In which getting me out of the house becomes a top priority

[lunasariel]

First things first: I am now among, if not the gainfully employed, the usefully occupied. I've been trying to volunteer at the local animal shelter for a while, but for one reason or another, they've never taken me up. They have now, though, and I'm attending an orientation on the 3rd. I'm actually ridiculously pleased about this, because I really love this shelter, and I sure don't have any excess income to give them, I'd love to help out however I can. We've got each of our four cats from this shelter, and it's always been a great resource, not just for "I want a kitten!" but advice/information on pet care, spaying/neutering, etc. Perhaps most importantly, though, the shelter is no-kill, which is very important to me, since the first cat I got from there turned out to be diabetic (speaking of which, milady's weight and appetite seem to have been picking up again, which I'm thrilled with, and her blood sugar, while still definitely too high, is no longer in the "holy crap, how are you still alive?!" range. We still don't know what happened in the first place, but I took her to the vet on Friday, where they drew some blood and ran some tests, the results of which should be back on Tuesday. But I digress), and would otherwise have been euthanized, as her diabetes brought down her chances of adoption drastically. But they kept her, I found her, and now I'd like to do whatever I can to keep them open and no-kill.



But this will also get me out of the house, which is a very, very good thing. I've started to notice a tendency in myself to, for lack of a better word, stagnate. WoW has re-sunk its teeth into me but good, and while creating a story for my new Draenei Death Knight may be fun, at the end of the day, I still haven't accomplished anything actually useful or important. It absolutely eats up the hours and, worse, leaves me with a sort of listless "meh" feeling where I can't make myself do anything at all, even stuff I would otherwise enjoy. So I haven't been responding to emails and FB/LJ messages as I ought to ('pologies for this), I've fallen drastically behind on Game of Thrones (although I did hear that tonight's GRRM-penned "Blackwater" was a doozy), Godzilla languishes in the outskirts of Tokyo feebly batting at houses and quietly roaring to himself in a forlorn kind of way, I haven't done a damn thing in the way of research, and even the otherwise enticing combination of hamsterwoman-recommended Tiassa, Babylon 5, and Cordelia's Honor hasn't seen any real action in more days than I'd like to admit.

Of course, I haven't been completely stagnant. H has gotten me into Castle, wherein Mal Reynolds, I mean, Nathan Fillion, plays a delightfully charming jerkass writer who tags along on police investigations for A) added veracity, and B) the chance to hit on the cute detective who was *very* reluctantly assigned to babysit him. This is exactly the right role for Nathan, where his innate likeability and jerkass charm can carry him through the slow spots, and his gleeful geekery is nothing if not winning. Castle has an almost Pratchett-like meta-fictional feel sometimes, where Castle (Nathan) convinces Beckett (the aforementioned cute detective) to take another look at a seemingly open-and-shut case simply because the case as is wouldn't make a good story. Castle is always looking for the drama, the motivation, the twist, and, generally, he finds it. I've only seen the first few episodes with H (who was both sick and had two finals on her birthday, and is now recovering from the two former before she starts planning the latter), but the DVDs are on order, so hopefully we'll be all caught up on that before long.

Also, my mom has been majorly into Downton Abbey, and I polished off the second season with her earlier this week. Ultimately, the melodrama and, er, soap opera logic prevented me from entirely enjoying it, but that's definitely not to say I *didn't* enjoy it. I am officially forever and ever in love with Bates and Anna, a perfect example of Starky honor and Tyrell pragmatism. Bates did suffer from some drastically OOC moments that were only there for the sake of plot convenience/melodrama, and those rankled, but all in all...just d'awww. A thousand times d'awww. The actors have some fantastic chemistry, and the way they look at each other is truly amazing. It's like Bates is still having trouble believing that this brilliant, beautiful, brave woman, for whatever crazy reason of her own, is madly in love with him, and he's just waiting for her to come to her senses and realize that she can do so much better than him and will wish her well when she does, and she looks at him with this exasperated, "you big dummy"-like fondness in some of his Starkier moments, but also with a kind of sadness when she realizes that he really values himself that little and doesn't think himself worthy of her, but he's worth so much more to her than he could ever possibly know, to her as well as the other servants, to Lord Grantham, to everyone. In Tumblr lingo, these two give me all the feels u gaiz.

As for the rest of the servants, I hope Thomas gets a redemption arc next season, because I really cannot help mentally placing him in the "poor baby" category, which doesn't exactly jive with the fact that he is, essentially, the villain of the piece. O'Brien has had her redemption arc, which culminated in her standing by Cora through the Spanish Flu epidemic, even when it meant risking the disease herself. I really couldn't see s1!O'Brien doing something so selfless, even potentially self-destructive, out of friendship or affection, so yay character development! Mr. Carson, Mrs. Hughes, and Mrs. Patmore were, as always, the glue that holds the team together, generally leaving the dramarama to the younger servants. Speaking of which, Daisy's "but I didn't love him!" plotline got dragged out a little longer than it could stand, but at least it finally got wrapped up, and hopefully she'll have something new to do next season. It looks like Branson has left the show, along with Sibyl, and, while I'll miss them, I'm not too cut up over this (although I wouldn't at all say no to a visit from a more middle-class, more political, more Irish Sibyl, Branson and child[ren] in tow, somewhere down the line).

Aside from Bates/Anna (= Bates 'n' Anna = Bananna!) and the utterly ill-fated Thomas/Courtenay, my favorite relationships on this show are the ones between parents or surrogate parents and children. I ended up rather despising Mary (I compltely agree with Mrs. Hughes' analysis that she's a spoiled, selfish brat who thinks she's the center of the universe), but I pretty much the only times I liked her were her interactions with Carson and her father. Both of them are her father-figures, in a way, and Carson clearly feels a parent's love for her, so it was rather endearing to see the grumpy, sour-faced old butler, who's usually very much the "Stop Having Fun, Guys" one of the group, getting affectionate, protective, even downright sentimental. Similarly, while rather deeply flawed, I was very proud of the way Robert rose to the challenge of parenting his three girls. Ultimately, he gave them his support and love, even coming to terms with the difficult idea of the baby of the family running off with the Irish chauffeur, not to mention putting up with Mary's constant flip-flopping and occasionally drastically bad taste in men. Daisy also ends up rather well set up with regards to parental figures: although it's revealed that she has no living, biological parents of her own, her decision to construct a new family with William's recently bereaved father was rather sweet, and, although it hasn't been explicitly stated, I have a feeling that Mrs. Patmore, as, er, shouty as she is, has taken Daisy under her wing, and views her as at least an honored protégé, even a daughter.

That said, though, Downton Abbey definitely collected a few flaws. The last scene especially embodied everything I hate: the writers lauding and rewarding Mary for being selfish and showing her making her own damn problems as noble, not stupid, Matthew and Mary breaking up and then getting back together again, Soap Opera Disease (episode 7: paraplegic for life; episode 8: oh, never mind, he's fine!), and Soap Opera Logic (I don't care how romantic it looks, you do not stand around, outside, on a January night, in Yorkshire, wearing only an evening gown, opera gloves, and silky stole, sighing forlornly over your broken heart. It just doesn't happen. You either sigh forlornly inside, where you won't literally freeze your butt off, or wrap up before going outside). I don't know whether this was more present in s2, or it was already there in s1 and I just didn't notice it, but s2 seemed to suffer from a lot more lazy writing, subplots that go nowhere, nonsensical character motivations/actions, and general problems than s1 did, and this dragged my enjoyment of the whole show down. I'll watch s3 when it comes out, since I'm sure Bates will be back by then (note: I really, really, want an ADC!Sherlock Holmes crossover. We know he was active up into WWI, and he could have gotten Bates out of that phony murder charge in five second flat, to say nothing of the sheer joy of watching him and Watson being a metaphorical and/or literal old married couple, and of listening to him and Violet practice their old people snark on one another).


I finally finished that 50-question meme from however long ago, so, here, have the second half! As a reminder, the participants are:

1. Jennifer Quantum (The Authority/Stormwatch)
2. Tyrion Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire)
3. Molly Hayes (Runaways)
4. Nealan of Queenscove (Tortall universe)
5. Susan Ivanova (Babylon 5)
6. Thomas Raith (Dresden Files)
7. Jean Grey (X-Men)
8. Tommy Shepherd (Young Avengers)
9. Emily Roland (Temeraire)
10. Phil Coulson (The Avengers)
11. Aliera e’Kieron (Dragaera)
12. Peregrin “Pippin” Took (The Lord of the Rings)
13. Zoë Alleyne Washburne (Firefly)


26) 5 (Ivanova) and 3 (Molly) find out that they're both the intended recipients of 12 (Pippin)'s worldly goods after 12 died in a particularly nasty and suspicious accident. a) Who on the list caused the accident? b) 5 and 3 only get to keep the inheritance if they work together to solve the mystery. How does that go?
A) Jean, or rather the Phoenix Force, probably did it. My first thought was either Aliera or Coulson on SHIELD’s behalf, but it would be in SHIELD’s best interest to keep him alive than otherwise, and I have a feeling that Aliera wouldn’t consider a Hobbit a worthy opponent, even if he is technically a Rider of Rohan. But killing him off would certainly cause some destabilization, so I could see the Phoenix Force offing him to cause some mayhem.
B) I’m sure that Molly would love the chance to be Harriet the Spy, but Ivanova would, quite sensibly, turn the whole thing over to Garibaldi, since it’s his job to investigate nasty and suspicions accidents, especially when they happen to rich aliens (which I’m fairly sure Hobbits count as in the B5-verse). But since it's the Phoenix Force, this is more a telepaths’ matter than a security one, so I don’t know how much good Garibaldi could do on his own. If he got the idea to summon Talia or someone, he might get somewhere, but otherwise it’s too far out of his realm of experience to figure it out alone. Alternately, if Molly is allowed to get her friends involved as well, Nico might pick up a psychic trace of the Phoenix Force, and Victor, as a HUGE fanboy, might be able to put the clues together as well.

27) In a three-legged race pairing the following people, which pair wins? Who can't coordinate worth a damn?
13 (Zoë) and 9 (Emily)
4 (Neal) and 6 (Thomas)
10 (Coulson) and 1 (Jenny)
Coulson and Jenny would win, probably. Coulson is all about coordination, and would probably have set up a training regimen for him and Jenny weeks, if not months, in advance. Neal and Thomas, as mentioned previously, would have too huge a clash of egos to be able to coordinate in any meaningful way, and would end up dragging each other off in different directions, tripping each other up, and then later on complaining to their respective friends about how unreasonable and self-centered the other guy is, while said friends try very, very hard not to laugh. Zoë and Emily would make a good team, but they wouldn’t be as focused on winning as Coulson and Jenny (Jenny does have rather a competitive streak, and I suspect that Coulson does, too, and is the terror of SHIELD company picnics) and more on having a good time, which I’m sure they would.

28) 12 (Pippin) and 3 (Molly) are forced to get married for some reason. Which of them is all for it, and which of them is secretly sabotaging everything they can think of?
To be honest, I can see them both enjoying it, from a platonic aspect if not from a romantic one. Molly’s idea of “marital duties” is chores, and I can see her and Pippin gleefully raising hell in the Shire. I was always rather unclear on the nature of Pippin’s marriage to Diamond of Long Cleave, though. If he actually loved her, then he would probably do his best to head the marriage off, since I’m not sure the Hobbits have divorce (which Molly would also be okay with, since she and Pippin would almost certainly be pals rather than anything else). But if, as I suspect, it was the closest thing to a political marriage they have in the Shire, then I guess he would be okay either way.

29) 8 (Tommy) has to adopt a child. Which of the other characters do they ask for help, and why?
If he couldn’t just straight-up adopt Molly, which I’m sure both of them would love, he’d probably ask Jean for advice. He knows that she’s experienced with kids, especially with troubled and/or mutant kids. And an older Thomas (possibly along with Kate, depending on whether or not they actually get together) would definitely want to adopt a troubled mutant kid, preferably a teen, since that’s exactly what he was himself. So I could see him adopting some mutant teen who’s had a hard life, and he would certainly be able to relate, but he would probably need Jean’s help with actually getting across that he can relate, since, as he says, “I don’t have feelings.”

30) Why would 13 (Zoë) ever want to catch 11's (Aliera’s) attention, but 7 (Jean) would have to interfere?
Hmm…Zoë would want to catch Aliera’s attention to keep her from (further) mischief by keeping her attention focused in one place. I’m not how much racial diversity there is in Dragaera, so maybe Aliera has never seen a black person/Easterner before, and Zoë exploits this to keep her from picking a fight with Jayne?
Of course, Aliera being Aliera, she would probably make a casual remark about how nice it is to learn about a whole new kind of Easterner to conquer, and she’s sure that they’ll all be as valiant warriors as Zoë, even if they all will most likely die, and Jean would have to step in to stop things from getting ugly.

31) 4 (Neal) and 6 (Thomas) are members of a fandom. Who is the troll and who is the BNF?
Neal is the troll and Thomas is the BNF, obviously, since those are already pretty much their roles in their regular lives. Neal loves taking the piss of people, especially pompous and/or easily offended people, and Thomas loves being widely adored, so I could see them being entirely happy in their respective roles. Their paths would have to cross sometime, though, which would lead to much entertainment for the fandom as a whole, but once the initial fireworks were over, they’d probably settle down into surprisingly good friends.

32) 5 (Ivanova), 2 (Tyrion), and 7 (Jean) have to start a hotel. Who ends up in charge, and what jobs do the other two get?
Tyrion is bankrolling the whole thing, of course, so I guess he’s in charge. He’d set Ivanova up as the bouncer/bartender (of course they have a hotel bar!)/hotel detective (do they still have those?)/security, and Jean could be the concierge and/or in charge of housekeeping, since she would know what people wanted as soon as they want them.

33) 10 (Coulson) has been possessed by the ghost of 11 (Aliera). Does 1 (Jenny) notice? Do they think it an improvement or do they try to exorcise the ghost? Are there any lasting repercussions?
Good god, yes, Jenny notices. Everybody notices; it’s kind of hard not to when the reserved, diffident SHIELD agent starts advocating nuclear strikes against the coffee place that messed up his order and trying to use the Helicarrier to invade Canada. It might take some doing to figure out that it’s a ghost, though, since most people would just assume that the stress had finally gotten to him and he’d just snapped. But I can’t see Aliera being too pleased that she’s stuck in a middle-aged, balding, entirely non-magical, male Easterner body, and would demand that they send her back to the Paths of the Dead right now, since obviously there’s been a huge mistake, and Vlad and Morrolan will be by any minute to come get her (again). So SHIELD gets ahold of Doctor Strange or Wiccan or somebody, and gets the whole mess sorted out with relative speed once everybody knows what’s going on.
And no, there wouldn’t be any lasting repercussions; Nick Fury caught on and nixed Aliera-in-Coulson’s plans before they could actually nuke and/or invade anything. Coulson might be left feeling a little queasy and/or headachy from trying to teleport, though.

34) 9 (Emily) and 5 (Ivanova) are trapped in a book. What book is it, and how do they get out? Do they want to get out?
Maybe this is just Godzilla’s influence, but it would be kind of awesome and hilarious to see the two of them get stuck in a Gothic romance. They would both find it unutterably silly and boring, refuse to wear the stupid frilly white dresses, and cheerfully make the villains very, very sorry for attempting to waylay them on a lonely country road. In fact, they would probably hijack the story and turn it into a Thelma and Louise-esque road trip/buddy movie where they go around to all the various castles and abbeys, taking turns challenging the various wicked counts and barons to fights, lecturing the damsels in distress on feminist theory, and berating the heroes for taking so damn long to ride to the rescue. In fact, I can see Emily developing kind of a hero-worship crush on Ivanova, a powerful military woman who doesn’t take shit from anyone and is proud of her rank. Ivanova would also be rather taken with Emily, who’s amazingly scrappy for her day and age, and take her under her wing.
They have fun riding around beating up evildoers for a while, but eventually, they both have their duties to get back to. I imagine the author would just get sick of having her (yes, unsurprisingly, most Gothic romances were written by women) plot derailed so completely and gleefully, and would eventually just write them back into their own ‘verses. They would both be a little sad at this, though, since they would have become great friends, and Emily is disappointed at not being able to introduce her mother to Ivanova, and Ivanova secretly really wants to see Excidium in action.

35) Fractured fairy tale: 8 (Tommy) is Red Riding Hood, 12 (Pippin) is the Wolf, 3 (Molly) is Grandmother, and 13 (Zoë) is the Woodsman. What happens?
Heh, I guess Tommy borrowed his twin’s cloak, and whoever is setting up this whole scene mistook him for Billy, who would make kind of an awesome Red Riding Hood.
Pippin just wants the snacks that Tommy is carrying, and convinces Molly to hide behind the door while Pippin dresses up in her clothes, so they can both jump out and yell “boo!” when Tommy arrives, because they both would find this hilarious.
They succeed in making Tommy jump, and nobody jumps like a speedster. He does drop the snacks, though, which Pippin promptly pounces on, and refuses to give back. Having seen Zoë on his way in, Tommy goes back to appeal to her for help in recovering his snacks, but she just laughs, makes a comment about his cunning costume (green and white body stocking, yellow goggles, and now a big red cloak. Stylin’.), and points out that he just lost to a twelve-year-old and a Hobbit, and thus has nobody to blame but himself. However, Molly feels bad about startling him by this point, and comes back to invite the two of them in to share the snacks that Pippin hasn’t already eaten.

36) 6 (Thomas), 4 (Neal), 9 (Emily), and 13 (Zoë) are on the Galaxy Quest. Which one is the Captain, the Engineer, the Alien, and the Person-who-repeats-what-the-Computer-says? Is the galaxy doomed?
Zoë is in charge, since she’s the only one with actual spaceship experience, and spends the vast majority of her time trying to explain things to her crew and stop them from killing each other.
Thomas, as the one with the second most amount of applicable knowledge, would be the Engineer. He would also be best suited to fending off the inevitable attack on the engine core, and would certainly take over the Captain’s prerogative of romancing the hot alien babe and/or dude of the week.
Speaking of aliens, this role would be left to Neal, since Emily would be the Person Who Repeats What The Computer Says. Neither Neal nor Emily would have the faintest idea of what’s going on, but Neal would just spend all his time arguing with the computer, whereas Emily at least has experience acting as signal-ensign, which is kind of close to the same thing.

37) 3 (Molly), 6 (Thomas), 7 (Jean), and 5 (Ivanova) are teachers at Hogwarts. What do they teach, and what Houses are they in?
Molly is pure, undiluted Gryffindor. She’s technically still a student, and only a second-year at that, but has shown a knack for Care of Magical Creatures and flying. She’s a Beater on Gryffindor’s Quidditch Team, and is Hagrid’s protégé in finding enormous horrifying monsters adorable and cuddly.
Thomas was a Hatstall between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, although he comes from a pureblood Slytherin family. He ultimately came down as a Gryffindor, but still definitely retains a “fight smarter, not harder” mentality. He teaches Potions, since he’s already looking for a magical means to allow him and Justine to touch, and a potion seems promising. However, for obvious reasons, he has permanently barred love potions from the curriculum.
Jean, a Ravenclaw (but not without some worrying Slytherin outbursts), teaches one of the basic classes, say Charms, and is universally beloved by the first years, who she goes out of her way to make welcome, especially the more terrified ones. However, she also offers Legilimency and Occlumency lessons to a select few older students she thinks have the knack for it.
Ivanova is a Gryffindor, duh, and teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts. She’s forbidden from any, er, practical demonstrations, but the students enjoy listening to her stories all the same. She would almost certainly be an (ex-)Auror in the Potterverse, and so would have plenty to tell about the Wizarding War.

38) 12 (Pippin) thinks 8 (Tommy) has a crush on them. What has brought them to this assumption?
From what I can tell, Tommy shows affection by loudly mocking people, so Pippin probably confused annoyance with attraction.

39) The latest on the rumor mill is that 1 (Jenny) and 11 (Aliera) spent a great weekend of torrid passion together. How do these two react to the news when it gets back to them? And is it true or false?
Oh, it’s definitely false. Aliera wouldn’t date an Easterner, even a super-duper-special Easterner like Jenny, and Jenny’s parents have Views about her dating before she’s a teenager, especially when her prospective mate has a body count higher than Jenny’s age.
When Aliera hears, she denies it out of hand and then forgets about it, since it’s one of the more improbable rumors circulating about her, and her enemies can surely exert themselves to come up with something a little more realistic. Jenny enjoys giving Apollo and the Midnighter heart attacks by playing along with it for a while, but once Midnighter starts making noises about paying Aliera a visit in the middle of the knife, I mean night, to explain how he expects his daughter to be treated, she ‘fesses up so that they don’t actually end up killing one another.

40) 2 (Tyrion)/10 (Coulson): They decide to elope. Why wouldn't they want a ceremony?
The Lannisters, obviously. When they find out that, not only is Coulson not anything like noble-born, but that he’s not even particularly wealthy, they start a smear campaign about him and/or try to have him assassinated. Tyrion and Coulson both fairly sure that Coulson can handle whatever they throw at him, but by this point, Tyrion has learned to be cautious about his love life, to put it mildly, and just decided to avoid the whole mess by quietly escaping to Earth and getting married on the Helicarrier (which, given that I’m pretty sure that both Nick Fury and Cap are empowered to perform marriages, would be the weirdest, but also the best, wedding ever).

41) 4 (Neal) and 2 (Tyrion) are planning their first date. Where do they go and why?
After Neal gets done with his whole “sit outside the object of my affection’s window and serenade them nightly” phase, I could see them going out for drinks and stand-up comedy. And I mean good stand-up comedy; no amateur night for these guys. They would enjoy the hell out of heckling the bad acts, genuinely enjoy the good ones, and get progressively drunker and happier. Oddly enough, I can also see them going to a sporting event of some kind. Probably jousting, since that’s what they’re both familiar with, but they would also enjoy modern football (either American or European), baseball, hockey, etc. They could make bets (with appropriately filthy stakes) and keep up a hilarious running commentary for one another.

42) 11 (Aliera) just murdered someone. Would 7 (Jean) help him cover it up or turn him in?
What, again? And who Aliera killed and whether or not they’re revivifiable would be the deciding factors in Jean’s decision. If they can be revivified, as is usual, Aliera would just do that, rendering the question moot. But if they were dead for good, A) whether they deserved it and B) what kind of person they were would tip the balance one way or another. If it was someone who deliberately provoked Aliera and/or was a big enough jerk, Jean would think of them as having gotten what was coming to them. But if Aliera provoked a fight, or killed someone for what Jean considers an insufficiently good reason, then, yeah, she might tell someone. But Jean in general seems to be a fan of letting people sort out their own problems, so chances are still good that she would let the Dragons sort it out amongst themselves.

43) 3 (Molly) and 6 (Thomas) are in jail. How did they get there? How do they get out?
Molly walked in on Harry and his crew fighting the monster of the week, and stepped in to help. But her style is anything but subtle, and she drew official attention pretty quickly when she, like, hit a troll with a car or something. Unlike Team Harry, however, she can’t teleport, and would be leery of accepting magical rides from an unknown wizard, which, it must be admitted, is slightly riskier than beating up the obvious Forces of Evil alongside one. I guess Thomas got separated, or just didn’t want to leave her alone, and so told Harry to get everyone else away from the crime scene.
If Murphy is still on the force, she would pull some strings to get them out, but not before a long, serious talk with Molly about taking on the whole damn world when you’re, like, 12 or 13 years old. If she’s not, though, there are still plenty of options. Between Team Dresden and the Runaways, they have at least two teleporters, never mind those capable of creating illusions or just plain busting them out.

44) 7 (Jean) is miniaturized to 15cm tall and bought from the store by 11 (Aliera) as a gift for 4 (Neal). What happens to 7? Does she get her normal size back or remain as a shorty? Why was she turned?
Jean is terribly bored, because Neal just leaves her in his room all day while he’s out training or working, depending on what stage he’s at. She’s more than used to dealing with temperamental, lovesick teenagers, though, and patiently listens to his panegyrics on his latest One True Love and tries to give him advice where and when she thinks it’ll stick.
And, yes, she eventually gets turned back to normal. Aliera probably miniaturized her out of pique in the first place, for whatever reason, and either Morrolan made her turn Jean back, since Professor X was threatening to sic both Scott and Logan on them, or Numair got wind of what was going on, and considered the whole thing a fascinating exercise in matter manipulation.
45) 10 (Coulson) has a special box they keep in a safe place. What's in it?
His Captain America memorabilia, especially his complete set of vintage trading cards, of course. (This one was almost too easy.)
46) 13 (Zoë) is dating 12 (Pippin). His/her best friend sees bruises and thinks the worst but what really happened is...?
Pippin decided to accompany Zoë on one of her missions, despite her rather strenuous objections, and got caught up in the ensuing chase and/or firefight and/or bar fight and/or kidnapping (Hobbit-napping?).

47) Pick one of the following for each of the listed pairings Partners/Couple/Siblings/Kill each other/Heterosexual life partners: 5 (Ivanova) and 3 (Molly), 6 (Thomas) and 1 (Jenny), 9 (Emily) and 10 (Coulson), 7 (Jean) and 11 (Aliera), 12 (Pippin) and 4 (Neal).
Ivanova & Molly: Partners. Heh, I could see this as more of an intern thing, where Molly follows Ivanova around Babylon 5 all day and peppers her and various aliens with questions. This would, of course, annoy the hell out of Ivanova, but I could see her eventually warming to Molly’s enthusiasm and asking her to stay on when her internship is up.
Thomas & Jenny: Heterosexual life partners. I’m fairly sure Thomas’ mojo wouldn’t work on Jenny, and she would be more than understanding about being compelled to hurt people, even when you’re doing your best not to.
Emily & Coulson: Couple, I guess? Everything else is taken. Older!Emily would probably be dismissive of Coulson at first, but once she sees him BAMF it up and realizes that he’s more impressed by than dismissive of her because of her profession and/or gender, they might get together.
Jean & Aliera: Kill each other. Aside from the deep philosophical differences re: the sanctity of life and the use/abuse of extranormal powers, the Phoenix Force certainly wouldn’t like the challenge that Aliera and Pathfinder present.
Pippin & Neal: Siblings. Neal has quite a bit of Tookish sass in him, and I would rather love to see Gandalf’s expression when Pippin introduced him to Neal, and Gandalf realized that now there’s two of them (well, three, counting Merry).

48) 5 (Ivanova) is dared by 3 (Molly) to strip while pole dancing in front of 8 (Tommy). Write a short dialogue about this.
Molly is mildly confused but hates turning down dares, Tommy is downright horrified, and Ivanova is drunk off her ass. This cannot end well.

49) If you had a chance to rewrite 13’s (Zoë’s) life, how would you change it?
I’d actually keep the war as is, since without it she wouldn’t have met Wash and the rest of the crew. I would, however, most definitely have Wash (and Book) survive.

50) 9 (Emily) sings karaoke and dedicates a song to 6 (Thomas). What song do they dedicate and why?
As mentioned above, Thomas would get “Sexy and I Know It” (or, as suggested by hamsterwoman, “I’m Too Sexy for My Shirt”). Alternatively, since both of those songs have accompanying dances that I'm fairly certain Emily would refuse to do under most circumstances, "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Congratulations on finding a good way to spend your summer! And glad to hear your cat is doing better.

I’m not how much racial diversity there is in Dragaera, so maybe Aliera has never seen a black person/Easterner before

Some of the Dragaeran houses have dark(er) skin, although it's not really clear how dark that's supposed to be, without a point of reference for the audience. Zoe's probably not darker-skinned than a Dzur, but you're probably right about Aliera never having seen a dark-skinned Easterner, as the ones on Dragaera appear to be of Hungarian descent...

Of course, Aliera being Aliera, she would probably make a casual remark about how nice it is to learn about a whole new kind of Easterner to conquer, and she’s sure that they’ll all be as valiant warriors as Zoë, even if they all will most likely die

Hee!

Love the whole Aliera-possessing-Coulson scenario. It would be incredibly hilarious, and I would totally watch a movie -- or at least a TV episode -- based entirely on that!

Emily and Ivanova hijacking a Gothic was also great. Ivanova and Emily would end up as awesome buddies, regardless of the universe.

and would certainly take over the Captain’s prerogative of romancing the hot alien babe and/or dude of the week.

Indeed, a role Thomas was made for! Satisfying narrative causality (or whatever) and basic need for sustenance.

She would almost certainly be an (ex-)Auror in the Potterverse, and so would have plenty to tell about the Wizarding War.

Totally! I love Hogwarts AUs/crossovers, and Ivanova is my favorite bit of this one.

a visit in the middle of the knife, I mean night

:D!

45) 10 (Coulson) has a special box they keep in a safe place. What's in it?
His Captain America memorabilia, especially his complete set of vintage trading cards, of course. (This one was almost too easy.)

It was, but it's awesome when the questions occasionally fall out like that! :)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finding a good way to spend your summer! And glad to hear your cat is doing better.
Thanks on both! ^.^ My cat knows she's got me wrapped around her finger (paw?), and shamelessly plays up the "poor sick kitty" angel in order to get tastier food and more indulgence in general, but damn if I don't fall for it every time...

Aliera never having seen a dark-skinned Easterner, as the ones on Dragaera appear to be of Hungarian descent...
Yeah, this was my thinking, too. From what I can tell, the East in general has a very northern European feel to it. I could imagine a little more pigment diversity in places like Adrilankha, which seems much further south and, thus, sunnier. But the combination of Dzur-like dark skin and Easterner blood would be an interesting one for Aliera.

It would be incredibly hilarious, and I would totally watch a movie -- or at least a TV episode -- based entirely on that!
YES. I have a not-so-secret weakness for bodyswapping/possession, especially for comedic purposes, like here. If there is ever an Avengers TV show starring the cast of the movie (I'm pretty sure there's an Avengers cartoon going on right now), I would be rooting for an "everyone swaps bodies" episode like woah. In fact, most fandoms I can think of would benefit from an episode like this. XD

Ivanova and Emily would end up as awesome buddies, regardless of the universe.
They absolutely would! I've toyed with the idea of a crossover before, but this is an aspect I'd never thought of before this meme.

I love Hogwarts AUs/crossovers
I'm with you there! Maybe it's just because I love sorting, wheither Hogwarts or Westerosi, but I'm a sucker for these kinds of things.

[hamsterwoman]

From what I can tell, the East in general has a very northern European feel to it. I could imagine a little more pigment diversity in places like Adrilankha, which seems much further south and, thus, sunnier.

Brust is not too clear on this, but the sense I get is that the entire Easterner population started out fairly homogenous. Not sure if they've differentiated any in the meanwhile, but I've seen no evidence of it. Though, of course, Vlad has only traveled in the East around where his family is supposed to be from, and one Easterner probably looks just like another to Paarfi.

BTW, I meant to ask, does:

the otherwise enticing combination of hamsterwoman-recommended Tiassa, Babylon 5, and Cordelia's Honor hasn't seen any real action in more days than I'd like to admit

mean that you've started Cordelia's Honor? If so, I'm very curious about your initial impressions, even if you haven't gotten very far.

(Also, I think you mean Issola :) It goes Issola, Dzur, Jhegaala, Iorich, Tiassa from here.)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

mean that you've started Cordelia's Honor?
It does, although I've only read the first couple of chapters (they're still stuck on the planet trying to get to Aral's emergency supplies). So far I ADORE Cordelia, a badass astrocartographer who takes an entirely deserved amount of delight in figuring out how to explode the evil flying vampire jellyfish, and I'm coming to like Aral. I was on the lookout for a lot more misplaced "I shall save thee, o helpless damsel!" moments from him, given what little I know of Barrayaran (still working on remembering how to spell everything right, if this isn't obvious XD) gender norms, but I'm liking the interplay between him and Cordelia as they both let their guards down more and more. I had hoped for a little more characterization of Cordelia's team, since the glimpses we get are tantalizing, and I have a feeling that I would like Ensign Whatshisname (the slightly zombified one) better if I knew more about him when he was firing all thrusters, as it were. I mean, I still like him, and I do feel bad for him, but in a more general "well, that sucks" way than in a personal, immediate way. (Speaking of tantalizing, Aral has only just started to talk about Barrayaran politics, which sound enticingly twisty, and I can't wait to learn more about who tried to assassinate him.) Less of a big deal is being made over Aral being the Butcher of Whatsit (Korran, I think? I don't have the book on me to check) than I thought; I'm guessing that Cordelia had no strong personal connection to the events, and was outraged on a purely moral/nationalistic level, because she seems to have forgiven him/forgotten about it fairly quickly. I can't wait to see them hook up, since her trying very, very hard not to notice that he's "the fittest man in his company" (over 40, anyway) is all kinds of adorkable. Speaking of which, how old is Cordelia? I'm guessing somewhere roughly around Aral's age, since she described herself as "not a cradle-robber" when asked if she had a relationship with Ensign Zombie (who I'm guessing is in his early-to-mid 20s?), but the nature of the narrative makes it hard to guess.

Also, I think you mean Issola :)
You're right, I did. Oops, that's what I get for posting in the wee hours of the morning. XD

[hamsterwoman]

Squee! :DD

I am so glad to hear that you adore Cordelia (she is amazing; possibly TOO amazing to be real, but whatever, I don't care, she is awesome and I love her so there!).

I'm not really sure how old she is, and a quick Googling did not help. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that she's from Beta Colony, the most medically advanced planet, with a life expectancy of well above 100 years, while Aral is from backwards Barrayar, which isn't nearly as advanced. So, she probably looks several decades younger than she ought to, and he probably older, thanks to hard living.

There is some interesting musing on Cordelia's part (I think in "Barrayar", not totally sure) which might (indirectly) explain why Aral is less "fair damsel" about her. The other thing, though, is that Barrayar is still basically frontier country, so the women are pretty disenfranchised, but they're still expected to be tough.

There is also lots and lots more about twisty Barrayaran politics, both in this book and in the next. And some in the subsequent Miles books, too, though less.

The Butcher of Komarr remains sort of background important in several other books in the series, but, yeah, it's less a personal thing for Cordelia and more just a well-known atrocity.

I can't wait to see them hook up, since her trying very, very hard not to notice that he's "the fittest man in his company" (over 40, anyway) is all kinds of adorkable

Aral and Cordelia are one of my very few OTPs, and together they are, indeed, adorkable, despite being very formidable characters. (There's also a fair bit of really, really good Aral/Cordelia fic, which, if you're interested, I will link you to once you're done with the relevant books.)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Barrayar is still basically frontier country, so the women are pretty disenfranchised, but they're still expected to be tough.
Ah, ok. For some reason, I was envisioning a Westerosi kind of place, where women are pretty ornaments and brood mares, and not much else. That certainly explains why he wasn't SHOCKED AND OFFENDED at Cordelia being tough, competent, etc., though.

There is also lots and lots more about twisty Barrayaran politics, both in this book and in the next.
Yay! I imagine Aral dealing with politics is a sight not to be missed.

(There's also a fair bit of really, really good Aral/Cordelia fic, which, if you're interested, I will link you to once you're done with the relevant books.)
Please and thank you! LOL, it's going to be weird getting into a fandom that has, like, active fans, and a decent body of fanfic, and all the stuff sadly missing from Temerarie and Dragaera.

[hamsterwoman]

where women are pretty ornaments and brood mares

They are definitely expected to be that, too, but mostly (my sense is) the expectation is subservient rather than helpless.

It's not a large fandom by any means (unfortunately, or maybe not), but the fanworks seem to be of uniformly amazingly high quality. It produces an excellent crop of Yuletide fic every year, has a good showing at various rare fandom ficathons, and there are sporadic dedicated ficathons and a handful or fairly prolific authors. Pretty much all the fic I've read is of the kind that slots perfectly into fandom, really "new headcanon ahoy!" territory, or beautifully thought-out "tight" AUs. Anyway, I don't want to oversell the fic, but IMO it is amazing on the whole :)

[brit-columbia.livejournal.com]

I agree that sometimes it's best to get out of the house and away from one's own pursuits. I think we all do better if we can find opportunities to serve others in practical ways. I'm the glad the shelter is no-kill. I think animals know when they're going to be killed. I commend you for giving the shelter your time and energy.

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

I think we all do better if we can find opportunities to serve others in practical ways. I'm the glad the shelter is no-kill.
Definitely yes to both of these! TBH, I'm not sure I could work in a shelter that wasn't no-kill, since I would end up adopting every pet that was in danger of being euthanized, and end up with, like, 30 animals. XD