hc_bingo card

[thisbluespirit]

trope_bingo has been being rather lovely in terms of giving me reason to type or make things, tying in with already existing prompts and so on, but not in being stressful. So I got tempted into also signing up for hc_bingo - Hurt/Comfort Bingo.

Which may seem a little odd (the complete list of prompts is such a mix of things that really interest and attract me and things that terrify me to death and paralyse my muse), but I do like hurt/comfort, even if I think my definition in my head is not always the same as other people's. And there's a lot of room for interpretation (literal or metaphorical etc. etc.) and it doesn't have to be hurt/comfort, it can be hurt or comfort, and it doesn't have to be shippy. So... could be very interesting. I like working through bad stuff in fic (or at least certain kinds), although not necessarily "fixing" it. I do tend to find it cathartic/helpful. (I was listing what to veto and then realising that some I'd already written - I've got two fics that contain possible suicide attempts, for instance. It just looks much weirder when it's a prompt. "Ooh, let's write a nice torture fic, why not?")

And this morning my card turned up

bodyguards	sacrifice	tentacles	substance addiction	theft
panic attacks	forced soulbonding	trust issues	prostitution	cages
alien abduction	sexual extortion	WILD CARD	torture	loss of vision
bullet wounds	unrequited pining	branding	accidents	plane crash
trapped between realities	natural disasters	tyranny / rebellion	surprise sexswap	runaways

At first sight (and I already did not only the three allowed vetos but begged for no specific rl medical conditions, which the mods clearly and kindly took notice of) I thought it was a horrible card and wanted to send it back. However, I can see at least three possible bingos now, and most of the squares are scaring me less the more I look at them. It might eventually be quite a fun card. Well, for a given definition of fun that includes torture, prostitution, bullet wounds, plane crashes and natural disasters.

(Actually, this is making me think... is there an Apocalypse Bingo? Are there enough end of the world scenarios yet? There must be. That would be kind of depressingly hilarious. End your fandoms one by one by new and inventive means! Or just the old perennials, of course.)

But where trope_bingo has been fitting into lots of things, this is less obvious. I think, if I look, I'll probably come up with some very interesting matches from my 500 Prompts (and, yes, I have not forgotten those. They're just ongoing for as long as I LJ now, probably). However, if anyone's got any suggestions, I'd be interested. (I make no promises, this isn't a meme - this is very much a for-me thing.)

At the moment, I'm thinking the L-R diagonal might be easiest, or vertical down the centre. Both end verticals aren't too bad either, and the R-L diagonal is do-able, too.

The ones that I particularly dislike, because it's hard to be too metaphorical or step away from rl are panic attacks, substance abuse and plane crash. (I think I actually hate plane crash the most. Unless it could be interpreted as "space ship crash" and I suspect not, unless it's very much a space equivalent of a modern plane. Which I suppose it could be...) You can do vids, art, recs, meta, icons, picspams etc., too, though, so it is really very flexible.

The Wild Card, though, will be "Dystopia" because I had a thing I wanted to do for that. And I've got "Trapped between realities". Now there's a really tough one for an S&S fan...

I was going to talk about my trope_bingo progress, but mainly my current plans of what's written in rough go like so:

Indecent proposal - have rough version, too weird to talk about, see how it turns out
Crossover - rough done, but it'd sound too weird to talk about. Or misleadingly more exciting
au: other - such a BAD idea, may not happen, probably will. Can't possibly mention it.
against all odds - so silly and obscure, maybe it doesn't count for the trope? Maybe I should do a House of Eliott Picspam/fandom manifesto instead (because that really does embody the trope. Two women against the world, succeeding when all the annoying men tell them no!!)
deathfic - is this cheating? Probably.
sharing a bed - can't decide who's the funniest pair to focus on. (I'd like to do Five and Tegan, but I kind of did that once before, a long time ago in Storytime. But I haven't done it out in the real fanfic world... Or I could have, say, Vila and Avon snarking at each other all night and probably complaining about the bed, the room, the circumstances, each other, the universe, Blake... And there are probably other equally entertaining mismatched pairs, too.) (What? What? Was I supposed to write pr0n here? Sorry. ;-p)

But I am planning a Metafiction rec-set, and possibly an Epistolary one, which should be fun.

Comments

[john_amend_all]

'Which two characters should share a bed?' seems like a possible discussion post for dw_straybunnies.

Some possibles I thought of: Leela & D84; Brigadier & Three (or the Brigadier and anyone other than Fiona and Doris, really). Rose and Martha would end badly; if Martha thought the Doctor wouldn't shut up about how he misses Rose, it'd be ten times worse the other way round.

I've got a fragment of fic somewhere where Victoria and Zoë find they have to share a bed, and Victoria doesn't see what the big deal is — in her time, it's a much more common practice.

And then there's Ancelyn and Mordred...

"Craven cur, thou hast stolen the covers again. Art thou so weak that thou canst not withstand the cold of the night?"

"Ha! What care I for the words of a man who cannot sleep if his mother tell him not a bedtime story?"

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: I love the Ancelyn and Mordred one - not something I'd be up to writing, but that's just great. :-)

[seriesfive]

One could make a ficathon of it's own out of it. :D

The 'Share-A-Bed_Fest'...

[thisbluespirit]

"There were ten in the bed and the little one said..." :lol:

[seriesfive]

Now, why do I think of snow-white and the seven dwarfs now? Also... it#s somewhat disorientating reading and writing comments on dw and lj simultaneously ;)

[thisbluespirit]

:loL:

I was immediately thinking of multiple Doctors, actually. Even though there are nearly Twelve now. (I am, after all, still a DW fan at heart.)

And, um, well... sorry?

[seriesfive]

I think I've once read a story with multiple doctors sharing a bed...though I can't remember were and when. It's really my own fault, I didn't even notice it until right now :)

[thisbluespirit]

PS. Nothing to do with anything here, but I have now actually started watching Crusade. (I@m 3 eps in.) Yesterday evening, I was tired, so did a bit more screencapping of the House of Eliott and look...



I had a feeling I'd seen him somewhere before. :loL: (That's 1920s Galen for you.)

[seriesfive]

Oh hello. :) I think I haven't seen the actor in anything else but Crusade so far, no that's not true I've seen him in an episode of Fringe. He was playing one of those observers. Btw. the episode order of crusade is a complete mess. Also, I hope you don't find it too terrible. There are some really terrible aspects to the series, but I have learnt to ignore them...

[john_amend_all]

"Nine rooms, no more," the landlord said,
"Have I to offer you.
To eight of you a single bed,
But the ninth must serve for two!"

[seriesfive]

"Wer hat von meinem Tellerchen gegessen, wer hat auf meinem Stühlchen gesessen, war hat in meinem Bettchen geschlafen?"

[thisbluespirit]

:-)

Oh, I'm enjoying it so far. I mean, I've heard mixed things about it, so I went in cautiously, but I enjoyed B5 and I'm enjoying spending a bit more time in that universe. I'm still only 4 eps in on a first watch, so beyond that I can't say.

Which order should I be watching the episodes in? They have felt a bit disjointed so far - as if far more time has passed, especially between ep 1 and 2, than you would expect.

[seriesfive]

This is from the JMS Forum:

Revised Broadcast Order

Racing the Night
The Needs of Earth
The Memory of War
The Long Road
Visitors from Down the Street
The Well of Forever
Each Night I Dream of Home
Patterns of the Soul
The Path of Sorrows
Ruling from the Tomb
The Rules of the Game
War Zone
Appearances and Other Deceits

Here's a commentary to that order from someone who seems to know what he#s talking about:

Joseph DeMartino
12-24-2006, 09:21 AM
Because not all of the planned episodes for S1 were ever filmed, and because some of the unfilmed episodes were intended to air in between episodes that were filmed, and because TNT made some irrational demands in the middle of shooting what was shot, there is no "best" or "correct" order. JMS had also planned reshoots and line dubbing in some cases to paper over the seams left in the story by the changes, but these never happened, either.

The original airdate order is worthless. It bunched all 8 "new uniform" shows at the start of the season, regardless of chronology, character development and logic.

The revised airdate order is JMS's preferred order. It ignores the change in uniforms, and plays 11 of the episodes in the best available order. "War Zone", which JMS would have preferred not to do at all, was shoved near the back of the order. "Appearances" which is half the explanatoin for the uniform change that JMS was ignoring was slotted in as the last episode in part because it was now irrelevant, and in part so that the Sci-Fi Channel's first run of the series didn't end on an episode that sucked. ("War Zone") I suspect the JMS would have preferred "War Zone" not be aired at all, but Sci-Fi was paying for all 13 episodes and they were certainly going to air it, so he made the best of a bad situation when they asked him what order to use.

The "chronological" order you found doesn't work any better than the TNT order. In story terms it really makes sense to ignore the uniform change and forget "War Zone" was ever filmed. :)

For anyone coming to Crusade for the first time, I would actually recommend something entirely different - simply watch the first five episodes filmed, in the order they were shot.

Racing the Night
The Memory of War
The Needs of Earth
Visitors from Down the Street
Each Night I Dream of Home


These are the closest thing JMS's idea of what the show should have been. That should be everyone's introduction to the series, without any overlay of the later episodes and TNT's ideas.

Then watch the whole series in JMS's preferred order. (I suppose everyone should watch "War Zone" once, just to see its sheer awfulness and redundancy, then never watch it again. ;))

Regards,

Joe

[thisbluespirit]

Wow. Oh my. That's complicated.

Since I'm four eps in and already hopelessly out of order, maybe I'll carry on as I am, but print or write this out and keep it in the DVD for a rewatch!!

[seriesfive]

Sounds sensible. I watched them in broadcast order, too. Nonetheless it's good to know that the order is wrong, because it explains all the inconsistencies (especially the uniform mess...)

[thisbluespirit]

I finished it today. (I liked it!) But mainly I am SO GLAD you told me about the episode order or I would have been very, very confused. I had no idea! The DVD ought to come with a note on it explaining it's stuck in its own temporal fracture or something.

:-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Have fun with that!

[thisbluespirit]

I will! Maybe I won't end up even with a bingo, but we'll see. :-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

You might surprise yourself!

[thisbluespirit]

True - I could do a whole bingo of David Collings characters suffering in their various ways! :lol:

(ETA: But then that wouldn't surprise anyone, even me by this point...)

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Sharing a bad is so much more fun without sex in the fic. I'm with you there! :D

[thisbluespirit]

Which, just in case it ever happens to us two in rl, is a relief to know!

;-D

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Exactly!! :)

[thisbluespirit]

You're a brave one, far braver than me obviously. The idea of h/c bingo truly terrifies me - in fact more than I thought it would, but after looking at that card...

But I think you're braver than me, because you kink_bingo card frightens the life out of me! And to be honest, that card is scary, especially first thing in the morning, but the more I look at it, the more I see possibilities - and the prompts are defined like the tropes at trope_bingo (and there are plenty of ways to interpret those even so), they're just prompts as stands.

I have an odd relationship with h/c, as in I like it in my own way, but I only rarely find stuff by other people that appeals to me. I can use a trope as a set up for a ship, but not "hurt" - but non shippily, I do explore those issues in my fic anyway, and how people interact as a result, and from there we get to my sort of hurt/comfort. :-)

I always thought I was a cheery sort of writer, but, actually I go quite quietly dark a lot when I'm not watching myself. And I have a few bleak fandoms - B7, S&S, Spooks and so on that have stuff going on canonically.

But, yes, once you kind of turn that "I write this quite a lot" round to having those issues as prompts, it does look really, really weird (to me, anyway). And this doesn't have anything I vetoed.

sharing a bed: I'd like to see Seven and Dr Elizabeth Klein,

Now, that you'll have to write yourself, as I have never listened to a Klein audio! ;-p

Hmm, so there's room for someone to do a Apocalypse mini-bingo, then? Heh.

[thisbluespirit]

I don't know if you're aware of it, but trope bingo does have a themed mini-card challenge during amnesty. Can I use your idea? An apocalypse mini-card selection sound rather nice, though I have only vague ideas for sub-tropes right now.

*totally hasn't been looking up apocalypses on TV Tropes etc.*

Okay, some of these overlap, or aren't v good names, but between me brainstorming, wiki and TV Tropes, I have these:

War
Pandemic
Zombies
Environmental disaster - could be broken down further: fire, tidal wave, ice age, rising water levels, loss of atmosphere etc.
Alien attack
Nuclear holocaust
Meteor strike
exhaustion of planetary resources
second coming/horseman of the apocalypse/prophecy
end of the universe
over/under population
victory of the Dark Side
entropy
Horde of alien locusts
omnicidal maniac
apocalypse cultists
Gaia's Revenge/Earth takes vengeance
robots/androids take over/attack
technology takes over/attacks/renders humanity unnecessary
vampires
hostile terraforming
doomsday device/megabomb
supernova/stellar disaster
human incompetence


:-)

ETA: Because I just realised you described the apocalypse card as "rather nice". (Yay! Let us KILL ALL THE THINGS! :lol:)