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lunasarielPretty much the only interesting things to happen to me this week happened on Monday. Unlike my usual eat-class-home-study-read-sleep routine, M and I trawled a couple of secondhand bookstores, watched Iron Man 2 on Netflix while eating hot dogs and oranges, and drank tea out of TARDIS mugs. So, yeah, that's been the highlight of my week so far. I like Iron Man 2 a lot better than Iron Man, if only because Pepper is less excruciating. In IM, she literally did nothing but mommy Tony, henpeck Tony, and shriek/run from the bad guy while wearing high heels. She was everything I can't stand about damsels in distress in superhero movies, but in IM2, she was at least vocally unhappy with his blatant self-destruction. My favorite Pepper-oriented parts of IM2 are where she's being a competent CEO and basically taking care of Tony's problems, especially because she's not, y'know, redundant to the plot, like she was in the first one. Granted, she didn't have as much to do as I'd like, but she wasn't your typical useless shrieky girlfriend character. I also liked the introduction of Natasha, although I'm a bit concerned that it looks like she's going to be clambering over piles of rubble and getting in firefights with aliens while wearing heels in The Avengers, which I sincerely hope is misinformation, because as far as fictional heroines go, dressing them up in sexy impractical clothes just because they're sexy, when they would actually be a huge disadvantage in a real situation, kind of annoys the living shit out of me. Srsly, don't get me started on chainmail bikinis.
As you can see, life since my last post hasn't been terribly exciting. I finally, *finally* finished The Mysteries of Udolpho, just in time to start Northanger Abbey in ENGL 125A, but that's about it. Things continue relatively quiet, study-wise, although not as eerily quiet as they were over the weekend. It looks like we'll be getting the prompts for our last ENGL 45B paper on Friday, and we're getting our second take-home midterm assigned in Celtic Romanticism (after never even getting the first one back >:P), so it looks like things are heating back up, though. In fact, there are only, like, 2 1/2 more weeks of regular class, and then Dead Week (no classes), and then finals, and then we're done! Sometimes it's a bit scary how fast this semester flew by!
The second episode of Game of Thrones, "The Night Lands," is out. GoT continues to delight me about 90% of the time, make me grind my teeth 5%, and make me scratch my head in confusion the other 5%. This week's episode was disappointing in that Team Sparkly still failed to appear, although Stannis spent plenty of time talking about them (more on him in a moment). We did get introduced to Pyke and the Greyjoys, though, which partially makes up for it. This is before Theon becomes overtly horrible, and is still just kind of amusingly hapless, so his interactions with
For me, the highlight of the episode was definitely Arya and her whole gang. I've never really shipped Arya/Gendry, but I'm starting to be able to see it, or at least a bromance or sibling-like relationship between them. Their interactions are very believable as a couple of kids becoming friends, and the fact that they're closer in age in the show than in the books definitely helps. (Also, Arya's dialogue this episode was awesome and perfect and hilarious. Just a note.) The spent most of this episode horsing around, backing each other up against Lommy and Hot Pie, and looking momentarily terrified (well, Arya does, at least) while Yoren proves how much more of a BAMF he is than the goldcloaks sent after Gendry. Speaking of which, the Smelly Jerk with a Heart of Gold Yoren and Sexy Mysterious Foreigner Jaquen keep this particular plotline from turning entirely into The Gendry and Arya Show. Since not such a big deal about his smell can be made through a visual medium, Yoren is coming off as much more Team Dad-like and much less hard-bitten and grizzled than in the books, which I'm okay with, and I'm very much not looking forward to him getting it, because I really do like the dynamic he has with the kids. I was originally kind of "meh" about Jaquen, as you can barely tell that his hair is two-toned and he has less of an accent than Shae, but now I highly approve of him, not least because he lends even more credence to my "Jaquen H'Gar = Syrio Forel" theory every time he opens his mouth. Seriously, he immediately zeroes in on Arya/Arry out of the entire group (it appears that Rorge has kept his nose in this version, btw), and cheerfully fosters her nascent anti-authority streak while clearly disapproving of Rorge's and Biter's more malevolent treatment of her. So, yeah, this section has me happy.
The Night's Watch portion was...a bit confusing. I think we may have gotten a conversation with Dolorous Edd, if that was him, and not some other random guy. I mean, he was talking about farting, death, and the inevitability of both, but he was at least 10-15 years too old for how he looked in my head. *checks* Wikipedia has an Edd Tollett listed for this episode, and there haven't been all that many Night's Watch men with speaking parts yet this season, so I'm just going to call this one of D&D's less well-advised casting choices. Feh. Also, they're making the connection between the White Walkers and Craster's missing sons much more explicit, as well as potentially taking the show in a new direction, as the episode ends with Jon seeing Craster stealing out of camp carrying a baby, Craster leaves it for what is very obviously a Walker, Jon tries to save said baby, but the last shot of the episode is him getting clocked by Craster, so, huh. This is definitely going to make trouble, but I don't recall a fight at Craster's this early in the series from the books. Also, Sam continues to be the leading contestant for both the Needs A Hug and Most Ill-Suited to Occupation competitions, as he spends most of this episode proving that he, indeed, does not know how to talk to girls and proposing noble and well-meant but spectacularly bad ideas re: Gilly. Also, we get a very nice, if brief, shot of a more grown-up Ghost, so kudos to the animal handlers and special effects people on a job well done!
The King's Landing/Lannister portion of the episode didn't knock my socks off like last week, but maybe that's because less time was spent there. Even Tyrion got relatively few good lines, although him firing Janos Slynt and sending him to the wall was fairly cathartic. We didn't even get to see any of the kids, although we do get some exploration of Tyrion's and Cersei's relationships (or rather, their lack thereof) to their mother, which was interesting. It seems that Cersei is fully behind Tywin in blaming Tyrion for Joanna's death, something that I either missed or don't remember from the books. Other than that, I hope that they get on to Tyrion pulling off that three-way deception between Varys, Littlefinger, and Pycelle (which was one of my favorite bits of tricksiness in the entire series), because no one really had an awful lot to do this episode except snarl at one another.
We also checked in with Dany, and apparently, D&D have decided to kill off one beloved minor character from her party per episode. Last time it was her silver (which I remember lasting a surprisingly long time in the books), and this time it was Rakharo, which I'm rather angry about, as he was one of, like, three characters who stuck with her from Drogo's time all the way to Meereen and beyond. My bet is on Irri (who, apparently Rakharo had a relationship with, at least on the show) for next week, although at this rate, they're going to run out pretty quickly. Aside from that, zip else happened across the Narrow Sea, except that, judging by his expressions, Jorah is either honing his thousand-yard stare or bored out of his skull.
Finally, there was quite a lot of emphasis on Dragonstone and environs. Stannis' and Melisandre's relationship is a lot more explicit than it was in the books, but handled well enough so that I'm not complaining. There are hints that Shireen doesn't exist at all in the HBO-verse, and Stannis seems more fixated than usual on having a son, which becomes the impetus for him and Mel to get together, as she claims to be able to give him one (are D&D going to transfer Mel's Azor Ahai fixation from Stannis to this hypothetical possible son, or is this just the explanation for the demon babies she sends after Renly and whatshisname from Storm's End?). I actually liked the books' explanation, that he slept with her only to give her the raw material, if you will, to create demon assassins to kill his enemies, as the obsession with succession seems kind of a weird direction for the show to go in, but whatever, they've earned my trust this far at least. Davos is a little older than my mental picture of him, but his acting is top-notch, and it seems that they're making him learning to read kind of a funny subplot, which I hope they do. Stannis is, as I commented last week, perfectly cast. He does "stern" better than anyone I've ever seen: even the guy they got to play Tywin could learn a thing or two about steely, grim non-emotion from him! It figures that, out of the three Baratheon brothers, the only one I actually like was the only one miscast (NO I WILL NEVER SHUT UP ABOUT THIS).
We didn't check in with Winterfell or Robb's army (or any army, for that matter), but as locations and POVs multiply, I'm okay with them not showing every location in every episode, as that would probably screw with the pacing like nobody's business, as well as leaving only, like, ten minutes per location per episode, which isn't nearly enough to get anything done.
In related news, my Hand of the King pin arrived on Monday, and is now occupying a place of honor (heh) on my "increasingly encumbered bag," as it has apparently come to be known. Squee! I'm still not wild on the HBO design for either this or the Stark sigil; I've always envisioned the Hand of the King to look more like this (only, obviously, solid gold, without all the little jewels and curlicues) and the Stark wolf to be all of a piece, and possibly full-body as well, but, hey, more GoT swag. My Stark and Tyrell shirts are coming hopefully tomorrow or the day after; it looks like it's going to be sunny enough to go out without a sweater this weekend or next week, and I wouldn't say not o a chance to show off, especially after getting a compliment on my Firefly shirt, again on Monday, in Celtic Romanticism.
Speaking of Celtic Romanticism, TeleBears has started again, so I need to have all my classes for next semester picked out by my timeslot, which is next Monday. I'm taking the next step in the History of Lit in English for sure, and there's a Jane Austen seminar that will A) fulfill my upper-division seminar requirement, and B) be freakin' awesome. Aside from that, I'd really like to take that History of Middle-Earth DeCal, but there are a lot of requirements I need to fill up for my major. On the *other* other hand, a DeCal plus two more semesters of the Chernin Program (basically a networking/geeking-out club/extra class for humanities majors, mostly English) equals an elective, which is nice. It looks like I won't have time to finish my Celtic Studies minor, which is a bummer, but mostly because a minor plus a major looks better than just a major when applying to grad schools. I'm not terribly cut up about this (although I really, really want to take a Celtic/Norse/Greek Comparative Mythology class they're offering next semester if at all possible), as it was just an idea that kind of struck my fancy and not a life goal or anything, but still. :(
One more ASOAIF/GoT thing: while I was wandering around Telegraph with M on Monday (Monday was a busy day!), we stopped in at a store called The Sock Hop that, predictably, sold socks. I haven't had any socks that aren't boring for quite a while, and some of the stuff they had in the window looked interesting. M was rather taken with a pair festooned with old-timey pocket-watches, but neither of us bought anything. While poking around, though, I did find this, which struck me as funny as hell:
(Sorry it uploaded sideways for some reason; I have long since ceased to try to figure out what the hell my photos are doing and just accepted them as forces of chaos.) The middle one was what got me, because, hey, Baratheon colors on one, and
To top things off, we're back to the regular schedule: life blathering, fandom blathering, and a meme!
1. Witch-finder Sergeant Shadwell (Good Omens)
2. Xavin (Runaways)
3. Carrot Ironfoundersson (Discworld)
4. Jane Roland (Temeraire)
5. Oromë the Hunter (The Silmarillion)
6. Rosie Gamgee (The Lord of the Rings)
7. Robert Baratheon (A Song of Ice and Fire)
8. Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter)
9. Michael Garibaldi (Babylon 5)
10. Zoë Alleyne Washburne (Firefly)
11. Rory Pond-Williams (Doctor Who)
12. Sophie Aubrey (Aubreyad)
13. DI Greg Lestrade (Sherlock)
14. The Archive/Ivy (Dresden Files)
15. Vlad Taltos (Dragaera)
1) 1-12 (Shadwell, Xavin, Carrot, Jane, Oromë, Rosie, Robert, McGonagall, Garibaldi, Zoë, Rory, and Sophie) all set out to murder 15 (Vlad). What methods do they choose, do any of them succeed and how do 13 (Lestrade) and 14 (Ivy) do at solving the mystery?
Given how many military personnel are in 1-12, they’d probably go with an army (or five), since A) none of them are particularly subtle, and B) Vlad would presumably be either with Morrolan, who has an army of his own to protect him, or in Adrilankha (spelling? What’s that?), where the Empress probably wouldn’t be too tickled about a bunch of outsiders trying to kill one of her citizens, even if he is just an Easterner.
Xavin, Jane, Robert, and Garibaldi can all command armed forces of various sizes and capabilities (technically, so can Carrot, but Vimes would be very much not okay with turning the City Watch into a private army, at least for this particular purpose, and it’s way out of their jurisdiction anyway), Zoë probably kept in touch with a few old army buddies, Sophie is part of an extensive network of naval wives, and Oromë (and, to a lesser extent, Rory) more or less constitutes an army by himself. Poor Shadwell and Rosie probably wouldn’t be an awful lot of good here, as the Witch-finder Army pretty much consists of just Shadwell himself, while hobbits never fight except in self-defense. McGonagall would also probably be on her own, as the old Order of the Phoenix is more or less disbanded, and she’s seen more than enough children go to war without deliberately sending any in herself. So wherever Vlad is, it’d be a pretty powerful force coming after him. Superpowered shapeshifting aliens, dragons, medieval knights and footmen (not to mention ships and siege weaponry), and futuristic security guards make up the bulk, but then there’s also a powerful witch, a space pirate, a literal God of Kicking the Crap out of You, a guy with a punch that can floor a troll, and another guy colloquially known as the Deathless Centurion, or, possibly more menacingly, as the Good Man. Rosie, Sophie and probably Shadwell wouldn’t be much good in a fight like this, so they would probably try to stay out of the way when spells and/or arrows and/or lasers start flying.
I gotta say, both out of all the characters on this list and just in general, Lestrade and Ivy are kind of the absolute perfect crime-solving team. Lestrade actually is a detective, and a damn good one at that, and Ivy is conscious of all written material that exists or has existed. In addition, as I said, none of the murderers are exactly subtle, and the method they chose hardly lends itself to keeping things quiet, so this should hardly present a challenge, especially for Lestrade’s and Ivy’s talents.
2) 10 (Zoë) and 1 (Shadwell) go out for dinner at an expensive restaurant. How does the date go and why is 4 (Jane) waiting on their table?
The date doesn’t go terribly well, I’m afraid. Neither of them can afford it in the first place, but Shadwell is secretly into women who don’t take any crap from him, and insisted on taking Zoë somewhere swanky, because he’s still maintaining the whole Witchfinder-General thing. Although Zoë has a soft spot for flaily men unsuited for combat, I can’t really see her being all that interested in Shadwell, who doesn’t have Wash’s advantages of being an amusing conversationalist or having specialized skills. So he tries unsuccessfully to seduce her by regaling her with tales of witches he’s bravely done battle with, while she spends the entire evening with one eyebrow raised. By the end of the evening, she just gets fed up with him and calls it a night, deftly avoiding his clumsy (and admittedly partially alcohol-induced) attempt at a goodnight kiss.
As for why Jane is waiting on their table…no. No, I just cannot see Jane Roland of Excidium, Admiral of the Air, waiting on tables. I guess this is an AU where she was born just a regular girl, and not an aviator, so ended up as a tavern wench/waitress. Even there, she was obviously made for greater things, and goes from dodging handsy drunks at some little hole-in-the-wall to the swanky place she’s evidently working at now, and will probably own it within a few years.
3) 11 (Rory) and 8 (McGonagall) need to visit 7 (Robert). 15 (Vlad) has transport and will take them - what's the vehicle and do they make it despite 13 (Lestrade)'s best efforts to stop them?
The vehicle is technically teleportation, although Vlad merely suggested it and fully intends Daymar or Morrolan to do the actual heavy lifting. Despite both Rory’s and McGonagall’s protests that they have access to much better modes of transportation for visiting alternate universes (Rory can call upon a quasi-magical dimension-hopping time-travelling spaceship, and even Potterverse Apparating is less taxing than Dragaearan teleportation), once they get Daymar interested in inter-dimensional teleportation, he refuses to be put off, and will not rest until he figures out how to do it or dies trying (or somebody dies trying, anyway).
However, Daymar’s method would involve tearing a hole in space and time, which would probably lead to the collapse of all connected dimensions, and as the Sherlock-verse is closely related to both the Potterverse and the Whoniverse, Lestrade would definitely want to stop the experiment. He’d start by attempting to arrest Daymar on some sort of weapon of mass destruction charge, but as Daymar certainly wouldn’t be stopped by, or even really notice, conventional human jail cells, especially modern ones, it looks like Lestrade’s only choice is to sit back and hope that he still exists in a minute.
4) 9 (Garibaldi), 5 (Oromë), and 12 (Sophie) have a TARDIS. Who drives and where do they go?
Out of the three, Garibaldi is probably the most likely to mesh well with the TARDIS, but these three are all more or less hilariously, spectacularly unsuited for the job. It’s a good thing that it’s sentient, otherwise Garibaldi would almost certainly crash it; as a god himself, Oromë’s personality is too strong to do anything but clash with the TARDIS and it’s usual symbiotic relationship with its driver/passenger; and Sophie comes from an era when evolution is considered dangerous heresy, so I don’t really see how she could handle a semi-sentient time-travelling spaceship.
Garibaldi has been shown to be kind of an Earth history nut, so I could see him going back to watch the actual manufacture of his beloved motorcycle, or actually meet some of the Loony Tunes artists/writers/voice actors. Given this, I could see him being fairly happy in the 50s.
I’m fairly sure that the Aratar can travel pretty much wherever they want in time and space without technological aid, so I can’t see Oromë having much use for a TARDIS himself, but he and Garibaldi would really get on, and both would enjoy letting the TARDIS carry them to some random planet that needed freeing from some evil oppressive alien overlords, and then summarily beating seven kinds of shit out of said overlords.
Sophie would probably use it for utilitarian but extremely helpful purposes, like making her appointments on time, running errands without having to hitch up the horses or get her dress muddy, and occasional visits to Jack (Stephen would be fascinated). This would probably bore the other two a great deal, unless they happened to visit Jack in the middle of a battle, which would be much more to both Garibaldi’s and Oromë’s tastes (although the sea and 19th century ships might disconcert them a bit).
5) 2 (Xavin) and 3 (Carrot) go on a picnic - how much of a disaster is it?
Well, Carrot is involved, so it can’t be too bad. He wouldn’t get too riled up, even when Xavin is at her most imperialist/xenophobic, and he would also remind her strongly of Karolina, both of which would dispose Xavin to treat him a little more rationally. She would certainly respect him as a warrior, and he would highly approve of her decision to sacrifice her own freedom for Karolina’s (especially when Karolina remaining free on Earth was pretty much central to the survival of the team, while Xavin could leave without anyone actually dying because of it), as well as her commitment to winning Karolina’s heart, instead of just making a loveless political match. Also, he would be highly impressed by her attempts to overcome her dyed-in-the-wool xenophobia, even when it was difficult or disadvantageous for her.
So the two of them would end up with enormous amounts of personal respect for each other, they’re both catastrophically bad cooks, so this picnic will only work if someone packs them a lunch. Xavin would be much more interested in accompanying Carrot on his beat, around the Watch house, and just generally watching him practically run the City Watch than sitting in the grass and eating sandwiches, anyway.
6) 6 (Rosie) and 14 (Ivy) are both attempting to buy (or obtain by less scrupulous means) an Artifact Of Doom. Who gets it, and how?
My money’s on Ivy. Rosie has a hobbit’s size and stealth, neither of which is inconsiderable when planning to acquire an Artifact of Doom, as well as access to most of the Fellowship of the Ring one way or another, but A) just sending the Fellowship out would kind of be cheating, since she isn’t involved directly, and B) Ivy’s quasi-omnipotence would probably give her too big an advantage. Seriously, if anyone ever wrote anything down about the Artifact of Doom, or where it is, or who/what is guarding it, she would know instantly and perfectly. Given the modern age’s obsession with bureaucracy, chances are better than good that someone would, indeed, have written something down, so she could just send Kincaid in to get it. Kincaid is basically a one-man army, but if for some reason he couldn’t handle it on its own, a variety of people, including the Knights of the Cross and Harry himself would happily leap to her aid at a moment’s notice, giving them the ability to beat anything, up to and including eldritch gods, that happened to be guarding the Artifact.
7) 14 (Ivy), 12 (Sophie) and 7 (Robert) find themselves trapped in a scrapyard, with ten hours to build a vehicle to escape in. Do they escape, and if so what did they come up with?
With Ivy’s unlimited knowledge, she could probably direct the other two on how to build pretty much anything. She might have some trouble getting the others to listen to her, especially Robert, who doesn’t seem to like taking orders from anyone, let alone a tiny waif of a girl like her. But Sophie is used to dealing with men like Robert, and could probably make him mind if Ivy could first convince her that A) whatever vehicle she wants to construct will actually work, and B) her powers are legitimate. This in itself presents something of a challenge, as the eminently practical, down-to-earth mother of three would hardly be likely to believe a little girl who suddenly starts declaring that she has superpowers; not to mention that whatever Ivy would want to build would probably be way, way more futuristic than either Robert or Sophie would be able to conceive.
So Ivy would spend at least half of their ten hours convincing the other two to believe her, but once that’s done, her intelligence, Robert’s strength and Sophie’s resourcefulness would make a fairly unstoppable combination.
8) 1 (Shadwell) and 13 (Lestrade) have a child - what are they like?
Incredibly weird. They would basically be raised in an extremely strict military environment, with the added layer of Shadwell’s witch-hunting paranoia, so their childhood would definitely be…different from that of other children. Lestrade at least would try, but would be too distant and preoccupied with his police work to provide any true nurturing/emotional support. Shadwell, on the other hand, would be just about the worst parent imaginable, and Madame Tracy would eventually take over, sometimes calling on Mrs. Hudson for assists.
9) 6 (Rosie), 8 (McGonagall), and 11 (Rory) enter a talent show - what do they do? who wins?
Rosie: either cooking or gardening. They’re both very hobbity skills, but I can’t really see gardening being all that crowd-pleasing, so I could see her cooking something really delicious from scratch.
McGonagall: magic, of course! She could transform into her Animagus form, which would certainly cause a stir, but depending on the judges that would probably be scoring this, might actually not be all that impressive. Animating desks is another crowd-pleaser, but the fact that the desks would probably be occupied at the time wouldn’t endear her to the judges anyway. So she would probably just Transfigure things into other things for a while.
Rory: um…miraculously not die/come back from the dead five or six times? I guess he could give a demonstration of some of the Roman fighting techniques he got rebooted with.
As to who wins: McGonagall. Out of the three, she has the strongest competitive streak by a mile, and her skillset is definitely the flashiest.
10) 2 (Xavin), 5 (Oromë), and 15 (Vlad) are trapped in a cave-in. Who takes charge? Do any of them panic? And which of the three figures out how to save themselves?
Xavin is used to taking command in stressful situations, but once she figured out that Oromë was, y’know, a god and all, she would be okay with ceding authority to him. This kind of thing isn’t exactly Oromë’s strong suit, though, there being no evil to smite, nor is it Vlad’s, considering that this isn’t a problem that can be solved by assassination, charm, or magic (the kind he has, anyway). So Oromë would officially be in charge, but with Xavin’s superpowers, she would probably be the one to bash through the cave-ins, set up force fields to prevent further collapses, etc.
11) 3 (Carrot), 10 (Zoë), 9 (Garibaldi), and 4 (Jane) go back to the time the dinosaurs rules the earth. Who ends as dinosaur lunch, who makes the heroic sacrifice, who goes native and pretends to be a dinosaur and who manages to get back to their own time?
Hmm…these are all pretty much exactly the same character type, lol! They’re all pragmatic, scrappy fighters unafraid to start a fight when their friends and/or ideals are threatened, but Carrot, Zoë, and Garibaldi are all strictly second-in-command types who don’t do well in charge (which works out great, because Jane can’t really be anything *but* in charge). So, basically, they would all be totally okay with taking their orders from Jane, and she would form them into an unstoppable dinosaur-hunting/survival team.
I can’t really see any of them doing anything else than coming out on top, since, like I said, this is a pretty fantastic team any way you cut it (as long as you don’t need any specialists, just a bunch of people really good at hitting things and making sure they stay hit), but…let’s say that, um, Zoë ends up as dinosaur lunch, since she’s the only one of the team not used to fighting anything larger than a human and not a spaceship, so she would be the most likely to underestimate them somehow. Carrot makes the heroic sacrifice, because he would probably be the most likely to sacrifice himself to let someone else on the team escape. Out of the two left, Garibaldi would go native, and not only because I can actually see him pretending to be a dinosaur, albeit for comedic purposes only. But, yeah, I could see him being “hatched” and “raised” by a brontosaurus, or some other enormous, usually placid herbivore that can stomp their enemies flatter than cheap pizza if provoked.
That leaves Jane to get back to her own time, which I’m sure she would feel guilty about, but she would be pragmatic enough to know that, aside from Excidium and Emily and Laurence and all her other friends, the Corps would pretty much fall apart without her, and she needs to get back to keep things in some semblance of order.
12) The one who got back to their own time discovers they got there because of 5 (Oromë) and 8 (McGonagall). What did they do and how does the returnee react?
Oromë’s domain being hunting and the general smiting of creatures of evil, I can see how him trying to meddle with time travel could go awry. I guess that McGonagall was working on some sort of Time-Turner-related experiment to, like, hunt down Death Eaters in the past or something, and asked Oromë to come along to help with the hunting. But chronomancy isn’t her specialty either, so I can see their experiment going hideously wrong and picking up random people from across various verses and depositing them in another random place.
As to how Jane would react, she would certainly be angry that, even though their cause was noble, two people, especially two people who should definitely know better, and so spectacularly unsuited to meddling with time-travel, could do anything this blatantly stupid and potentially disastrous. She would be even angrier that both Oromë and McGonagall have plenty of contacts who would be much, much more suited to a job like this but, for some reason, didn’t think to ask them, or maybe just proceeded despite their warnings.
13) 3 (Carrot) and 9 (Garibaldi) go on a romantic date. Where do they go? How does the date end? and why is 6 (Rosie) following them?!
Carrot is very much a traditionalist, so he would probably go for the standard dinner-and-a-show routine. He would bring Garibaldi flowers, which would kind of perplex Garibaldi, but he would accept them with good humor and good grace (trying to ignore Ivanova’s and Londo’s sniggering, or at least promising himself that he’ll hurt them when he gets back).
Carrot secretly kinda wants the two of them to just have dinner somewhere they’ll both be comfortable, like the Mended Drum or wherever on Babylon 5 security personnel/cops congregate for a quiet drink after work, but opts for a nice, moderately expensive place with more flowers and/or candles on the table instead, because, again, traditionalist. Garibaldi is made slightly uncomfortable by the swankified surroundings, but is privately glad that they didn’t go somewhere he would be tempted to drink his nervousness away.
As for the show, neither of them are artsy enough to enjoy a play, and Carrot might be uncomfortable with a movie (given what happened with octo-cellulose in Moving Pictures), so I could see the two of them taking in a good game of foot-the-ball, which they would both tremendously enjoy, and which Garibaldi would privately vow to introduce as a stress-relieving activity back on the station.
It ends with them getting back at a decent time and a fairly good goodnight kiss, enthusiastic on Garibaldi’s part and…proper, and slightly bashful, and very Carroty, on Carrot’s part.
As to why Rosie’s following them, I guess she just wants to make sure that the date goes well, because they’re both such nice boys, everybody deserves somebody, and Rosie doesn’t like the look of that werewolf girl Carrot has been spending so much time with. But she doesn’t really have anything to do, because both Carrot and Garibaldi are the laid-back, eager to please and be pleased types, so things go smoothly anyway.
14) 2 (Xavin) discovers 13 (Lestrade)'s secret identity and tells 15 (Vlad) about it. Why, and what do they do?
Lestrade is secretly one of Mycroft’s agents, placed in the London police specifically to keep an eye on Sherlock and make sure he doesn’t go too badly astray, while also keeping track of London crime and passing on any interesting and/or worrying tidbits to Mycroft.
Xavin finds out about it when the Runaways try to untangle the web of illegal doin’s that their parents left behind, which leads them to London. It turns out that at least one couple was in touch with Moriarty, and possibly supplied him with unusual goodies in return for help with whatever interests they had across the Pond. Somebody recorded a team of Mycroft’s Angels (why, yes, I do amuse myself) foiling a joint Moriarty/Pride scheme, and Xavin has been trained to pay extremely close attention to facial features, given that she can change hers so readily, so she realizes that one of said Angels and Lestrade are the same person. Nobody else would have picked up on this, of course, because the London police don’t have the recording (it was in the Pride’s archives), and none of the Runaways really know any of the Londoners anyway.
As to why she tells Vlad: maybe the Empire has come into conflict with one or more of Mycroft’s various secret organizations, and Xavin is on the Empire’s side for whatever reason. In that case, knowing the identity of one of Mycroft’s main agents would be a big advantage for the Empire, and Vlad would probably be sent to take care of him. I don’t know how well this would work, since he has the explicit protection of one Holmes brother and the implicit protection (or at least the vested self-interest in protecting) of the other, and the two of them working together would be kind of terrifying in the potential levels of omnipotence.
15) 1 (Shadwell) proposes to 12 (Sophie). How does 12 take it?
Not well. If this is post-Jack Sophie then, hello, already married, and unlike her husband, she doesn’t have a problem with even the occasional instance of wandering eye. If it’s pre-Jack Sophie, then he has neither the fortune nor the appearance nor the rank to attract her attention. In fact, the only interest I can see her having in him is this kind of horrified amazement as he drinks his condensed milk out of the can and rants about witches and his imaginary army.
Of course, any proposal of his would include asking how many nipples she has, which certainly wouldn’t help matters any.
16) 7 (Robert) trips and falls, twisting an ankle. What is exclaimed?
“TARGARYEN!,” with an angrily shaken fist included. Because, as usual with Robert, everything is the Targaryens’ and/or the Lannisters’ fault, and a Targaryen built the Red Keep, so it was obviously their fault for building uneven floors, and not at all his own for the five cups of wine (in which case it would be more like “‘AR’G’REN!”)
Or, more realistically, anything loud, profane, and probably slurred, and causing facepalms in whoever happened to be accompanying him at the moment.
17) 10 (Zoë), 4 (Jane), 11 (Rory), and 14 (Ivy) find themselves in a mysterious prison camp being forced to mine fuel for a nearby spaceport. What do they do?
Ivy is exhausted and mentally paralyzed by all the hard labor and Rory is all for playing it safe until the Doctor arrives to free them and the rest of the prisoners, as is his wont to do, but the others take a more proactive stance. Zoë stirs up feeling for a popular revolt, because their chances on their own aren’t great, while Jane and Rory take on the bulk of Ivy’s work, leaving her free to study the guards’ documents and maps, and generally formulate a plan. They eventually concoct a complex strategy wherein Jane acts as the figurehead of the general prisoners’ revolt while Zoë and Rory slip past the guards to set off the presumably highly flammable fuel that has already been mined and is waiting to be shipped out, while Ivy coordinates their activities from a secure, well-protected location, as she would be worse than useless in combat, especially of the gruella variety the others are anticipating.
But, of course, the Doctor arrives to free them and the rest of the prisoners, as is his wont to do, before they can actually put their plan into motion, because that’s just what he does. (He also possibly takes Ivy on as a Companion.)
18) 9 (Garibaldi) runs into 1 (Shadwell) in a bar - what do they drink, and what do they find to talk about?
Garibaldi drinks water, or a virgin whatever if appearances need to be kept up. Shadwell drinks…I can’t recall his drink of choice from Good Omens (aside from condensed milk, that is), but he strikes me as a whiskey kind of man, so let’s go with that.
Shadwell mostly rambles on disconsolately about the state of witch-hunting and Garibaldi listens sympathetically, nodding occasionally and trying to not A) let his attention wander to far or B) tell Shadwell how many nipples the Centauri have for fear of him causing a diplomatic incident of some kind.
19) 4 (Jane), 6 (Rosie), 8 (McGonagall), and 11 (Rory) find themselves involved in trying to save the world from an alien invasion - what do they contribute to the battle, and do they all survive?
Well, they’ve all got plenty of experience with paranormal threats, and Rory even knows a thing or two about alien invasions, so we’re in pretty good hands. Jane contributes Excidium, of course, and the rest of the Corps, if she can wrangle it, not to mention several decades’ worth of aerial combat and command experience. Rosie contributes good food (an army *does* fight on its stomach, after all) and a recommendation to talk to Gandalf. If we’re going by the Dresdenverse theory that magic seriously disrupts most tech, McGonagall is probably their biggest weapon (with the possible exception of Rory). I believe I’ve commented elsewhere in this meme about her probable feelings on sending children into war again, but she could rally enough adult wizards and witches to pose an extremely serious threat to the invaders. Rory, of course, contributes his own extensive experience with fighting off alien Hordes of Evil, plus the Doctor and the TARDIS. If the invaders aren’t scared off by seeing either of the last two people/entities (I’m honestly not sure how to describe the TARDIS at this point), then the combination of wizards mounted on dragons should do a good job of making them think twice.
As to who survives: dragons on their own probably wouldn’t do so well against alien lasers or whatever, so Jane might fall in battle. Rosie would be okay, because she knows much better than to involve herself in the fighting. McGonagall is another one I don’t quite see making it, as she would have to get pretty close to the alien ships to disrupt them, and she’s not as young as she used to be. Rory would die, of course, but then he would be brought back for, like, the eighth time.
20) 3 (Carrot) and 5 (Oromë) have accidentally run over 15 (Vlad)'s dog, and now 15 is seeking revenge. Does 15 accomplish it and if so, how?
I’m going to say that it was some sort of magical and/or genetic experiment Vlad was holding on to for Team Dragon, as the closest thing he has to a dog himself is Loiosh, who could easily fly out of the way, making it sort of a non-issue for him.
So now Vlad is in trouble with probably Aliera, and she’s sent him to wreak havoc on whoever destroyed her promising experiment. Carrot and Oromë were probably in hot pursuit of some evil beastie, so while Carrot naturally feels horrible and apologizes profusely, Oromë just sort of shrugs, because Aliera is meddling in the gods’ domain anyway. Vlad certainly wouldn’t succeed in his attempts to assassinate Oromë, and probably wouldn’t even be stupid enough to try. He might have a bit more luck with Carrot, but his girlfriend is a werewolf and Vimes has some pretty extensive experience with thwarting assassins, not to mention the fact that he’s pretty much universally adored, so not only would Vlad be able to bribe anyone to let him get close, but he would have the entire City Watch literally up in arms against him, which is kind of a daunting thought. So eventually Vlad decides that both jobs are too much trouble for something he’s not even getting paid for anyway, and sort of shrugs at Aliera and tells her to whip up another dragon/dzur hybrid or whatever.
[This is a 40-question meme, but the other answers had to be sacrificed to my old foe, the Posting Limit Demon, so I'll put them up in another post momentarily.]
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Date: 2012-04-11 04:18 pm (UTC)That sounds like an amazingly cool class! I hope you manage to fit it into your schedule/units.
I'm reading your GoT reviews even though I still haven't watched anything of season 2, but: I did get the impression that Cersei blamed Tyrion for Joanna's death (and probably also the change it wrought in Tywin -- there's that wonderful line in AFfC about Tywin having had a special smile just for her when she was a little girl, and I suspect Tywin's transformation after Joanna's death was tougher on her than on Jaime) -- she was very cruel to newborn!Tyrion, and I was taking that as a clear indication that she blamed him then, and don't think Cersei is the sort to grow out of thinking that.
LOL at the Baratheon socks! Very apt indeed XD And yay for HBO swag! I've also always imagined the King's Hand thing as a hamsa more than anything, although that's not really how it's described either, since it's supposed to be a chain of interlocking hands anyhow. But I suspect it's one of those things that sounds neat in description but is utterly ridiculous when it has to be sported by an actual actor, so I don't blame HBO for changing it from that.
Any chance of me seeing you model the Tyrell shirt on Saturday? ;) (If it's not too cold, of course!)
a literal God of Kicking the Crap out of You
*snerk*
I love that you ended up getting Ivy and Lestrade for the detectives in that question! (Did I also have Vlad as the victim for that situation on my meme? I think I did, or maybe a similar question on a different meme... poor guy just can't catch a break.)
or actually meet some of the Loony Tunes artists/writers/voice actors
This would be totally adorable, and I could very much see Garibaldi doing that!
So Ivy would spend at least half of their ten hours convincing the other two to believe her
I wonder if Ivy's powers work cross-dimensionally... She could probably demonstrate to them that she does know what she knows by quoting from stuff written down in their universes that no ordinary person would have access to, like notes of Small Council meetings (assuming Robert was paying enough attention to recognize them :P) and so on.
So, basically, they would all be totally okay with taking their orders from Jane, and she would form them into an unstoppable dinosaur-hunting/survival team.
Hell of a team! And LOLing at the mental image of Garibaldi being raised by dinosaurs XD
I have to admit that Carrot/Garibaldi breaks my brain, because I keep mentally substituting Vimes for Garibaldi, and, yeah, no, just can't go there XD
“TARGARYEN!,” with an angrily shaken fist included.
XD LOLing for real. And vowing to include Robert in a subsequent round with these (probably combined with the return of Jayne), because he is great to make fun of.
B) tell Shadwell how many nipples the Centauri have for fear of him causing a diplomatic incident of some kind.
Ah, Centauri anatomy. Always good for a laugh! XD
*bites tongue at something you mention in your answer to #20, makes mental note to come back to it after you've read a couple more books* :P
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Date: 2012-04-11 08:20 pm (UTC)Me, too! There's nothing in the phrse "four units' worth of Celtic/Norse/Greek comparative mythology" that I don't love.
there's that wonderful line in AFfC about Tywin having had a special smile just for her when she was a little girl
D'aww! That was one of my favorite Lannister moments, as it was genuinely sweet and not creepy/skeevy in any way, and only mildly dsyfunctional. XD But I must admit that I didn't pay that much attention to the Lannisters the first (well, only) time around, so it's more than possible that I missed Cersei's true feelings re: Tyrion and their parents.
Any chance of me seeing you model the Tyrell shirt on Saturday?
You read my mind! Hey, any chance to show off one's swag/House pride, right?
I've also always imagined the King's Hand thing as a hamsa more than anything
So that's what it's called! A friend of mine (the same one who gave the seder I mentioned over on your journal) recently got back from a birthright trip in Israel, and he brough a hamsa back with him, and ever since then, it's been my image of the Hand's pin (adjusted for color, style, etc., of course). I'd entirely forgotten that it was supposed to be a chain of hands, which, yeah, would look pretty silly on Sean Bean.
Did I also have Vlad as the victim for that situation on my meme? I think I did, or maybe a similar question on a different meme... poor guy just can't catch a break.
If this (http://hamsterwoman.livejournal.com/491399.html) is the one you're talking about, then it looks like Cordelia was the victim, but Vlad as the assassination/murder target in a meme does sound awfully familiar. Eh, I guess he's just one of those guys who it's funny to try and kill and see what happens.
LOLing at the mental image of Garibaldi being raised by dinosaurs XD
IKR? He'd be like Tarzan, only maybe slightly derpier.
I have to admit that Carrot/Garibaldi breaks my brain, because I keep mentally substituting Vimes for Garibaldi, and, yeah, no, just can't go there XD
Ow, my brain! They...he...but...no. Just no.
And vowing to include Robert in a subsequent round with these (probably combined with the return of Jayne), because he is great to make fun of.
Do eeeet! Robert, as I've found out, is enormous fun in memes, and he and Jayne would make an unstoppable, kind of horribly fascinating, so-bad-it's-awesome team.
*bites tongue at something you mention in your answer to #20, makes mental note to come back to it after you've read a couple more books* :P
Wait... so Aliera actually *does* start using her genetics experiments to creat life? Wow, now there's a scary thought.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-12 12:05 am (UTC)YAY!
Let me know if you want me to be more specific about which statement of yours in #20 was making me tongue-bitey, or which character, or whatever degree of specificity you're not afraid of, spoiler-wise :)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-12 01:45 am (UTC)Er, tell me the part of the statement and the character, if you please? My spoiler-okay-with-ness level is, like, five, with one being "Vlad has hair" and ten being "Kiera is Sethra in disguise."
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Date: 2012-04-12 02:25 am (UTC)XD I like your scale! Not sure I can hit a five, though, but hopefully I don't fall too close to the Kiera-is-Sethra mark :P
The character is Vlad. The statement is regarding Orome, but I don't want to imply that this is more spoilery than it really is.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-12 04:05 am (UTC)Eh, don't worry about it! I've managed to spoil myself for quite a bit (I know that Vlad and Cawti concieved a child before Vlad left but Cawti didn't know and/or didn't tell him, for example), and if, as you say, Kiera = Sethra is the biggest reveal, then I won't get too fussed about further spoilers.
The character is Vlad. The statement is regarding Orome, but I don't want to imply that this is more spoilery than it really is.
Hmm...I'm guessing that, at some point, Vlad has to try to assassinate a god? Well, crap, that can't end too well.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-12 04:29 am (UTC)Oh good! Well, not good, but that's one less thing for me to watch out for so as not to spoil you :P That's actually what the spoiler in my Phoenix write-up was -- in retrospect, the set-up for the pregnancy is pretty thick, but I never noticed a thing the first time I read it. Or the second, because I'd not yet read the book in which it's hinted more clearly, or the book in which Vlad finds out.
I think Kiera = Sethra is the biggest reveal in the sense that if you hear it, you can't unsee it. There are other things that happen that are fairly significant, but I think you kind of need more of the background to get the full impact/significance of it. Well, maybe there's one exception, but I don't know that it would feel significant to someone who wasn't reading the book it happened in. Um.
...I'm guessing that, at some point, Vlad has to try to assassinate a god?
It hasn't happened yet, in the interests of full disclosure. But things have happened that suggest this situation may arise at some point in the future. And Brust has apparently said that the last book in the series, #19 (1 for each house in the Cycle + Taltos + coda), is going to be called The Last Contract, which does sound kind of ominous...
no subject
Date: 2012-04-13 06:47 pm (UTC)Yup! I've just kind of shrugged or gone "huh" at most of the spoilers I've come across, but this one was very much a O.O moment, and now every time either of them comes onscreen, I can't help but wonder how Vlad will react if/when he finds out.
is going to be called The Last Contract, which does sound kind of ominous...
*gulp* And the similarities with Butcher continue! I've heard that he's going to end the Dresden Files with an "apocalyptic trilogy," which doesn't sound much better.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-13 07:31 pm (UTC)Yes!
I hadn't thought about it before Brust mentioned reading Butcher, but there are quite a few similarities between the two series, and by the time Storm Front was published, the Vlad series was already 8 novels deep and had gone through a fairly drastic arc, I think. I rather do wonder if Butcher is a fan, writing either with unconscious influence or conscious homage...
no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 05:22 pm (UTC)Yes! I feel exactly the same. I remember being fascinated by Red Sonja's chain mail bikini when I was fourteen,but I became more practical and athletic as I got older. At LEAST she got to wear sensible boots instead of high heels. But I guess they didn't have high heels in the Hyperborean age. It bugs the $h!# out of me to see heroines like Nikita and Charlie's Angels executing martial arts moves in strappy heels against guys who outweigh them by 200 lbs. And don't even get me started on the disparity between men's and women's 'uniforms' in modern day beach volleyball. To think they made it an Olympic sport in 1996 and didn't allow the female athletes the right to cover their behinds with less wedgie-forming bottoms until just recently.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-11 08:23 pm (UTC)Exactly! I just want to reach through the screen, shake them by the shoulders, and yell "You know better, dammit!" I mean, if they're undercover and need the heels to maintain the image of, like, a socialite or something, then I understand, but *preferring* heels for combat? That's almost literally asking for disaster!