Borrowed from

sharpest_asp, because of course I ought to be working up a couple of exchange signups:

Here are 15 quotes; your job is to guess the movies from which they come.  (For extra style points, identify the actor or character who's speaking.)  A couple of notes on this list, which may or may not be of help: purely for amusement value, I sorted the list alphabetically by film title.  The films date from 1965 to 2015; five are musicals, two are Westerns, and three are Disney movies (by which I mean originated by Disney proper, not from franchises acquired by Disney over time).  All were theatrical releases, although one in particular was an indie project with a narrow distribution window in its initial run.  OTOH, that one also had a couple of other lives on cable and DVD (I bought my disc at a local supermarket/dept. store chain), so it's not hopelessly obscure, only partially so (and worth looking up, IMO).

#1: “I guess a curse just ain’t what it used to be, huh, sir?”

 

#2: “Throwing insults into the mix will not do anyone any good.”

#4: “There goes the 12:20.”
      “At 12:20.  What a terrible time to break a perfect record.”

#5: “He’s altogether a marvelous man.  And he understands the Irish.”

#6 “...there’s a big ostrich-looking dragon chewing on the Chrysler Building, and every tree in Central Park is eating people!”

#7: “You can’t be a leprechaun; you’re too tall!”

#9: “This entire band is under arrest.  You’re confined to quarters until further notice.”

#11: “...there had been abuse in my family, but it was mostly musical in nature.  My father used to lock me away in a room with nothing but the Percy Faith recording of Bim Bam Boom, and then send me to bed with nothing but dessert.”

#13: “Four. The only permissible recorded music shall be the following: Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Jack Jones, the marches of John Philip Sousa or The Star-Spangled Banner.”

#14 “Dave, you should run.”

#15: “How do you think people responded to the prospect of imminent doom? They gobbled it up like a chocolate eclair! They didn't fear their demise, they repackaged it!”

## Solved ##

 

XX - sharpest_asp (Batman) • #3: “Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”

XX - malkingrey  (The Great Muppet Caper) • #8: “It’s exposition, dear; it has to go somewhere.”

XX - sharpest_asp  (Maverick)  • #10: “Now I’ll bet I can change your mind.  I promise that I will lose for at least an hour.”

 

XX - sanguinity   (Murder By Decree) • #12: “You squashed my pea.”

 

A degree of fuss shows up, not surprisingly, as LJ updates its terms of service with new language [specifically, Russian(!)].  As I observed last time around, I am not inclined to panic unduly about that in itself, although I admit to a degree of startlement at having to agree to be bound by an agreement in a language I don't understand and can't read.

However, one observer points out a clause that makes my writer-persona's eyebrows go up:

If User participates in any rankings or if User’s Content is used in any editorial projects of the Service, User provides to the Administration an additional authorisation to modify, shorten and amend his/her Content, to add images, a preamble, comments or any clarifications to his/her Content while using it, and in certain cases based on the Service functions, an authorisation to use User’s Content anonymously.

Essentially, their observation (which I think is valid) is that this amounts to a license  not just to re-use anything one has posted to one's LJ account,  but to rewrite and alter it as they see fit without permission or credit to the original writer -- including fanfic, for instance.  Now, ToS agreements often include a non-exclusive license to republish content, but the rewrite-and-modify aspects of the language are rather more sweeping than I've seen in most ToS language...and also, this is written under Russian law, and I wouldn't want to bet on Russian copyright protection being as robust as it is in the US and UK, for instance.

I would very much like to see the OTW legal team comment on this provision. In the interval -- on one hand, I'm not leaving LJ *yet*, and I don't intend to delete anything I've posted to LJ as yet (I don't think it's likely that the Russian Overlords will reach backward into LJ's archives for drabbles).  But I do not think that, under the new ToS, I'm going to be willing to post or crosspost new fanfic on the LiveJournal side, and I would encourage others to think carefully before doing so.  (Holmestice participants, I am definitely looking at you!)

Well, for relative values of "popular", anyway.  At any rate, some observations on the new live-action iteration of Disney's Beauty & the Beast:

First and foremost, this is very much its own movie -- although it's spun from the same root, the fabric of this narrative is distinct from what you've seen in the animated version and/or stage production.  (I have seen the stage version -- specifically, the first national touring production, which inherited some of its cast from the original Broadway run.  I also own the Broadway cast album for the show, as well as a set of CDs including not just the animated soundtrack, but additional developmental material by Ashman and Menken.)

Think of it this way: the animated feature is essentially Belle's story -- she is the primary focus around whom everyone else orbits.  It's the closest of the three to a pure romance, and the one of the three that really acknowledges the passage of time as the central relationship develops (compare "Something There" in each version, and you'll see what I mean).  By contrast, in the stage version, it's Lumiere who's at the center of things -- it's his musical presence and status as nominal host that focuses the action, particularly in the second half of the show, driven in part by the expanded attention given to the Beast's houseful of transformed servants (notably in the long number surrounding "Human Again").

This shifts again in the live-action movie: this time, it's Gaston who's chief catalyst and motivator.  It's Gaston, much more of a direct threat much earlier on than we've previously seen, who propels Belle and Maurice into the events that lead them to the Beast's castle.  In this version, what happens to Maurice and to Belle is in significant part driven by Gaston's active antagonism, and likewise the Beast's actions are driven in part -- if less overtly -- by Gaston's influence.  This is an altogether nastier, darker, more knowingly Evil Gaston than he's been before, and the whole movie is colored by that difference.

Which is not to say that all is dark and grim and moody, because it's not.   "Be Our Guest" and the post-climax grand ball are still spectacular, the banter between Lumiere and Cogsworth is still delicious, and Kevin Kline injects some wonderfully dry wit into Maurice's character.  Indeed, this is a more character-driven film than either of its prior counterparts -- we get more back story for all of the principals, including additional songs for Maurice and the Beast (in fact, very little music is borrowed from the stage musical).  There is also some further context for the spell and its effects, with ramifications that are likely to generate a good deal of fanfic.

All in all, I liked the movie a great deal.  Ironically, the one area where it doesn't quite sparkle is the singing, which just can't quite compete with the iconic performances from the animated original (although the live version of "Gaston" comes close).  Don't get me wrong -- it's mostly very good, just not really at the level of either of its predecessors.
 

 I  had originally planned to see Skull Island today, but matinee showtimes worked out to make Beauty & the Beast a better fit. (I definitely recommend the new version, but this is not that post.)

No, this is the post about the trip home again on the bus, and the trio of teenagers who occupied  the seats across from  mine. There were two girls, one with dark hair and washed-to-almost-white denim jeans, the other not quite blonde with a black skirt  and top plus white sweater.  Their companion was a young man with neatly waved wheaten hair and pale grey jeans. All in all, not quite clean-cut enough to be Mormons on mission, but considerably more tame of dress than one tends to see in the weekend bus-riding teen population out here in the burbs....

...except that one of them was carrying  a small rectangular shopping bag clearly labeled and striped as coming from...

...wait for  it...

Victoria's Secret.

And it wasn't either of the girls.

And what I realized only just now: there is no Victoria's Secret  in the shopping center where we all boarded that bus.

Clearly there's a story here, but I am not at all sure what it is.

And now the reveal has gone live, and it's time to talk about what I wrote for Yuletide this year:

The Secrets of Isis
Fandom: Amelia Peabody - Elizabeth Peters
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None for triggers.  Spoilers for Peters' novel Guardians of the Horizon (the second Lost Oasis adventure).
Words: ~1400
Characters: Nefret Forth Emerson, Daria (Amelia Peabody)
Additional Tags: Misses Clause Challenge, Isis is a perfectly respectable goddess, Lost Oasis, Footnotes

This was an interesting project. The prompt specifically asked for a focus on Nefret, and although I initially considered looking at her time in Switzerland and/or medical school (and thus essentially on her own) I found I couldn't resist the call of the Lost Oasis.  That immediately made me think of Daria, who really doesn't get enough of the right kind of screen time in Guardians of the Horizon, and of using Daria's perspective to supply a different angle on Nefret's character.  In the end, the story is really pretty much evenly balanced between the two young women, which is not precisely what the prompt had called for, but the recipient seems to like the story and I'm reasonably satisfied with it.

I should mention that the bit of whimsy underlying the second footnote was a fortuitous happenstance.  I had typed in the title for the piece late in one writing session, and only realized what I'd done when I looked at it again on reopening the document the following day.  At which point I asked myself "Do I really want to go there?", to which the obvious answer was "Whyever not?"  (Mostly we should all be grateful that Sethos never got hold of the item in question.)

A quick note relative to current developments on the LiveJournal side (specifically, concerns about LJ's servers being migrated to Darkest Russia):

This journal has for some time been mirrored on both DW (where I write most/all of the posts) and LJ (where I started), and I read my friends-lists/circles regularly on both sides of that mirror.  I expect to continue to do just that for as long as the lights are on.  Any content I post will be available on the DW side if the lights go off on LJ, and given that this is almost purely a fannish journal, I see little likelihood that Koschei the Deathless et al will choose to come after me.

Having said that: I do encourage anyone on the LJ side who is concerned to create a DW presence (there are tools whereby one can import an existing LJ over to DW essentially intact, thereby preserving the content), to add me to your DW reading page, and/or to let me know if you have a non-mirrored DW account to which I ought to connect.  The DW visual interface is as highly customizable as LJ's is (being built from the same base code), and though the vocabulary is a little different, the underlying structure is much the same.  At the moment, one need not have an invite code to create a DW account; if that changes (which it might if there's a mass exodus), any spare invite codes I happen to acquire will be mentioned here and available by request.

An especially joyful Yuletide this year for me: I had been morally certain that the count showing two Yuletide stories for me was a system bug (the second showed up right after the restore of all those accidentally purged assignments), but lo and behold I discovered two stories under my virtual tree when the archive opened. And both of them are seriously nifty....

First we have Oz (well, technically, mostly Philadelphia with an eventual excursion ending up in Mo), featuring a really thoughtful and engaging look at two of my favorite characters, a very neat interpolation between several relatively obscure parts of Baum canon, and just exactly the right amount of emotional subtext between our protagonists.  I have certain suspicions about the authorship of this one....

Twin Properties
Written by: ??
Fandom: Oz - L. Frank Baum
Characters: Button-Bright, Polychrome
Rating: General Audiences
Words: ~4900
Warnings: none
Additional Tags: Reunions, Pre-ship, (if you want to read it like that)

 

 ////

And then we have an equally entertaining tale of my very favorite Forgotten Realms characters -- this one mostly sorcery rather than swordsmanship, with deviously complicated magic and a cleverly executed meeting between arch-wizard and arch-rogue that catches both characters very well indeed.  I have absolutely no idea who may have written this one, but I'm extremely happy to have gotten it.


The Amethyst Gate
Written by: ??
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, Songs & Swords - Elaine Cunningham
Rating: General Audiences
Words: ~4500
Warnings: none
Characters: Arilyn Moonblade, Danilo Thann, Elaith Craulnober, Khelben Arunsun

And here's the story I wrote for this latest round: hologram!Moriarty several years on, not where (or who) you'd expect him to be. I did a good deal of chuckling with evil glee when I was writing this one.

A Policeman's Lot Is Not A Happy One
Fandoms: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Professor Moriarty Series - Michael Kurland, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: James Moriarty, Madeleine Verlaine, Katherine Pulaski
Warnings: None for triggers.  Significant spoilers for ST:TNG episodes “Ship in a Bottle” and “Elementary, Dear Data”.
Words: ~2200
Additional Tags: Holodeck Character, Sherlock Holmes References, For Science!

"I must say, Professor, you've come a long way since we first met. I daresay nowadays you sound more like Sherlock Holmes himself than you do an evil mastermind."

"As it happens," Moriarty said, "there's a reason for that, but it will probably confuse you."

Playing catch-up: the story written for me in this season's Holmestice exchange was a delight -- all the cheerful roguery of the movie from which it's derived, plus bonus "Mary Morstan" and several cartons of canonical Easter eggs. 

The Design of the Four
Written by: SCFrankles
Fandom: Without a Clue (1988)
Rating: General Audiences
Characters: Reginald "Sherlock Holmes" Kincaid, John Watson, Lily "Mary Morstan" Aspinall (OC)
Words: ~7800
Warnings: none
Additional Tags: Humor, Community: holmestice

 

Note: A good deal of this text has been ported straight from last year’s letter, including a couple of recurring requests.  Things have been kind of hectic around here in recent weeks – and also, I find I actually rather like this particular introductory paragraph.

Greetings, O YuleScrivener, and welcome!  And also, thank you!  Where Yuletide is concerned, I am nothing if not a Requester Of The Seriously Obscure.  Thus I am always amazed when the technomancy of the matching process succeeds in finding a writer who shares my appreciation for said obscurity, and delighted on Christmas morning when a wonderful and wondrous story from that writer's (metaphorical) pen lands in my AO3 gift-folder.  We may just be setting out on this year's journey, but I know there's a happy ending to come, and I am grateful for it already.  Your work is (and will be) appreciated and valued, and I look forward to seeing its fruits.

These letters aren't getting any shorter, so while I've got detailed material farther down, I think it's only fair to give you the list of fandom requests up front.  So, those would be:

* Forgotten Realms: Songs & Swords – Elaine Cunningham (Arilyn)
* Legend (TV 1995) (Janos Bartok)
* The Ice Ghosts Mystery - Jane Louise Curry (any)
* Oz - L. Frank Baum (any)
* Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (Ivy)
* Young Wizards - Diane Duane (Carmela, Dairine)

General likes and dislikes

Feel free to wander backward through this journal and my fic on AO3 (linked to your left) to get an idea of my interests; what I write is very much also what I like to read -- and has, over time, added up to rather a variety of fandoms. My past Yuletide letters (and those for other exchanges) are tagged "dear santa" herein; see the "Yuletide" tag too, if you like.

To summarize, though: text-driven pluses for me include effective use of wit (aka banter aka snark, etc.), as well as strong characterization & dialogue. I value both respect for and clever use of canon (including well-developed AUs -- the plot-driven kind, not the baristas/highschoolers/alt-species kind). I thrive on UST (heavy on both U and T), and am neutral where gen/het/slash is concerned; if the pairing is well-developed, I'll read with an open mind.

I am also a sucker for the well-executed crossover, whether via oblique allusion or head-on fandom collision. Yuletide being Yuletide and Optional Details Being Optional, I have absolutely no expectations along this line...but if your muse's musings should happen to run in such a direction on their own initiative, feel free to encourage them. Again: the key word here is Optional.

None of my requests call specifically for mature/explicit content.  This doesn't mean I don't appreciate sizzling erotica/smut/porn; it's just that my fanfic-reading interests and my e/s/p-reading interests mostly don't tend to intersect.  That said, if your muse happens to take you into explicit territory in the context of one of these requests, I'm totally willing to follow along for the ride.  I have few outright personal squicks save for noncon, incest, or adult/child kinks so long as a given relationship is age- and canon-appropriate.  [See the requests for canon-specific notes.]

Character matching and prompts

Most often in exchanges, I request single characters.  This is not because I'm opposed to relationship-fic or multi-character stories – far from it. My goal is to give you greater flexibility in introducing additional characters, whether from those nominated or from wider canon. Even where I supply relatively specific prompts in a request, I want you to be able to shape the story; my suggestions are meant as springboards, not outlines.

Where I've requested multiple characters, I've given a specific note in each request as to whether it's an "either/or" request or not (different fandoms, different answers to that question).  As above, you're absolutely encouraged to bring in any additional canon characters (or OCs) you feel should be involved given the demands of your plot.

In a couple of cases here, I've left the character selection blank (there being no "Any" button on the offer side of the signup).  Any is pretty much still Any, though, and I've framed the prompts accordingly.

#### SPECIFIC REQUESTS ####

A note first: in past years, I've added a few additional notes to the text pasted from "Optional Details" in the signup form.  This year, I've gone the other way: all of the Optional Detail notes are included in the signup form proper, and what's here exactly reprises that content.  (It seems safer that way, and ensures that my officially matched writer sees all those notes.)

* Forgotten Realms: Songs & Swords – Elaine Cunningham (Arilyn)

It’s been some time since I’ve reread these, but they remain among my very favorite Forgotten Realms novels (and I've read fairly widely in that canon).  Even when matters become emotionally or physically challenging, Cunningham imbues these books with a degree of underlying optimism that makes the books fun to read.  (I recently came across the term "noblebright", coined as a counter-category to "grimdark"; I think maybe that's applicable here.)  Along with the wonderfully drawn characters, one of the things I like about this series is the magic: Arilyn’s moonblade, Dan’s eccentric uses for illusion, and so forth.  I’d love to see a tale in which untangling a magical problem or puzzle is the focus.

Two observations here in addition to the commentary from the request proper.  First: While we've matched specifically on Arilyn, I absolutely encourage you to bring in additional characters, nominated and otherwise, to fill out and complement your story.  Although this is Very Optional, since he's not in the tag set, I'd be especially happy to see Khelben Arunsen onstage.  I find I've somehow missed the moment in the larger Realms continuity when his status...changed, and I always found his role in this series enjoyable and provocative.  Second: having made the above comment, I'll note that as much as I like Arilyn and Danilo as a couple, we get enough of that relationship in canon that what I'm hoping for here is a somewhat different focus.  I don't mean to discourage you from bring Dan onstage; I'm just looking for something other than romance in this request.

* Legend (TV 1995) (Janos Bartok)

On one hand, much of the fun of this series is watching Our Heroes fence with one another, and I don't want to lose sight of that.  But I think here I'd like to see the Professor spread his own wings a little, purely to prove that he *can*.   There are depths to Janos Bartok that we didn't have time to plumb onscreen; let's explore that here -- though please do keep the tone light enough that we don't lose the roguish charm that makes this series what it is.

For Extremely Optional Bonus Points: one just knows that Bartok and a certain Prof. Wickwire of a certain other alt!Western universe must have or have had a long-standing professional rivalry....

* The Ice Ghosts Mystery - Jane Louise Curry (any)

This book is such an ensemble piece that I've not tried to pick among the available characters.  Just give me a solid "further adventures" story -- whether of foiling another Evil Science Plot, coping with school/academic politics, or simply wreaking cheerful familial havoc on some unsuspecting foreign metropolis.  Romance between Oriole and Gabriel is definitely on the table, too.

For Extremely Optional Bonus Points: I've always regarded the Birds as a deliberate homage to L'Engle's Austin and O'Keefe families, if in a slightly lighter vein.  What sort of conference and/or diabolical scheme might toss the two sets of characters into one another's orbit?


* Oz - L. Frank Baum (Button Bright, Polychrome)

[NOTE: I will be happy with a story featuring either *or* both of the selected characters.]

While I'm not at all opposed to revisionist or sideways looks at Ozian canon (I am, for instance, a huge admirer of Ryk Spoor's recent Polychrome), in the present context I think I'm looking for more traditional Oziana.  Keep Baum and the Famous Forty (I've read many but not all of these) in mind and you'll make me a happy reader.  That said, while I wouldn't be opposed to a story in which the above two characters develop into a couple, that's not at *all* why I picked them, and I'd be just as happy with a story where romance is wholly absent.  I'm fascinated on one hand by Button Bright's general disregard for magic (even when he has access to it), and by Polychrome's status as a being of almost pure magic, who seems sometimes a physical being and sometimes a nearly intangible one.   Neither character flusters easily, and I think it would be fun to see them confront a magical challenge together purely as a study in contrasts.

* Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (Ivy)

I've picked Ivy this year not because I'm not fond of Carmen (quite the contrary), but because Carmen takes up so much space in the admittedly small body of fic in this fandom -- and I'd like to see a little more from the ACME side of things in general, as well as from Ivy's perspective in particular.  I've also remarked before that one of my great fascinations with this series is the bond that develops between Carmen and the detectives as the show progresses; at times there's what I'd call a slightly maternal quality to Carmen's interest in Our Heroes, and I'd enjoy seeing that idea considered from Ivy's point of view.  I also can't help thinking that it's interesting that canon gives us essentially no information about Ivy's and Zack's parents...which might be because they're utterly ordinary, but could also have to do with some tragic past event -- or that fact that technically, Ivy and Zack are computer-generated avatars.

OTOH, if deep familial musings aren't your cup of tea, I will also be greatly pleased with rapid-fire casefic (infoscans optional) or a straightforward snark-and-action encounter.  One thing, though: I'd prefer strongly *not* to see a Carmen/Ivy romantic pairing; that one pushes a button for me.

* Young Wizards - Diane Duane (Carmela, Dairine)

[NOTE: I would strongly prefer a story featuring both characters, but a story featuring either one will satisfy this request.]

I chose Carmela and Dairine both because I like them individually and because canon gives us so very little that puts them together with one another -- which I find surprising, even granting the age difference.  I would very much like to see how they interact given an excuse and/or opportunity.  Additional characters welcome; suitably brain-bending crossovers totally welcome but emphatically not required.

With WIZARDS IN PLAY out, we have many of the answers we've wanted relative to Dairine and Roshaun, so I'm no longer deeply worried about excessive angst arising from that quarter.  It does occur to me that Dairine might find it easier to talk to Carmela about Roshaun than to have the same conversations with Nita, perhaps especially now that his situation's been resolved.  (Or you could set such a tete-a-tete earlier in canon, while things are still unsettled....)

Other possible tacks: Dairine getting one up on Nita with Carmela’s help, or the girls and the Alien Study Group having an adventure (I’ve seen a fair bit of fic in this line set in the Crossings, not so much here on Earth).  I would also be very much on board for quality father-daughter bonding -- no matter which father/mentor figure(s) is/are involved.

[Canon notes: I'm equally at home in the original and New Millennium timelines, and have read all the shorter and e-only material up through WHEN WIZARDS PLAY (except for THE BIG MEOW and the latest post-PLAY ebook).]

A little late (real life has been...entertaining lately, in the may-you-live-in-interesting-times sense), but no less worth mentioning: as it turns out, You Can Do That In Fanfiction was a sufficiently small exchange that (1) my recipient and I were matched with each other in both directions, and (2) the stories we wrote each other were both in the same fandom -- specifically, Power Rangers Time Force.  This is in no way either a complaint or a criticism; it's something that can and will happen naturally, particularly in a smaller multi-fandom exchange wherein the fandoms themselves are small to start with.  If anything, I'm benignly amused by the happenstance and very much satisfied with both stories.

Here's the one written for me:

Changing Isn't Easy
Fandom: Power Rangers Time Force
Written by: rivulet027 
Characters: Nadira (Power Rangers), Lucas Kendall, Katie Walker
Rating: T / gen
Additional Tags: Redemption, Friendship
Warnings: none
Words: ~1,100


I like the character work here, and there's a good deal of thoughtful worldbuilding-by-implication lurking in the background.  Nadira is among the most interesting antagonists in the whole Rangerverse, and this story does a very good job of thinking through the characterization we were given.

#####

And here's what I wrote:

Red is the Color
Fandom: Power Rangers Time Force
Written by: Gray_Cardinal 
Characters/Relationships: Wesley Collins, Jennifer (Jen) Scotts, Circuit; Wes/Jen
Rating: G • F/M
Additional Tags: Time Travel, Temporal Paradox
Warnings: none
Words: ~2,000
The underlying premise of this story occurred to me almost at once after the assignment landed, but I couldn't arm-wrestle the AU that would logically follow from that premise into a story compact enough to be writeable in the time frame I had to work with.  So here it's purely a what-if, but one that still has a critical impact on our two lead Rangers.

From astrogirl2

Mary Russell, Sarah Jane Smith, and Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart are stranded at sea in a tiny lifeboat. Do they easily survive to be rescued, perish horribly at sea, or find themselves resorting to cannibalism by day five?

All three are much too civilized to resort to cannibalism and much too experienced at surviving difficult circumstances to be severely challenged by this one. Also, between Sherlock Holmes, the Doctor, and Sarah Jane’s own various allies, someone will show up to bail them out well before the end of day two.

Why is Sherlock Holmes trying to kill Dairine Callahan, and how likely is he to succeed?

[boggle]

The only way this even begins to be possible is for Holmes to have been really well brainwashed, and that just about has to mean that some incarnation of the Master is involved. Which is actually possible, given that it’s established in canon that the Doctor exists in the Young Wizards universe. Since that appearance involved Five, we can further extrapolate that it’s Anthony Ainley’s Master, who is probably trying to co-opt Dairine’s planet of silicon life forms for his own ends. However, like all of the Master’s plots, this one is doomed to failure – in this case because he really doesn’t quite get the degree to which wizardry is rather more than a weird scientific sub-discipline.

Peggy Carter has become a vampire! Does she angst about it endlessly, or wholeheartedly embrace her creature-of-the-night status?

Peggy only does serious angst if it involves Captain America, and since he obviously wasn’t the one who turned her, there will be no angst at this table. If Howard Stark or the SSR can’t find some way to turn her back (very possible, though not guaranteed), she’ll adapt with no great difficulty, though she may have to get very stern with a few people about how much blood they’re willing to donate to her cause. And eventually Stephen Strange will probably find a way to unvamp her, several generations down the line.

Richard Castle, Victoria “Victory Anna” Cogsworth, and Severus Snape are having a movie night. Who brings the snacks, who loses the remote control, and how hard do they fight over what to watch?

[reboggle]

Castle brings the snacks (because he doesn’t trust Torrey’s culinary skills and because snack-bringing isn’t in Snape’s vocabulary). Torrey does not lose the remote, she merely borrows it, and somehow its parts end up scattered among two ray guns, a teleportation device, and a pair of rocket skates. There is actually very little fighting over the movie, Torrey will watch just about anything in the name of learning more about her present dimension, and Snape is there less for the movie than to try and figure out what diabolical scheme has prompted Castle to set up the event. Since Castle is screening the new Nebula-9 feature film (produced after the events of S5 episode “Final Frontier”), both his guests end up more confused than ever....

From lost_spook:

Vala and David Xanatos are stuck in a lift! Will they escape, meekly wait till the fire brigade gets there or kill each other?

Knowing Xanatos, he secretly caused the elevator to get stuck in order to plot an ingenious caper of some kind in which Vala will be a key player. Knowing Vala, the odds are dead even as to whether she’ll go along with the scheme whole-heartedly or play along just long enough to (at least attempt to) pull the rug out from under him at the last minute.

Mary Russell has been murdered. Cat Grant is the detective, Xanatos is her faithful sidekick and Victoria Cogsworth is the plodding police ally. Why is Rupert Giles a red herring, and who actually dunnit and why?

[re-reboggle]

This one is so full of improbables that one hardly knows where to start. David Xanatos is so definitionally a mastermind (if not precisely an evil one) that he’s difficult to envision as a sidekick. Victory Anna? Absolutely Does Not “Plod”; she may not be quite the loose cannon she often appears, but she is a woman of action and intuition. And of course, despite the title of her latest adventure being The Murder of Mary Russell (how’s that for a scary coincidence) it’s difficult to contemplate one of the world’s premier sleuths (alongside her more famous husband) actually getting herself killed.

Which leads me to believe that the whole thing must be part of a party game set up by someone with really good superpowers in order to generate this particular guest list. On this list, that looks like Dairine, though it could also be Xanatos’ aide Owen Burnett in his alternate Puckish persona, or just possibly one of the most recent Doctors. That being the case, Giles is a red herring because that’s the game-card he drew, and in all probability the in-game mastermind will turn out to be (ta-da!) Sherlock Holmes himself, who will reveal in the climax that of course Mary Russell has not actually been murdered after all.

Will Riker and Severus Snape are going camping in the woods! Fun holiday or complete disaster?

On the one hand, Riker’s woodcraft skills are impeccable (and he’s known to be an avid fisherman). On the other, a situation in which Riker would invite Snape on a camping trip – and Snape would accept – is difficult to conceive, unless perhaps Snape needs to go out in search of potion components in the wild and someone in authority has insisted that he needs not to go by himself per the relevant wilderness-safety regulations. (Where and how he comes up with Riker as a campmate is left as an exercise for the student of improbable time travel.) My guess is that the trip would start out reasonably enough, but that by two or three days in, the two men would rapidly figure out that they’re catastrophically incompatible, mostly because Riker would be having fun and Snape is, if not constitutionally incapable of experiencing fun for its own sake, at best deeply uncomfortable with the concept.

There will be a Part I and a Part II. Herewith the first section:

The List

#1 Mary Russell (“Holmes/Russell” novels, Laurie R. King)
#2 Vala Mal Doran (Stargate SG-1)
#3 Richard Castle (Castle)
#4 Will Riker (Star Trek: TNG)
#5 Cat Grant (Supergirl)
#6 Natasha “Black Widow” Romanov (MCU)
#7 Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
#8 Sarah Jane Smith (Doctor Who)
#9 Sherlock Holmes (ACD canon*)
#10 Victoria Cogsworth aka “Victory Anna” (Velveteen vs. series, Seanan McGuire)
#11 Dairine Callahan (“Young Wizards” series, Diane Duane)
#12 Severus Snape (“Harry Potter” series, J. K. Rowling)
#13 David Xanatos (Gargoyles)
#14 Brigadier Alasdair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (Doctor Who)
#15 Peggy Carter (MCU)

( First set of answers:Collapse )

From malkingrey (via a prior unfinished round):

Richard Castle and Cat Grant go into business together. What do they sell/what service do they provide, and which # is their first customer?
Cat hires Rick to ghostwrite a series of Supergirl adventure novels (her third choice, after J. K. Rowling and Lois McMaster Bujold turned her down; she figures that the Nikki Heat series was a good warmup for the job). Rick makes a noble try at it, but after one too many arguments with Cat-the-editor he hands the job off to his daughter Alexis...who is both mightily amused and wildly successful, not least because Alexis manages to coax a blurb for the first one out of the Black Widow.

Vala Mal Doran, Dairine Callahan, and David Xanatos are all on the same train from New York to Chicago. Which one is actually a fugitive on the run (and why); which one is secretly tailing them; and which one is the unsuspecting third party who accidentally gets involved? And what happens when the train reaches Union Station?

In this trio, anyone could be the fugitive...but on this occasion, it happens to be Xanatos, who is trying to deal himself into the interstellar black market in high-tech weapons, Dairine having recently foiled a previous attempt in that direction. At present, he’s hoping he can finagle in Chicago what he’s been prevented from doing in Manhattan; Dairine, who saw this coming, has followed him onto the train (in magical disguise) so as to head him off at the pass have a word with the cats managing the worldgates in Chicago. Meanwhile, Vala had been on an actual vacation in New York, and is heading back west by train because it’s way more comfortable than flying (and easier to bring back souvenirs). But she overhears just enough of a conversation Dairine is having with Spot-the-magic-laptop to figure out that aliens and worldgates are involved, (not unreasonably) assumes that Dairine has stumbled onto the Stargate program, and promptly calls ahead to alert Jack O’Neill and the team to have people waiting at Union Station. Fortunately, since Sam Carter is also a wizard, this does not in fact lead to a Keystone Kops comedy chase scene, and Xanatos – for once – finds himself pretty much outmaneuvered.

From tanyareed:

How do Cat Grant and Victoria “Victory Anna” Cogsworth get along?

At a great distance from one another. The first time Torrey saw Cat on television, she drew a very large ray gun from a very small pocket and melted the TV. All parties have since agreed that it would be a Very Bad Idea for the two women to come closer than, say, 300 miles from one another.

Would Mary Russell and Dairine Callahan have an affair, fall in love, tolerate each other, or hate each other?

“Tolerate” is probably safest. For a variety of reasons, a romance between the two is unlikely in the extreme, and both are too dedicated to their respective pursuit of justice to be likely to hate one another. That said, prolonged contact between them would probably try both their patiences severely.

How would Natasha Romanov and Rupert Giles handle the zombie apocalypse?

With both Giles and the Black Widow on board, the situation would stop being apocalyptic in fairly short order.

If Vala were in Sherlock Holmes’ world, how would he or she fit?

The rivalry would be epic, and immensely entertaining – Vala as master thief, Holmes as master sleuth. (Somebody please write this series....)

If Richard Castle and Rupert Giles were to play a game together, what would they play?

Castle would almost certainly try to talk Giles into laser tag. Giles would propose chess. Castle counters with “live chess” using actual people for playing pieces. Giles offers Scrabble played in Latin. They end up in an all-night poker session in which both of them get their clocks cleaned by everyone else in the game.

Out of Victory Anna and Severus Snape, who would save whom?

Heh. Victory Anna would save Snape, mostly because Torrey would be wildly unlikely to get herself into a situation precarious enough to require Snape-level intervention. Snape, being Snape, would be tremendously annoyed at having been rescued when he obviously could have saved himself (and also because he’d find Victory Anna’s brand of surreal steampunk science totally baffling).

What would Vala make Will Riker for supper?

Vala and Will wouldn’t get to supper. That date would progress right past supper to nightcap-and-subsequent-breakfast-in-bed without dinner bothering to intervene.

Snape and Cat Grant are in a fight. Who wins?

On one hand, this is an Irresistible Force/Immovable Object conflict. On the other, Snape has a magic wand and knows how to use it. Round to Snape.

If Vala were setting Castle up on a blind date, which of the others would she set him up with?

Interesting question, mostly because Vala herself is probably the most likely match. If she’s indulging her mischievous side, probably Natasha Romanov. If she’s thinking in practical terms, very likely Sarah Jane Smith. (Not even Vala would match Castle with Cat Grant in a romantic context; with that pair on a date, there’d very possibly be murder by morning.)

What would be the perfect date for Mary Russell and Peggy Carter?

Afternoon high tea in any of London, San Francisco, or Victoria BC, preferably with a sedate and genteel side of intrigue. They could talk shop and trade stories for hours on end (and plot ways to have Peggy replace the Russell-verse version of Mycroft).

Because yes, I have stories in progress for two exchanges...

OTOH, I just had one of these pop up on the LJ side of this journal (and followed it over to another iteration), and have been reminded of how much I like playing the Wacky Crossover Theater game.  So why not?

Rules:
I've made a list of fifteen (15) characters from a variety of fandoms.  Your job is to ask questions about various combinations of these characters (examples: What secret past do #8 and #14 share?  What if #2, #6, and #9 went on a road trip?  If #5 and #10 were having dinner, who invited who?), which I'll do my best to answer.

Notes:
Once we've accumulated sufficient questions, I'll compile the results and make a new post incorporating all the Qs and As -- this way, the Dreamwidth and LiveJournal readerships both get to see all the collective wackiness.

Different practitioners of this meme make different sorts of lists.  My approach tends to involve recruiting from as many different sources as I can possibly manage (in this instance, 12.5 unique fandoms are represented -- we'll talk about the .5 later).  Thus, queries are extremely likely to produce Improbable Crossover Theater for various -- and sometimes really weird -- values of "improbable".  Management will do its best to respond to all queries posed, but reserves the right to designate some results Just Too Bizarre To Contemplate.

As a confirmed crossover geek, this is rapidly becoming my favorite annual exchange, even if it is the most complicated. And as always, I am even more than usually grateful and impressed with whatever crossover ends up coming my way as a result. I remain in awe of the folk running this particular venture, because I suspect the matching -- even with AO3's automated engine in play -- is more than usually interesting. Thank you very much for volunteering for this madness, and specifically for your willingness to indulge my particular cross-fannish sensibilities.

Anyhow. Per the usual form of these things, here's a cut, because this is going to be even longer than usual.
( And here we go....Collapse )