Jan 2019 Archive, part a

Thanks for the assessment. My dad introduced me to the show a while back, and when I heard about the reboot, I was excited, but also a little worried. It's good to know that they not only stayed true to the spirit of the original (I'll have to assess Ashi myself because I happen to not be asexual), but also expand upon it. Where can I find the new season?

-Twistey

Well, that's... kind of depressing, actually. Huh.

Anyway: yes! That story remains once-and-future canon, and doesn't need rewriting; it's not perfect, but I'm still pretty fond of it.

But, to mark the occasion, I will offer a sequel of sorts, set... well, now, but keeping to the spirit of Ten Years Hence. So:

Ten Years Now

"Bonjour, maman!"

"AWWWWW! Elibabef, I was going to say it!"

"Now, now, girls." Elanor held her hands out placatingly. "Don't welcome me home by fighting, mes petites."

Mary's face hovered on the edge of crumpling. "But I! Wanted! To say it!"

Elanor smiled and knelt down in front of her black-haired daughter. "Then do. Or have you forgotten the words?"

Mary's incipient tears transformed into a scowl. "I neber forget," she said firmly. "Bon drawer, mum-on."

Elanor worked hard to keep her amusement from her face. "Very good; we'll make a French girl of you yet." Straightening, she walked over to Mortic and looked down at the baby in his arms. "And how about you, Mark?" she asked. "Anything to say to me?"

The not-so-little-anymore boy beamed at the sight of her. "Mmmm!" he babbled. "Mmmm!"

"There, you see?" Mort made a face that was at once exhausted and triumphant. "I've been coaching him all day, just so he could say maman to you when you got back."

"That's very sweet," Elanor said, patting her husband's cheek. "But I don't think 'Mmmm' counts."

"You question me?" Mort pulled back, frowning. "Me, who has seen nations rise and fall, yea, and the very mountains shift beneath-?"

"Stop exaggerating, o Mortic of the Order; it makes you look like a goose." Elanor took the baby from Mort's arms and smiled down at him. "And maman has been working hard, oui, she has; she has no patience for Daddy Goose."

"Mmmm!" Mark said again, reaching one fist up to grab at Elanor's blonde hair. "Mmmm!"

"Sorry, El." Mort rose from his seat, gesturing for his wife to take it. "So how was the mission?"

"Pas mal," Elanor said vaguely, watching Mark's face. "It was good to see the team again; there's not many of us who work in French slash, so we used to be pretty close."

"Are you thinking of transferring back?" Mort leant on the arm of the chair, shooting a quick, quietening look at Elisabeth and Mary as their noise level rose. "I thought you liked the Nursery."

"I do, I do." Elanor smiled up at him. "Fear not, this was just a one-time thing. But it's always nice to see old friends."

"I suppose so," Mort mused. He reached down to tweak his wife's hair away from their son's fingers. "And, you know if you do decide to move back, I'll-"

"Mmmm!" Mark stretched out for the stolen hair, his brow furrowing in concentration. "Mmmm!"

"Mmmmaman," Elanor said, taking his hand in hers. "Come on, mon petit - say maman."

"Mmmm," Mark replied, squeezing her finger. "Mmmm-"

"I think he's still too young," Mortic began.

"-mmmum!" Mark looked startled, as if trying to squint at his own mouth, and hiccupped. "Mmum! Mmmum-um-um-um-um-um-um!"

"Mark said Mum!" Elisabeth ran over, dragging her sister by one hand. "Mummy, mummy, did you hear, he said mum!"

"Mum!" Mary repeated, beaming from ear to ear. "Go on, Mawk - say mummy!"

"Mum-um-um-um-um," Mark said solemnly. Then, abruptly, his cheeks puffed up, and he burst into tears.

"Oh, Mark..." Elanor looked up at her husband and held the squawling infant out. "Can you take him?"

"Of course, my heart." Mortic scooped the baby up and rocked him gently. "Come on, little one, it's all right..."

"It's not that all right," Elanor muttered, scowling down at the floor. "Three babies, and not one of them said it in French first? Honestly, I don't know why I even bother...!"

hS

I had suspected it for a little while. After all, we've got jetpacks, robots for doing household chores, and modern smartphones are actually more powerful than most older sci-fi imagined, but it's nice to get confirmation :)

My first thought on seeing that that we'd caught up with the date of a piece that was set in the future was 'It's like PPC history, but opposite'. I don't know why, but that amused me.

I do find it funny that we now catching up with the times that some older sci-fi is set. Not just the future, but the cyberpunk future: 2019 is the year the original Blade Runner was set, and 2020 has long been associated with cyberpunk. We're even approaching the earlier dates mentioned in the Ghost in the Shell backstory, I think that refers to events in the 2020s or 2030s.

-Irish

She was a random child who just showed up in HQ, and I'm not sure how anyone found out, but she was also the child of a pairing that was intrinsically breaking canon. She was adopted by a minor agent who then retired and eventually brought her adopted daughter back to HQ. Her partner was a "canon" from a cheap ripoff of a game, who had joined the PPC to escape said ripoff's destruction.

Think I've kinda ditched the idea now, in the process of rethinking all my agent ideas in preparation for a Permission request. Not only because I shouldn't start thinking about what TYH will look like if I don't even have Permission yet, but also from other factors.

-Twistey

I spent a couple of days reading over this, and while I haven't really analyzed it all that much, I can say that I enjoyed it. Your descriptions are pretty interesting, and I liked the tone of the piece, which I interpreted as sort of a soft memoir. I especially liked your opening. It was pretty thought-provoking and I spent some time thinking about being able to see into a whole other place from your window. :D This was certainly very inspiring! Thanks for sharing.

The warning made me feel like it wouldn’t help to become more involved again. I read it now, and yes, in a way, I liked it. But I don’t know what else to say.

HG

All three of these fics (Only a Mere Florist, What the Butterflies Said, When Stars Fall and Cats Cry) are good stuff and will give you feels.

- Tomash

Or rather, the interquels, I think they are - and then among the 'inspired by's, there's the spin-off where Carmela and Darcy meet!

If you still need a beta, feel free to PM me or just share directly with strinmichaelis@gmail.com.

I'd only be able to read it if you put it on the board, or if it was on a google doc that anyone could access. I only have a school email account and I don't want to use it for board stuff.

Shoot a message at mattcipher94@gmail.com MoonMoon!

I thought I'd said here; apparently not though.

I'm pretty excited too, to be honest. I actually think Young Aragorn is one of the less interesting options, even with just Hobbit+LotR+Appendices to work from; he's tightly constrained by the fact that, canonically, people aren't supposed to know who he is.

He also presses Amazon up against a very specific problem: there's no climactic battle. More specifically, there's precisely one: the victory over the Corsairs of Umbar. All Aragorn's other endpoints are 'welp, done with this country now, on to another one'. There's no big victory, for the very obvious reason that that has to wait for the War of the Ring.

Which, if they're actually doing only one season of Estel/Thorongil, works out quite nicely. You start with him in the wilds, with Legolas (per B5A) meeting him. You show him meeting Arwen, and build on the Movie notion of him only being able to marry her if he becomes king. So he travels to Rohan and then Gondor as a sort of training, and winds up sailing from Dol Amroth to defeat the Corsairs. A nice, flowing storyline - but one which doesn't work at all if they try and cut it into multiple seasons.

So... if it is only one, what are the following seasons? Cribbing from something I wrote elsewhere, I think it's likely that the other seasons will follow the first, chronologically, which means... well, what are the options?

-Adventures of the Old Took. Obviously a bit out of its timeline, but viable, and a hilarious notion.
-Adventures of Tom Bombadil. ^_^
-Adventures of Balin in Moria. A bit of a downer.
-Adventures of Not-So-Young Legolas (And Tauriel). Time to reuse those Hobbit movie sets!
-Adventures of Evil Saruman. C'mon, we could definitely have a season of Saruman's fall into darkness. (Again, serious timeline issues, but this is Movie-earth.)
-Adventures of Young Imrahil. If Young Aragorn doesn't cover the Corsairs, then this Dol Amroth-centric series will.
-Adventures of Young(??) Galadriel. Who wants to stay in the woods when you can go be shiny at people?
-Adventures of Young Theoden. Horses! ... more horses!
-Adventures of Young Talion [Shadow of Mordor games]. Because what we really need is Mordor the Green and Pleasant Land, right? ... right?!
-Adventures of The War In The North. I suppose we should pay lip service to the whole plot of the books, yeah? In which case...
-Adventures in Scouring the Shire. Hey, PJ left it out, so we get to put it in.

And, finally...

-Adventures in Gardening. Just a whole season of Master Samwise peacefully tending his garden, looking after his kids, and being the best dang mayor the Shire has ever had.

hS

So canon should be closely observed. No Hobbit Trilogy canon rapes.
I expected the Silmarillion, though.

You've already met me on the Discord, but I guess this'll be our formal introduction. I'm Quincy Jones, pleased to meet you! *offers ration pack of Bleepka and Bleeprin*

It'll be good to have someone excited about writing missions around. If you ever have trouble getting feedback/betas on anything, like a Permission Request, a mission, or even just a random short, come talk to me! Beta-ing is my favorite thing.

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

Don't start working to achieve it until we've gotten to know you sufficiently. That makes sure that we don't give someone Permission who then turns around and wrecks the PPC universe.

In the meantime, sit back and relax! Here are a few things you can do on the Board that don't require Permission:

- Post about things you love (that's called a plug).
- Post about things you wrote and are proud of (that's called a self-plug).
- Participate in everyone else's posts!
- Start a random RP. Snowball fights are a popular favorite, but be forewarned that I have a flamethrower. }:)
- Participate in various annual Board events, such as the Badfic Games, Plort, and the Shipfest. Those'll come when they come.

Anyway, hi! I'm Twistey, and despite what I just rattled off right there, I'm the one you'll see accidentally destroying things all over the place. I think that's enough about me - I talk enough that you'll quickly get to know more about me over time.

Ah, newbie presents! Those are my favorite thing! How about one you can actually use? This is a Newgrounds game I've been rather enamored with recently. Here you go! (Note: While this game is rated E for everyone, Newgrounds itself has some slightly more mature content. Slight discretion advised.) https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/719932

-Twistey

Have a cupcake!

I hope you enjoy your time on this board.

May both of us gain courage enough to ask for permission soon. Have a shovel.

Have a suit of slightly used Imperial Guard flak armor, guaranteed for life (average lifespan of deployed Imperial Guardsman: 15 hours).

Before you can write for the PPC shared universe, you're going to need Permission. That link will tell you everything you need to know about it. :)

Welcome to the PPC - for your newbie gift, have a feather which is sometimes purple and sometimes silver.

By the way, it would be great if you could reply to previous posts rather than starting new ones to save Board space.

Which fandoms are you into?

Hello! Welcome to the community.

I found myself very interested in the backstory of the main character, especially his relationship with the new Queen. The style is very... well, I only know the word in Hungarian, it means something like 'easy-sounding'. What I'm trying to say is, you have a very natural-sounding writing style. (Artificial or awkward phrasing is one of my pet peeves, and something I try hard to avoid.) I like the end best, though - it made me smile. :)

It was Saturday evening, and the Moon family were gathered around the drawing room table, playing the imaginatively-named Bid Fours, in which players were dealt some cards and then bid for more, aiming to collect fours of a kind. It was traditionally played with suits representing different gemstones.

Holly turned over the next card, the Seven of Sapphires, and said “I bid one,” taking one of her small round tokens and placing it into the pool.

Tiger was next. He glanced at his hand: he had the Seven of Rubies, but he knew his father had the Sevens of Emeralds and Diamonds. “I bid two,” he said, glancing at his pile of tokens. There were about thirty of them left. He picked up two tokens and added them to the pool.

“I bid three,” said Francis smoothly. He moved his own tokens into the pool.

Holly, having no Sevens, passed. Tiger bid four and he and his father went back and forth until Francis bid seventeen.

Tiger raised his eyebrows. Surely Francis knew that Tiger had the Seven of Rubies? Why would his father bid so highly for what could only be a third seven? He tried to remember how many tokens his father had left: it couldn’t be many more than he himself had.

“Pass,” he said. No matter how strange his father’s tactics, he couldn’t afford to spend any more tokens.

Francis picked up the Seven of Sapphires and lay beside it his Sevens of Diamonds and Emeralds, and – Tiger could hardly believe his eyes – the Seven of Rubies.

“What – “ spluttered Tiger. “How – “ He pulled the Seven of Rubies from his own hand and laid it face up on the table to prove the evident impossibility of what had just happened.

Francis ignored him and casually counted out twenty tokens from the pool as his reward for four of a kind.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Holly asked.

“That’s the Seven of – “ Tiger broke off suddenly as he looked down at the perfectly drawn rubies on the card. There were six of them. “What? I swear when I put that down it was the Seven, not the Six.”

“Of course it was,” said Francis. “This is a Paradox Pack. Cards can be duplicated as long as they are not seen by all players together, in which case one card will morph into a similar card.”

“And you didn’t bother telling us that? I would have bid higher if I had known!”

“I was wondering if you’d work it out.”

Tiger rolled his eyes.

Francis turned over the next card, the Three of Diamonds, and said “I bid one.”

"It's a new year! I promise to not dissassemble any Sues this year!"
Amber looked at what was left of the Sue unfortunate enough to have underwent the process. "Oops. Well, not dissassemble any more Sues this year!"

C-Fy leaned back and said,“My New Year Resolution is to not have a New Year Resolution.”
———————
Stolen from my brother.

I think you've done a good job on the atmosphere, but the structure seems to have been developing as you wrote. The last 3 verse pairs have the same form: her lines start and end with a 'Father' invocation, while his all start with 'daughter'. You haven't quite stuck to that in the first two verse-pairs, and I think it would make it stronger if you did.

I'm also unclear whether there's supposed to be any rhythm in there. The accented 'condemnéd' suggests there is - ie, that you needed an extra syllable in that line to make it fit - but I can't find one by reading it.

hS