . . .

FREAKIN' BUY SOME AND REPAINT THEM! I WANT TO SEE IT! DO IT! YES!

Hehe, anyway... I love the villain designs. I actually like all the designs, but obviously a Mary Sue can be a Mary Sue and still have a good design. But I still love the designs. (I do character design stuff a lot, so that's usually what I notice first.)

I dunno, but I have a particular sweet spot for Ragana because I've seen her before in a LEGO catalog and I at the time had a villain role for myself in one story where the outfit I had had was very similar to hers, even the same black-and-green color scheme and with my old Scratch avatar's orange (which is close to pink) hair. So yeah, when you posted this, I still had a little lingering feeling of "mine" over her.

Cronan is cool, typical warlord fare with an interesting... eye motif? That's not a path most would take, so props to Lego. Noctura is great with... is one sleeve longer or are her arms being consumed by darkness? I hope it's the latter because that's cool. I love her haircut and expression and tiara and oh my God everything is so pretty. Looking at the pages, I don't know about all the CAFs and minor critters, they're just kinda cookie cutter, but the designs of the Elves are rather aesthetically pleasing. Except Skyra... I can't tell what she is, but if she were drawn for me and explained, that might satisfy me. Oh that's a cape thingy, okay. Now I like the design.

Now the real exception is the two humans. They're also very cookie cutter, which I guess combined with Emily's description means they Could Be Anyone. They could be you. They could be me. Most importantly, they could be the viewers. So yeah, typical audience insert protagonists.

TL:DR: Love the Elf designs. Everything else is pretty cookie cutter, but the Elf designs blow me away. Also, Ragana is sooooooorta mine-ish. Sorta.

-Twistey

Warhammer 40,000 is clearly a massive crossover, and Harry Potter is a Tom Brown's School Days AU.

What a coincidence! Has anyone worked out the names of the mini-Balrogs yet? I definitely want one too!

Also, uh, unrelated but... our conversation that's gone off the front page now: are we continuing that? ^^;

Rainbow balrogs! I want! :-P

In which YOU are the Instrumentality, assisting a chosen wizard on their Ordeal (and, hopefully, beyond that...)

[Lemme know if anyone thinks this is a good idea, and I'll start it up.]

In related news, the other day I was looking up the phrase “The best laid plans of mice and men/ Go often awry,” and while I knew it came from a poem, I did not know that the original was a Scots language poem: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Mouse

This led to an interesting hour or two reading more about Scots as a language, which was pretty interesting!

I'm Twistey, a (currently recovering) 1-year-bie with an interest in world-building, character-building, all things weird and crazy, and all things that light up. And also music theory. I'm the one who gets way too invested in our joke things like Badfic Games and Shipfest, even going so far as to build up an entire mythos around the joke badfics I'm going to post in years to come. Brace yourself.

So, enough about me, what about you? What fandoms are you in? What do you like to do? What do you plan to do here - agent ideas, types of badfic you're interested in sporking, types of sporking, etc. How'd you find us? I'd love to know more!

And as for your newbie gift, since I've apparently decided to start randomly giving out samples of fantasy substances I made up, here's a bottle of purple stuff that is not the purple stuff I gave a different newbie a while back. It is not a good purple stuff, or at least it wasn't when I invented it, which was years ago. Try experimenting with it, I haven't touched it yet and I want to see if the effects have changed over time.

Anyway, nice to meet you. Have a great time here and welcome to the PPC!

-Twistey

Have a pile of multi coloured pens.

Please have a pot of black-hole coffee to go with the rest, and a welcome.

Have a laspistol and a half-kilo of lembas bread.

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

Nice to meet you - have a large bar of chocolate.

Always room for one more. Have a chocolate chip cookie and a potted aloe.

What sort of things are you into?

As your newbie gift, have two cents, so you can put them into discussions later.

You've already been linked the important stuff, so, what're your fandoms?

- Tomash

Have a blackberry chocolate cake!

In addition to the Constitution, which has community rules, I would point out the FAQ for newbies: http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:_For_Newbies.

How did you hear about this place? What sorts of fandoms (if any) are you interested in?

/passes you a Small White Package. It makes a great doorstop!

Anyway, have you read the Constitution and/or the Original Series yet? :> What are your favorite continua and/or missions?

The topic's maybe a little too deep for me to feel like I can comment on it, though you wrote the article in a way that I could at least follow it. I do think it's important to examine these changes in online social trends over time, as we (or later generations of users) will eventually be discussing internet history the same way humans discuss, um . . . other history.

Your discussion on shorter pieces of fan discussion being treated with equal dignity to larger works actually reminds me of one of the themes of Fahrenheit 451: that one of the factors that led to that setting's disillusionment with literature was the loss of free time, which led to less introspection, and less time to consume larger sources of media.

"'Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume.'"

Pretty scary to think that fandom is starting to follow that trend in real life. I hope the trend reverses eventually, and fandom overall migrates back to the LiveJournal/Dreamwidth style of stage.

—doctorlit

With "transformative works" replacing "fanfic," and "discussion" replacing "wank," have fanfic writers started to take themselves more seriously?

Unfortunately I wasn't around when you posted the survey, but I'm glad I got to read this all the same. It actually helped me make sense of some things I've been wondering about in fandom culture. As someone who entered fandom in 2009, before most of this new wave had set in, but was too young (in actual years and fandom terms) to really get it, it offered some sense to a confusing and at times contradictory perspective.

So, as I said before, a very interesting read! Thanks for sharing!

Your findings absolutely reflect my subjective experience as an older/longer-term participant in fandom.

I find it very interesting that you seem to say that while discussions on newer platforms like Tumblr occur "at a more rapid pace with less control over the thread of conversation" and are more easily radicalized, they're being treated with "a more academic, professional lexicon" that "lends gravitas and credence to the arguments being expounded."

This puts a finger squarely on what bugs me about this shift. The conversation about fandom has become shorter, faster, less thought-through and lovingly (if self-aggrandizingly) developed, and yet treated more seriously? That seems backwards! Co-opting these serious academic terms in this way at once over-inflates the importance of one's opinions of fanstuff and dilutes their usefulness for people who do want to have a thoughtful discourse or need to express that they have a psychological trigger.

Too much like srs bsns.

~Neshomeh has to leave now, might have more to say later.

And this is a really fascinating read! /goes to spread it around.

http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/1276/1724”>here is a prettier one but the link is the same so ¯_(ツ)_/¯