Nov 2018 Archive, part a

1. This was actually very funny. I didn't find that disturbing or attractive at all, just funny. Lucky me.
   2. Isn't there a discouraged ship between the SO and the Marquis de Sod? Wonder what the latter flower would think of this...
   3. Haha! I know a number of other characters for which Rule 34 and Rule 34.B don't apply, because they're too obscure! (Not telling you, and most of said characters are my original characters who haven't been published yet, so you can't guess either!) Hah!
   
   -Twistey

Well, I can honestly say I would not have thought of doing something like that. Though I find it too silly to be disturbing.

Still, I can't help but be impressed and a bit disturbed... Also, is that body paint? If so, how long did it take to put on (and get off)?

That is fabulous, fantastic work. And, am I imagining things, or is the bikini some sort of cactus print?

~Neshomeh

I TOLD you he was the hottness! I told you ALL but you wouldn't LISTIN!!!! And hes' even HOTTTER now hes' a SIDHE!! (tahts' how you spell 'she' acorrding to me beter u knoe) And NOW you will ALL HAFE to BELEIVE me!!!

[Is led away, still ranting]

And quite possibly a bit to much time.

As I can have no regret for an earthquake, or a tsunami. An act of nature that, frankly, was inevitable, eventually.

Snowy is a hero. Not the one we want, and definitely not the one we need. But a hero, nonetheless.
The sheer dedication to a really dumb offhand joke that shouldn't have been dwelt on for longer than a few seconds is genuinely amazing. Godspeed, Snowy, godspeed.

The next step is to of course enshrine this achievement within PPC canon. Like a scar, or a haunting.

Actually, I do have one suggestion (which I made before, but still think it's worth saying): Sexy-up a suit (miniskirt or hotpants, a cropped suit blazer, tie tied way too loosely, etc).

A+ work, though. The green body paint was a nice touch.

A bit, kinda? I kinda completely failed to prepare at all in October, and when November finally rolled around I had to scramble to pick a story idea and decide what to do with it. Then when I finally made up mind I was forced to choose between fixing my sleep schedule and doing D&D stuff or NaNo, D&D won out.

I'm still in it, though! Just starting a week late, that's all. I've decided to try my hand at one of the novels I mentioned in the elevator pitch thread you posted a while back, The New London Paranatural Society. Featuring the adventures of a British army veteran, a young mad scientist with a certain distaste for gravity, a Scottish werewolf in a very fine waistcoat, and a cloth dragon named Patches, as they search for the anonymous head of the Society who has mysteriously fallen silent.

I actually remember taking part a few years ago. The ending result included multiple Sues, excessive dialogue, and match butchering of various mythologies. Needless to say, it has been destroyed.
This year, I’m probably not reaching the word count goal, but I will be writing a collection of short stories featuring two increasingly frustrated people who are permanently in the bodies of teens and get stuck into various universes that always eventually get at least one Mary Sue invasion, and every time the invasion is taken care of, they get stuck in another universe.

I'm Collin Frisbee on the site if you want to send me rude messages over it in order to slow me down and thus gain an edge over me in the competition.

I'm writing Lamppost Saint, a sort of episodic surrealist journey across a barren, haunted Sydney, starring a man in a full-body prosthesis suffering constant phantom sensations and generally having a tough time telling what's real and what isn't.

It's a sort of spiritual successor to an earlier story I wrote (that I have not shared with anyone here), and fulfils a very similar purpose to me, in that I intend to use it as a way to sort of - go nuts, I guess, and have fun with all the imagery and kooky dream logic.

It's based a lot on my interest in folklore and weird fortean cryptozoological kind of stuff, and was influenced a lot by Hellboy and stuff by China Mieville, and the way that, for instance, many UFO stories very much feel like old fairy abduction stories, but from a modern, more scientific context. There's this really bizarre and fun dream-logic to many old fairy tales and folktales, and capturing a sort of similar feeling, from a modern context, is one of my main goals.

I mean, there's actual plot there, too, no worries mate.

However it ends up, it has been fun so far!

I've tried to get started several years, but never even got in the first day of writing. But this year I did, so I'm very excited!

I'm actually cracking down on a fanfiction, Kathryn's Adventures in Middle-Earth (a stand-in title), which is, as you may have guessed, a girl in Middle-earth story. It's not satire; I've set myself the challenge of taking this premise and taking it seriously.

I've set myself a couple of other challenges as well; I generally avoid first-person narration because it's hard for me to get into characters' heads, but this will be told in the form of a series of letters from the titular Kathryn to her mother, who is presumably still alive and well in the real world. I used to write a lot of letters as a kid, so I thought it would be easier than straight-up first person. So far I'm discovering it's really not.

I also discovered today that because the first half of the letters are written with some time between the events and the writing and the second half are written more or less immediately after the events, character development is a difficult thing to show. Some of it is happening days, weeks, or even months before they're written about and the narrator will be somewhat aware of it. Some of it, though, is happening in the immediate past and it's unlikely she's going to realize how she's changing and growing. One thing I'm trying to work in is self-contradiction. Earlier this year I read the diaries of Christopher Columbus and it was fascinating to see how his viewpoint changed as time went on. As an example, in earlier entries he thought of aloe as a very valuable commodity and gathered as much of it as he could. Later entries, though, referred to it as a very commonplace thing and he stopped collecting it. I suspect this is because he discovered how common it is in that part of the world. This is naturally never overtly acknowledged in the writing of the diary, but the diligent reader can pick it up. I'm hoping to capture a similar quandary in Kathryn's letters, for the purposes of both realism and character development.

But then, I probably shouldn't be thinking of this too much at this stage. It's just the first draft. Still, if I manage to pull it off properly, I think the letter format will be one of the great strengths of the story.

I'm stretched a bit thin this time around. I've got two short films to write, produce, direct, edit... and two essays as well.

That being said, I am halfheartedly poking at a superhero story featuring two old favorite Mutants and Masterminds characters of mine, Phantasm and Galeforce. One's a petty supervillain, one's the star hero of her home city, and together they form a sort of buddy-cop alliance.

Yours sounds much better thought out.

I forgot to get a website account this year, probably because last year I did one of the summer sessions.

This year, after consulting 7th Sanctum's random plot generators more times than is probably healthy and having to drop my original idea, I'm reimagining the story of the Golem of Prague as being about a group of programmers for a fantasy game instead. Jury's still out on whether their dream of an autonomous protector AI goes horribly wrong or entirely too well.

Has really great songs. The most popular is “Hey Alice (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_iy71v46r4).
(The original version is this; https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XgCS4X3Uzeo)

Another one of her songs I like is Nothing You Can’t Do (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mEjba75a4vo).

Also, Secrets of Wysteria is a nice song (for Halloween)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G0yo8BREgD0
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocaloid Is the Wikipedia article on Vocaloids.

Also, this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VFUlJRdIE00
And this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w5dN2IrVwwM
... and this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0qx4_hspWFk

(Night ore is just a song, but sped up. U N D E R D O G S has nice videos: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCPwndiuAdJMB6OyAs1Ou4dw

I have a few things to offer myself, and they're mostly soundtrack-related stuff, also mostly acoustic.

Animusic, a series of MIDI-driven computer animations of cool self-playing instruments. It comes as two DVDs, but can also be found on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ1nr3wk_nE&list=PLA89F5B0498E6A48A

This epic piece by the same guy who made the music for all the aforementioned videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qym5ABtDApk

This part of the soundtrack to "Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTyRvSBFfac

And this one from "Crypt of the NecroDancer":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rJFgTNiRuQ

This catchy little electronic piece which was used in the game "Just Shapes and Beats":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOwY01GAZw

And finally, the song I have claimed as my personal theme song with regards to the Board. If you listen long enough, it'll make you laugh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV0F_XiR48Q

Hope you enjoy at least one of these!
-Twistey

People gotta know.

The Laundry Files sound interesting! Haven't read any yet, though.

As much as I enjoyed Jessica Jones, I think Luke Cage is currently my favorite of the Marvel shows on Netflix . . . Figures it would get canceled in the middle of me watching the first series!

Spoilers follow for Daredevil seasons one and two, Jessica Jones season one, and Luke Cage season one.

I think what made me like LC compared to the earlier series is the positive tone. Daredevil and Jessica Jones were both incredibly dark: the former due to Daredevil's limits on how much progress he could make in gutting Hell's Kitchen's criminal underbelly in a short period of time, whether in a courtroom or masked on the streets, creating a tone of hopelessness; and the latter due to the wide and varied threat Kilgrave posed, and Jessica's constant fear of either herself or her loved ones falling under his control. By contrast, LC is all about striving to move forward in the world. Even the villains feel a lot more like ordinary people compared to Fisk and Kilgrave, and get a lot of screen time that develops them beyond their role as antagonists in the story. I feel a lot more sympathy for them than I usually do with MCU villains, even against the backdrop of the crimes they commit to feed their ambitions.

Actually, that leads into another feature of LC that I liked. The focus in DD and JJ was very much on the title characters and those immediately close to them. It made the conflicts feel very constrained, even in the midst of a huge area like Hell's Kitchen. LC, on the other hand, makes Harlem feel more like a community, with a lot of characters getting screen time in addition to Luke himself. Actually, I'm almost convinced Detective Knight got nearly the same amount of screen time as Luke himself. It fits in with Luke's desire to lay low, having to be spurred into heroic action nearly every time he does something.

Ironically, despite its more positive tone compared to the other two shows so far, it had a much more ambiguous ending, while DD and JJ had more positive ones with a pretty clear stop to the conflicts of each season. There were so many ups and downs in those last twenty minutes; if nothing else, it's got me excited for season two! Diamondback winding up with Cage's powers (probably) is bad, but considering the Hammer Industries super-suit didn't give him the upper hand against Cage, I'm actually not terribly concerned about that. Cage is in prison, but Bobby Fish has the evidence to prove his innocence. I love how incredibly book-ended the season was, too. Episode one had Cottonmouth framed on screen with the crown in his office painting centered over his head, and the final episode had his cousin Mariah standing in the same room with a different painting crowning her. Knight is also at the bar of Harlem's paradise in nearly identical disguises in both episodes, showing how little progress she and Luke have actually made towards ending the major organized crime in Harlem. And as Luke says, "Never backwards, always forwards. But sometimes, you have to make backwards to go forwards."

Revealing that Reva had been manipulating Cage is an interesting choice. She had been presented as such a good, almost paragon-like, portion of Cage's past, to the point that he abandoned Jones when he found out she was technically Reva's murderer. And her feelings for him seemed so sincere in the flashback episode . . . I mean, I think she was sincere, but that makes it all the weirder that she was also trying to lead Cage into the experimenting regimen. I guess we may never learn more about her at this point . . . I'm especially confused as to why the video footage of Kilgrave's power origin were on her flash drive from Seagate. Kilgrave was a child when he got his powers, so he couldn't possibly have been in the same program that Seagate was running. Unless his parents were scientists at Seagate? But I rather thought that scene took place in Britain, so . . .

The kiss between Mariah and Shades came out of absolutely nowhere. I didn't pick up on a single romantic thread between them in all their interactions, and I don't really care to ship them because they're both bad guys anyway.

MCU-wise, it looks like Cloak & Dagger and Runaways are both roughly next in the timeline. I don't think either are on Netflix, so we'll have to see what happens there . . .

—doctorlit was convinced for most of the season that Shades had the power to force people to tell him the truth by looking them in the eye, because of a scene in the second episode

"Man, you Harlem spoilers is off the chain. I'm going back to Hell's Kitchen, where it's safe." "Man, you Harlem spoilers is off the chain. I'm going back to Hell's Kitchen, where it's safe." "Man, you Harlem spoilers is off the chain. I'm going back to Hell's Kitchen, where it's safe."

Assuming I can't take any of the human foes on the same principle preventing hS from being an elf, I think I'd be a faerie dragon. Tiny, combat-averse, magically inclined, and colorful (not to mention adorable).

I would be a blink dog because I occasionally fade in and out of existance.

I'm organized, combative, and highly ambitious.

You and Thoth especially would have a great time, he loves Warhammer 40K.

Anyway, have a shield I made a little while back. It can fire two lasers in the same or multiple directions.

I hope you have a good time here, and welcome to the PPC!

-Twistey

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

Welcome. The Emperor protects..,

...but one of these doesn't hurt either.

Please have a pot of black-hole coffee and my welcome. Hope you'll enjoy it here.

Have a cupcake!

Whelcome! What is your favourite 40K faction?

Welcome to the board, I to enjoy Harry Potter(anyone that doesn't is considered a heathen).
As such, I hereby give you a hippogriff feather.

Have a slightly holy suit of Imperial Guard flak armor, guaranteed to last for life, but not for long.

Welcome to the PPC! I also like HP and LoTR, so glad to see we share some fandoms.

For your newbie gift, have a Generic Object. It turns into whatever you expect it to be, so expect wisely!

Hey, I had a classmate named Athena!

That being said (it may not be Christmas, but), have a thick, wooly pair of socks.

Hey, I had a classmate named Athena!

That being said, have a thick, wooly pair of socks. It’s not a Christmas, but,

Hello, and welcome aBoard! For your newbie gift, take this plate of freshly-made SPaGhetti!

If you haven't yet read them, may I point you towards the Original Series and the Constitution? They're pretty much the only required reading around these parts. Another useful resource you might use is the Wiki; if you have any questions, just look here before asking. We like it when newbies do the research. ;)

Hope you like it here!

PolitiScales is an 8-axis political compass designed to fully plot your political positions. 117 questions, but they only take 5-10 total to fill out, and then it gives you a flag generated from your results. ^^ It's fun!

<a href="http://www.politiscales.net/enUS/results/?t1=36&t0=10&j1=10&j0=62&b0=74&s0=83&s1=5&e1=33&e0=33&m0=79&p0=62&p1=5&c1=24&c0=40&femi=19&prag=67">Here's my results. My motto comes out as Equality - Humanity - Socialism, which is exactly what it was back in January.

Compared to then, the site says I've shifted slightly less Constructionist, slightly more Communist, slightly more Rehabilitative, and have become distinctly more ambivalent on Reform over Revolution. I know at least a few of the questions have changed, and a lot of my shift is probably down to clicking 'Somewhat' over 'Absolutely' or vice versa.

I've also picked up a partial Pragmatist sticker, which is very sad. :( I don't want to be pragmatic.

(If you did this back in January, be aware that they've altered their flag generator, so you'll want to do it again to get your shiny new version. ^_^ And yes, there may be maps forthcoming...)

hS

Make sure trans people like me can exist legally. We've spent too long in the closet and we're not going to be shoved back in.

Now I have to go to work and wonder about the election results all day. Hopefully I'll at least get home early enough to justify turning the computer on before bed . . .

—doctorlit, timely

And Phobos went Sunday. I think we both had a two-hour wait, and that's okay. I'm grateful that our polling place is well organized and safe, as should be the case for everyone.

~Neshomeh

Elections are the best.

I'm not about to let an ocean stop me from getting my vote in.

I love this type of scathing hidden or not-so-hidden reference. (The more hidden, the better, in my opinion, so it doesn't derail the story, but in this case, it's just great as is.)

-Twistey

The lore behind the whole Scientology thing sounds more like post-Slaanesh Eldar than Genestealer Cults, to be fair.

Accurate honestly. Although ironically Genestealer cults are only about half as evil as the Church of Scientology.