Memes ahoy!

[thisbluespirit]

Did I say there would be spammage? Well, here it is, but this is it (for the moment).

Memed from pitry and justice_turtle:

A meme: Give me one fandom I write/rec/read AND a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, etc) or another time period (Ancient Rome, Regency England, etc). I will then explain the gist of the story I would write for that AU.


Another Meme: Give me a pairing and I will tell you:
1. What they most commonly do during sex
2. Who has prettier hair
3. What they argue about most often
4. Who'd cope best if the other one died
5. The happiest plausible happily-ever-after I can think of for them.

(You do need to accept that I will probably side-step answering #1 of the second meme.)

And can I add that pitry's response to the suggestion of a UNIT pirate AU is highly entertaining and awesome?



persiflage_1 selected 5 of my icons in a meme:

1.
Martha icon by just_say_maybe. I needed a Martha icon at the time, and liked this one. What more can I say?

2.

Made by kathyh. I love this because it's not only a Giles icon that refs the Discworld's Librarian, but appropriate when I'm talking about being a librarian. And just generally as a 'shocked' icon, too. It's stayed on my userpics for a long time now.

3.

An all-pupose icon for fantasy, writing etc., that I made from a Dungeons & Dragons screencap. It isn't a quote, just text I put on it. I still quite like it, whereas I usually get fed up with my own icons very quickly.

4.

Another one of mine. Um. One of my "I think this is terribly amusing" icons I make occasionally that no one else thinks is funny. (Like my HoE French and Saunders icon.) I am so witty, not. And Silver does lend himself to silly text icons very nicely.

5.

One of the Big Finish icons I made lately. If LJ hand't been silly, I'd have posted them yesterday. This one's from Chimes of Midnight (probably still my favourite BFA). It also amuses me. I won't explain - if you don't know, you need to listen to the audio. It is very good, so you should.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

*giggles* I think the Silver icon is pretty amusing - but we share a similar sense of humour, I think. (And yes, I did laugh at the HoE F&S icon too!)

Chimes is the awesomest Xmas BF audio ever - not LEAST 'cos it's written by Rob 'Writing god' Shearman! ♥

Kindly pick some of my iconses, so I can play again please! :D

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, that's nice to know! :-)

Big Finish will have to go some to oust Chimes as my favourite audio. There is some serious competition - but it's just so marvellous and creepy and well written and funny - and it's Eight and Charley.

I was trying to avoid doing that - for you, I will, though! Provided you at least give me a pairing or a fandom & AU for one of the other two memes (to keep me entertained). :-p

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

:D

My other really top fave BF audio? Jubilee - also written by Rob 'the god' Shearman!

Thanks!

Um, okay - a pirate AU of Sapphire and Steel! :D :D

[thisbluespirit]

:loL: Oh, well, i really asked for that, didn't I? It's the prompt I gave to justice_turtle just because it was evil and impossible...

Yes, Jubilee is also awesome. I'm not sure what my second fave is - either that, or Pirates, or the One Doctor, or something.

Iconses will be selected in the morning. :-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

LOL Really? Wow! Clearly we're Brain Twins, then! :D

Jubilee rocks!

Okie doke!

iconses

[thisbluespirit]

Re: iconses

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Interesting choices. Thought you might have picked some of my newer ones. I'm waiting on someone else picking 5 for me, so I'll do the meme again once I have both selections.

Re: iconses

[thisbluespirit]

Well, avoiding those that had been chosen, the ones we'd already discussed, and the ones I'd made - those were just the ones that stood out. I suppose because they're mainly things I like too!

Re: iconses

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Fair enough! Meme's posted, anywho!

[justice-turtle.livejournal.com]

REVENGE BY PROXY!!!!! *bwahahahaha* ;D

(Clearly I need JJ's Delgado!Master icon for this post. But that would really mix you up. XD)

I'll have "B7 wherein everybody is animals" for the first meme, please, and Doctor/TARDIS for the second. :-)

[thisbluespirit]

Yeah, I know - cosmic karma or something. :-)

And okayyy... I am secretly not that fond of anthropomorphic thingies (although I did read some and things) - by and large I prefer people as people and animals as animals.

Nevertheless, I started thinking about the classic forest animal type... and couldn't allocate animals. I thought Vila should be a squirrel - but it's totally the wrong colouring for him. Blake's probably a bear or a badger.

So, then I thought about a gang of alley cats fighting back against the oppressive forces of rich pets led by a white Persian, which was a nice idea, and highly cute... until I thought about it. No. Just, no, no, no. (One day, if you see it all you will understand why.)

So, that left rats fighting in the sewer... why would I want that?

So, I fail utterly. You can give me another if you want. Sorry.

1. The mind boggles.
2. The Doctor. The TARDIS doesn't usually have any, and the Doctor has 11 different sets to choose from.
3. Who's fault it is they never get to where they're supposed to be going.
4. Urgh. I don't think either of them would cope well. Probably the Doctor - he can move on in some way, the TARDIS would be stuck.
5. Canon! They travel on together, having adventures. Yay.

[justice-turtle.livejournal.com]

'So, I fail utterly. You can give me another if you want. Sorry.'

Hm, I guess I didn't need Pers to have my revenge for me after all. ;-) (Actually, I have a bit of an idea for S&S!pirates - I've just to write it up. So many backed-up comments, oy. *g*)

Um... UNIT dating AU is right out, because all the ones I can think of have been done. :-( What about NuWho S1 as a UNIT-dating-type thing, with Rose as an Elizabethan serving-maid or something?

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: An AU S1 that some people would go for, I should think - where Rose was a buxom serving wench in an Elizabethan tavern instead of a 21st C shopgirl. And therefore never helped the Doctor defeat the Autons, because of the lack of plastic, never got to travel with him, but probably still failed to marry Mickey. The Doctor had to find someone else to take his mind off the Time War, but at least his next incarnation was spared a lot of moping and angst.

[john_amend_all]

A complete tangent, but...

"How long is this gonna go on for?" Rose demanded.

"As long as I deem necessary," Lilith de Tempscire replied, her attention fixed on the tape measure. "Hmm. I think some padding may be called for."

"Padding?" Rose repeated.

"My dear child, you cannot be a serving wench unless you are suitably buxom."

"You know what you are?" Rose tried to lean forward, but the Sisters' grip was like iron. "You're a control freak. And a loony. And you can shove that stupid wand—"

"And saucy, of course," Lilith added offhandedly. "But in that respect, you have amply proved yourself."

[thisbluespirit]

:-)

And, seriously? I suppose I haven't been paying enough attention but I'd supposed Rose to be fairly well qualified on both counts.

[john_amend_all]

I've spent ages trying to reply to this and stay within the bounds of good taste :-) Offhand I wouldn't have thought of Rose as buxom, but having seen pictures of Billie Piper in other rôles (including her turn as Cassandra in New Earth), yes, she probably could pull it off given the right costume.

Sapphire & Steel Pirate AU

[thisbluespirit]

Clearly if S&S were a Pirate AU, the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything would have nothing on them. They would not be robbing and pillaging, they would sailing after ghost ships and investigating the Bermuda Triangle and sunken vessels and things.

Sapphire and Steel are simply too Cool to do action-y piratical things, and would naturally spend a lot of time posing beautifully on the deck (it would be like a random 1980s pop video). If the weather was bad, they might have to tie themselves to the mast or the wheel to continue posing without losing dignity. Not, of course, that Sapphire wouldn't get into the spirit of things with an appropriate pirate outfit (including an eyepatch for at least two minutes, before she got fed up with it, or Steel raised an eyebrow). They would probably do some things towards running the ship (like taking the wheel or looking through the telescope), but there would be quite a lot of shipwrecks.

Silver might be a tad more useful at the sailing side of things - until he got bored and started taking something vital to pieces. (Half of the shipwrecks coincidentally happen shortly after Silver saying, "Whoops...") Luckily, Lead is willing to be a bit more practical and will also do some almost piratey things like singing sea-shanties and drinking rum. Silver is, however, very good at finding buried treasure.

Re: Sapphire & Steel Pirate AU

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh lor'!! :D :D

Re: Sapphire & Steel Pirate AU

[thisbluespirit]

How else could it go? :-D

Re: Sapphire & Steel Pirate AU

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

It couldn't go any other way.

[john_amend_all]

OK. Fandom and AU: Downton Abbey, as toddlers, using the Look Who's Talking rules loose guidelines.

As for the pairing, my first thought was to frob a random pairing generator until it came up with something really brain-explody and then claim "but it was random, honest!" But I'm too nice: Jamie / Victoria.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, I never really get toddler AUs, unless they are merely a pretext for Storytime, but nevertheless: Thomas would be the one who goes round pinching the others and stealing their sweets, Violet and Isobel would have violent squabbles, and Mary would have tantrums. Everyone else would be too cute to be true.

Jamie/Victoria:
1. Victoria is shocked that anyone asked.
2. Probably Victoria.
3. Whether or not it's safe to go out.
4. Jamie. (No disrespect, but while he'd be upset, he'd clearly just find some other handy girl fairly quickly.)
5. Well, there was a S6b and after it, they settled in some reasonably civilised corner of history and, yep, lived happily ever after.

[john_amend_all]

No reason why this particular toddler AU shouldn't be a pretext for Storytime. With Little Edith complaining that Big Edith is hardly ever in it, and Little Branson complaining that he's always a woodcutter, and why can't he be the handsome prince?

I did wonder if the answer to meme 2 question 1 would be "feel guilty" or "lie back and think of England" :-)

[thisbluespirit]

True, but it's probably best not to go there...

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

Sarah/Harry!

[thisbluespirit]

:-)

1. I don't know, but she definitely prefers not to be called old girl at any point before, during or after.
2. Ooh, tough. Sarah, because it waves perfectly round her face. (But Harry's is nice and curly. Still, Sarah, just.)
3. Harry being old-fashioned, Sarah having to investigate things and put herself in danger. The washing up. Nobody fails to argue about the housework.
4. Sarah? Well, she seems to have done ok.
5. Tough, if they mean in canon. Either, they got together and it was wonderful, and then he died. Or just possibly they have been secretly married all this time... but still he has to be missing or dead now. But they are lovely anyway.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Love that last icon, I do :)

Okayy..... Blakes 7, urban fantasy AU.

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! :-)

You're just a bit evil, you know that? ;-p This could take some thought...

B7 Urban Fantasy

[thisbluespirit]

(I realised, doing this, that even though I have a reasonable idea of the Urban Fantasy tropes, I've never read any, unless I can count Artemis Fowl, but I suspect not... However, I do know that you must never, ever spell magic or fairy in the normal way. :-D)

Set in a decaying post-industrial London (that looks a lot like the late 1970s), the corrupt and repressive authorities are cracking down on any supernatural elements, which they say are dangerous. The person in charge of this is really a faery/faerie/fae/fairie/faeireyie queen herself using the humans to destroy her own kind. And to obtain the most up to date fashions, obviously. She has limitless access to Oxford Street and Bond Street.

A group of criminals stage an escape and are forced into the dodgy underworld beneath the Docklands, which is inhabited by the supernatural elements and Blake obviously decides to fight against the authorities to free them and bring justice. As ever, there is much snarking as nobody else really wants to much, until they are joined by an exiled faery with telepathic powers. They find a faery-built submarine and zip up and down the Thames causing mayhem while pursued by the corrupt and brutal Travis of the River Police. They try to find the mysterious Orac (who might be a mage or a majickal/magycal/maggickkal computer or just a jumped up goblin in a box. It's very downbeat and it rains a lot. But everyone's very sarcastic about life, the universe and everything.

(B7 tends to do well as an AU. Even when I'm really not taking it entirely seriously... I'm sorry about poking fun about the tendency for quirky spelling. I do get why they do it.)

Re: B7 Urban Fantasy

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful... I would soooo read that (and file off the details and I reckon it would make a good original novel.

Love the 'late 1970s' and Orac, oh yes...

Re: B7 Urban Fantasy

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! :-)

Re: B7 Urban Fantasy

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I came looking for this after you told Vila about it and agree that this would make a great story.

What is the reason behind the spelling? At least it's not full of meaningless apostrophes like a lot of fantasy and SF. ;-)

I'm encouraged by the response to Vila this week and I'll try to write more for him.

May I friend you?

Re: B7 Urban Fantasy

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks. Actually, i don't know for certain, but I've always assumed that if you're writing a dark, sort of fantasy-noir on the rainy streets of a city/in its dodgy underworld, you want to make it clear that your fairies are not the cissy sort that hang around at the bottom of the garden. Then again, it's often written by US writers and there does seem to be a fashion for faeries and magick or magyck over there, generally - maybe for variety, maybe the same sort of reason as above. I... *looks guilty* mocked what I know not. :-D

Good - daft, I know, but it cheered me up no end to find there the other morning. And I'm off to friend you now - if I wasn't ridiculously shy about these things, I would probably have asked, oh, about the first time I appeared on b7friday and you were pleased to see another Vila fan. (I mean, I think you were. That was a while ago... :lol:)

Re: B7 Urban Fantasy

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Friended you! And it's always good to find another Vila fan. :-D

It's late here but I'll probably write a post for Vila tomorrow. Actually I was thinking he could sometimes use b7friday ideas or those writers' block things if he needs some inspiration. :-)

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Press Gang in King Arthur's court!

To Kill A Dragon

[thisbluespirit]

For a moment, I was stuck on this, trying to allocate characters, and then realised I was being too literal, and actually it fitted perfectly. (Did you know that one of the first things Spike ever says to Lynda is that he'd kill a dragon for her? :-D)

If the Gazette were the Round Table, then never was a ruler more despotic in pursuit of getting her knights to do good deeds. Kenny and Sarah are her two most loyal and dependable knights, Spike is her consort, probably originally an outlaw of some sort - or maybe more likely the court jester turned hero. Colin is the (financial) wizard and Tiddler is a squire. Frazz is just really hoping no one will notice him and trying to get away with being court astrologer. They fight on behalf on the remants of the Roman Empire, civilisation blah-di-blah (Mr Sullivan, Matt Kerr and Chrissie) against oppressive bullying knights, corrupt merchants, nasty rulers (councillors) and the occasional dragon and sometimes good people because they're in the wrong.

They don't like weapons, though - they believe the pen is mightier than the sword, so quite how that works I don't know, but it does. The right word can go a long way.

Of course, in true Arthurian tradition, the circle breaks apart as Lynda's most loyal knights leave in pursuit of other quests, her wizard sells out and Spike betrays her (or she betrays him, depending), leaving her to fight the very worst dragon of all on her own. But whatever happens, she will go down fighting.

(This fits so well.)

ETA: Sorry about all the editing, but I also remembered that halfway through they also become independent from Rome.

Re: To Kill A Dragon

[pitry.livejournal.com]

This is magnificent! It's incredible how well it works!

(I admit... I did aim at "King Arthur's Court" as a different period... but this is so very entertaining, that I don't mind at all!)

Re: To Kill A Dragon

[thisbluespirit]

As a different period? Which one did you have in mind? I mean, I was more picking up the general Arthurian cycle than being historical, but vaguely in the 6th C as usual - a last ditch attempt at championing Romano-British values versus those terrible Angles, Saxons and Jutes etc.

It really does work, though - who'd have guessed? :-D