Incidental Bits 2 - The Comebacks

[robkelk]

Yeah... we'd have to send Pravda up against a SSD.

[Bob Schroeck]

Bad lookup on Google, I guess...

[robkelk]

If we're going in that direction, we could have another village set aside for the more dangerous displacees.

Rob hated this time of year, but he was a residence manager and it was his turn and it was in his contract so he didn't really have a choice. And the notes that Garnett had left for him made clear that the current batch of residents were particularly annoying, too.

In reply to the question asked by that fellow who bore a remarkable resemblance to Patrick McGoohan, he said, "I am the new Number Two".

[robkelk]

Yomi's curiosity had finally reached the point where it had to be satisfied. She walked over to her roommate and said, "You've been staring at that screen for five minutes now. And you're not watching a movie. Just what is it that you're doing?"

Without looking up, Tomo replied, "We're making characters so we can play City of Heroes with the folks in New Jersey, but I'm stuck on a name for mine."

"That's a supers game, right? Call your character 'The Attractive Nuisance'."

Tomo looked sideways at Yomi. "Is that some sort of joke only lawyers would get?"

"You finally noticed!"

"At least you think I'm attractive... sweetling."

[Bob Schroeck]

<snrk>

A COH supergroup or band of supergroups for displacees sounds like a great idea, especially deciding who would play what. And DGA does have its computer room, great for playing together...

Hm. Characters against type would be fun to figure out... Like Yui playing a Brute. But I would be hard pressed to imagine Usagi, for instance, playing anything but an empathy defender...

EDIT: I just realized that any COH in 2016 is going to have to be on the Secret Server, because it won't be revealed and the public independent servers like Homecoming founded for another two and a half years yet. Which would make it easy for those displacees who want to play themselves regardless of trademarks to do so.

[robkelk]

OOC: A little something that I think belongs in our Writers' Guide. Assuming we ever put together a formal Writers' Guide.

But there is a limit, I tend to think, to the degree of dramatic tension which can be extracted from explosions. One bang after all is pretty much like another. But one human being is not.

Barry Morse, discussing Space: 1999 at Fanderson 82, October 1982

[Labster]

OOC: A little something that I think belongs in our Writers' Guide. Assuming we ever put together a formal Writers' Guide.

But there is a limit, I tend to think, to the degree of dramatic tension which can be extracted from explosions. One bang after all is pretty much like another. But one human being is not.

Barry Morse, discussing Space: 1999 at Fanderson 82, October 1982

Barry Morse offers some harsh, but in my opinion very well deserved criticism on his show.  You can tell how hard he is trying to add personality to his character with the script that he's been given.  This bit reminded me of something else:

We hadn't succeeded, in my view, in creating the sort of quality of dramatic material, which the concept of the series deserved. It was my feeling, and these are just my opinions of course, that we had the possibility of creating not only the best science fiction series that there had ever been, but potentially if we examine everything that was potent in the format, we have the possibility of creating the greatest, or one of the greatest, dramatic series of any kind that there had ever been.

This is where fanfiction comes in.

I've for some time considered that one of the hallmarks of geeky media fandom is being tolerant of and even intrigued by the flaws of their particular favorite genre. Like… there are good kung fu movies. But it takes a fan to trawl through the middling ones, or to dig through the drek and go, "Yes, it's bad, but… this one scene." Anyone might go to the best sci-fi blockbusters, but the fans dig into the less-popular ones and go, "Actually, I think I like this one better, it's less technically-proficient but it has more heart." We're attracted to quirkiness. I think there's a lot in common there with the concept of wabi-sabi.

Flawed shows with promise enable you to create things from it more easily. Utena fanfics, for example, are almost always AUs or backstory or a quick vignette because there's just no room to insert your own take into it as it stands, whereas the original SM anime has lots of issues but infinite room to mix, meld, and dig into it.

That was from this thread.  The cracks in Lyrical Nanoha are what lets the light in.  And I have no doubt that if we tried, we could write better characterization for Space: 1999 than anything in the original series.

[robkelk]

"Wait, we have secret agents? Why didn't I know about them?"

Artemis sighed at Mikoto's question. "Because they're secret."

[robkelk]

OOC, for local color: The real-world Lake Wobegon Trail Association is having a "Caramel Apple Ride" in September. (The Lake Wobegon Regional Trail begins in Holdingford, relatively close to The Old Dietmeier Place.) Would Ruby or Nora learn how to ride a bike just to get free caramel apples?

EDIT: Speaking of Lake Wobegon, it's very close to Camp Ripley, a Minnesota National Guard training base where civilians are allowed to train.

[Bob Schroeck]

Speaking of Lake Wobegon, it's very close to Camp Ripley, a Minnesota National Guard training base where civilians are allowed to train.

Oooh, there's some possibilities there.

[robkelk]

OOC:

If this was a darkfic, then this plotbunny would work... HTT visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Asu-nyan gets hit by a car and taken to the Cleveland Clinic, who transfer her to the Social Welfare Agency, who decide to cyborg and brainwash her into a Gunslinger Girl...

Good thing this isn't a darkfic, eh?

[Bob Schroeck]

Very good thing.

[Bob Schroeck]

An image which came up in last night's authors' chat (and welcome to Inquisitive Raven, who joined us for the first time!). There's no story yet to put this in, but it probably wouldn't be hard to come up with one to use it in:

A cackling hard-light projection of Vanellope von Schweetz in the driver's seat (and a delightedly shrieking Chibi-Usa sitting in the shotgun seat) of a monstrous candy-themed hotrod created by Luna-P, bulldozing its way through Boston traffic, with Fate and Nanoha flying escort and using magic to move other vehicles out of the way as they simply refuse to stop for anything. An absolutely terrified Sakura Kinomoto and Illyasviel von Einzbern (8-year-old version) are in the back seat clutching each other and strapped in with every seatbelt they can reach.

[robkelk]

"My name is not 'Who'! I did not write the book of love, I did not let the dogs out, and I've never been on first! I'm just 'The Doctor'!"

[robkelk]

It must have been magic that kept the earliest letters intact until the last letter was written in the sky:

"Surrender Dorathy"

Ange turned to her long-time partner. "How do they even know that you're here?"

Dorothy replied, "I don't know and I don't care. They spelled my name wrong."

[Labster]

"My name is not 'Who'! I did not write the book of love, I did not let the dogs out, and I've never been on first! I'm just 'The Doctor'!"

Or, if you prefer, the Emergency Medical Hologram.

[robkelk]

Silliness for the day: In the Metacontinuity, Sumire Saito has met the members of Onnagumi, and shares her given name with one of the Hanagumi.

[robkelk]

Typo of the day:

so he provides room and bard anyway.

EDIT: Granted, "he" is Kalos, so the bard could be Sarah.

[robkelk]

Somewhere in Chicago:

"They can't stop us. We're on a mission from Skuld."

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, well, I might as well get in on the fun:

"Peggy, did you place a GrubHub order for a masked avenger with a small side of magical girl?" I made a show of peering closely at the motley band on the step. "With extra moon cats?"

[robkelk]

We have Sasami pencilled in to appear as Pretty Sammy during the Halloween party.

And this exchange was mentioned (as a bit of silliness) during last week's writers' chat... which ties in so well with that costume.

---

Sasami is sitting in her "contemplative place" on the stairwell landing. "There are so many magical girls. Why can't I be one, too?"

Ryo-Ohki looks up at her and replies, in English, "Because you never asked before! Here's your wand."

[robkelk]

OOC. Real Life writes the plot.

A relative and I were out for lunch today, at the city's best (IMHO) ramen place.

First song on the background music playlist sounded like it could be an anime theme song that I simply hadn't heard yet.

Second song on the background music playlist sounded like it could be an anime theme song that I simply hadn't heard yet.

Third song on the background music playlist was Cruel Angel's Thesis.

Yeah.

Now... what if that happened in the Metacontinuity? In Pensacola Beach?

[robkelk]

Don't know whether I want to use this one ... there might be a better deity of the theatre out there somewhere.

"General Yoneda, my name is Dionysus, and I'm here to tell you what's happened to you, your people, and your building. Got anything to drink?"

[Inquisitive Raven]

For deities of theater, you might consider the Muses, specifically Thalia, the Muse of comedy and Melpomene, the Muse of tragedy.

[Bob Schroeck]

Heh. They could arrive together; Thalia would give all the good points, and Melpomene would talk up all the bad points...

(EDIT: And then Terpsichore in the guise of Olivia Newton-John would drag them off to go roller-skating.)