meme time!
Aug. 19th, 2012 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tigriswolf.
Pick any passage of 500 words or fewer from something I've written, and leave it in a comment here. Then ask a question about it - what I was thinking, why that's the plot twist I chose, what I think might happen later, how I could've totally changed it up... anything you want to know.
Pick any passage of 500 words or fewer from something I've written, and leave it in a comment here. Then ask a question about it - what I was thinking, why that's the plot twist I chose, what I think might happen later, how I could've totally changed it up... anything you want to know.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 05:48 pm (UTC)Can you give me a fic/passage or 3 and I'll provide the questions?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 09:45 pm (UTC)Sure - give me a fandom.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 10:27 pm (UTC)ANYHOW. Since my fandom of the moment is Chuck, I'm going with this:
They say their names are Chester 'Chuck' and Sarafina Charles. They're good, but Peter's run enough ops to know undercover when he sees it.
And Neal, after his immediate reaction of joy quickly stifles it for the professional courtesy of an art consultant meeting the victims of art theft.
But the damage is done, because that first reaction sticks in his mind.
Chuck is like a puppy, bounding after Neal everywhere he goes in the gallery. Sara stays with Peter, telling him the details, but her eyes follow Neal with well-hidden longing.
Peter gets them out of there as quickly as possible. He wants to demand answers, to command that Neal tell him everything because there is some backstory he's not privy to and it's annoying the shit out of him. But he keeps quiet because there's a look on Neal's face he's never seen before, not for Kate or Alex or any other piece of his past that Peter's learned about. This is something new.
It's only after Neal's out of the car and headed up to his loft at June's that Peter realizes the look on Neal's face was very similar to the one he wore when he went undercover as a hitman. He says he hates guns, that he's always hated guns, but the way he used them… his hands didn't even seem to need his mind. And the way he acted when he went after Fowler—that wasn't the Neal Caffrey Peter chased for three years, or the Neal Caffrey he's worked with for the past two.
He wonders which Neal Caffrey just went upstairs to his loft, and which one he'll drive to work tomorrow.
And Peter hopes, fervently, that they won't have to deal with Chuck and Sara Charles again.
I adore this piece and the universe it suggests. And no way in hell am I going to able to limit myself to a single question, so... Chuck and Sarah clearly know who Neal really is and Neal seems to have acknowledged them in his own way. Did they know he was there before the introductions took place? Clearly they can't openly address each other but is there something preventing the three of them from meeting up later? Will the three of them be meeting up later? They seem to still be very attached. Peter hopes at the end that he/they won't have to see the pair of them again - but will they? (The idea of them all knowing that their missing piece(s) are out there but not able to see them makes me kind of sad.)
...And I will cut myself off here. Because I probably should have stopped half a paragraph ago, not because I want to, mind. (And sorry for fannish blather. Enthusiasm frequently outweighs good sense.) :D
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 10:40 pm (UTC)You can pick as many passages as you want, dude.
So, yes, Chuck&Sarah know who Neal was. I think their being undercover just happened to run across Neal's job, and they had something else in the work for a later meeting - because Bryce Larkin is dead, and he has to remain so.
So even though all three of them would like something to happen, it can't. Not yet. And, yeah, I'm pretty sure Chuck&Sarah will show up at Neal's loft for one last hurrah, but after that? Nothing can happen.
I honestly don't know if Neal will go back to being Bryce Larkin and leave his Neal Caffrey life behind.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 10:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 10:55 pm (UTC)Ah, okay. I was wondering, since they obviously knew who he was and just as obviously wished they had time/opportunity for more than just shallow undercover greetings. I am glad they'll get at least a bit more time together though the idea of them being forced to remain apart after that, well. Like I said, it makes me sad. Having said that, Bryce has got Neal Caffrey going for him now and ditching that life wouldn't be easy (or kind!) either.
Thanks for answering! (Off to search for a new passage to post!)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 11:08 pm (UTC)I remember being rather struck by this one too:
So, Diana has a gun pointed at the boss of the bad guys and Peter's trying to hold Jones' guts in his body, and Neal's been disregarded by, oh, everybody. Peter's gun is on the ground at a goon's foot and all of Diana's attention is on the guy she's about to kill, but Neal knows she has a knife strapped to her thigh. He's got one on his back, and another along his side.
He's tried so hard to forget the time before Moz rescued him. He's tried so hard to be a gentleman.
But they're alone here. They're alone and no back-up is coming and Jones is about to die, and then Diana and Peter, and they're his team. Them and Moz and El and June.
More than that... they're his family.
So he lets the door in his mind open, the one that has him carry knives everywhere he goes—easier than guns, sharp and quick and silent—and he moves.
Neal never forgets anything. And whether they're targets sanctioned by the men who made him or a crimelord and his security, they all die the same.
I have always been intrigued by the idea of just what Neal might be capable of, when pressed. He's made a career entirely out of making people believe he can do anything while simultaneously making people underestimate him. It's very impressive. And I always really liked the concepts of Dark Angel, even if I had some quibbles with the execution.
The big question with this one is what happens next? If Neal is some manner of enhanced being, it's strongly suggested he's going to use that advantage. So I have no doubt that he'll save Peter, Diana and Jones but that leaves him to explain how he carved up the goons who were threatening them, not to mention how he managed to move like that. I can see Jones being too far gone to see & you make a point of saying Diana's focused on the man she's about to kill. But even if Peter's busy keeping Jones' insides from falling out, I can't see him letting go of the fact that Neal would be standing in a heap of dead bodies with a pair of dripping knives.
(Unrelated: Your prompt about Bryce Larkin being an X5? Mine. In the works - and will be for a while yet - but you'll be getting a response to that one someday after September 1.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-19 11:54 pm (UTC)What about this:
He paces around Jen’s kitchen while she sits at the counter, nursing a glass of sweet tea. She watches him silently as he gathers his words.
“Months ago,” he says, “I realized something. I should have told you then, but I didn’t. The more time passed, it just got harder.” He pauses, looking at her. “I like you a lot, Jen. Not just as a friend.”
Her mouth opens, but he barrels on, not giving her a chance to speak.
“My father died when I was twenty-two,” he says, turning his eyes away. “And the best friend of my childhood was my neighbor’s cat, Fuzzy.”
“Priestly,” Jen starts, after he’s stayed silent for over a minute. “What are you telling me? That you’re fuzzy22?”
He nods without glancing up from the floor
“But I saw fuzzy,” she says.
“No,” Priestly corrects. “You saw my friend Jeff. I got there late, just in time to watch you run out crying.”
She stares at him. “I don’t… I chatted with him while you worked half a dozen feet away.”
Keeping his gaze on the floor, he explains, “I’m a writer. I emailed him scripts. I just… I like it when you smile. I wanted to see your face when you read my words.”
“So… you’ve been playing me this whole time?” she demands, sounding somewhere between hurt and angry.
“No,” he answers, finally looking up at her. “You were happy, Jen. I didn’t want to ruin it for you. Jeff’s been tellin’ me for weeks that you deserved to know. He thought that—well, he suggested we meet, not me.”
“Why did you freak out?” She stares down at her glass. “When I saw fuz—Jeff and left. Why did that bother you so much, Priestly?”
He sighs. “My whole life, people judged me because of how I looked,” he says. “You too, right? You hated it. But then you—you left him sitting there, Jen. If you’d seen me, what would you have done?”
“I’d have gotten angry,” she replies. “I would have run away and yelled at you later.”
“No,” he murmurs. That isn’t what he’d meant. And now that he’s here, telling the truth, she should know who he was. Why he got so furious. “Jen,” he says. “Can I use the bathroom?”
She shrugs. “Sure.”
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-20 02:37 am (UTC)I'm pretty sure Neal runs, if he can't convince Peter&Diana to ignore what they saw. But if Peter cares more about Neal than answers (answers Neal will never give), then Neal will stay. *shrugs*
(Also: yay!)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-20 02:50 am (UTC)Why Jen? Yes, she's a more likeable human than Tish, but I'm betting there's more to it than that in your head canon back story. Also, how does one write a script for online chat conversations?
Give me another? I like this game (at least I like it so LNG as you're enjoying it and/or benefitting as a writer).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-20 03:09 am (UTC)From the first time I saw the movie, I wanted Priestly to be Jen's online buddy. That's it. I like their relationship, and that she liked him as he was - he didn't need to pretty himself up for her.
I figure, since he knew her in real life, he could guess the bare-bones of how Jen might respond, so he gave his friend guesstimates, and then the friend would expand on it. *shrugs*
Okay, this:
Right after the thought of eternity, the thing most infants didn't really understand was The Game. Anyone who wasn't a psychopath usually never contemplated killing to live - but to be immortal, it was the only way.
(Lie. But it's far too late to take it back.)
The Game is no more than hide-and-seek with a dash of chess. Stalk-and-pounce. Tag, you're dead. Hunting for survival, no more, no less. The greatest teachers could teach their students that. The worst had a high turnover rate.
Methos had no teacher.
(Truth. There is always a first.)
Every immortal is a killer. Not always a murderer – self defense, after all, is not murder. One or the other – I live, you die. You live, I die. Look out for Number 1. In the end, nobody else matters.
In the end, there can be only one.
(Lie. Truth. Does it matter? Either way, that's how it ends.)
Methos explained The Game to Byron as this: Think of it as any other game. There is a winner and a loser, and the winner must be you. To think of it as life and death, as kill or be killed… an eternity of that, isn't an eternity you'd want, unless you were mad. He paused to look at Byron and they both laughed.
(Oh, Byron, my child. One day, you will be avenged.)
Methos' students always survive their first challenge, whether they issue it or not. If they are very good, there is no final challenge, not until Methos draws his sword against them.
One day, at the end of The Game, all of his children will come home to him.
(The ultimate truth: in the end, the last shall be the first.)
Hide-and-seek with a dash of chess. Stalk-and-pounce. Tag, you're dead. Hunting for survival, no more, no less.
Draw your sword and let's dance.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-20 10:15 pm (UTC)(Hee! It was too good to pass up.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-20 10:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-21 12:12 am (UTC)I know this is probably partially just a stylistic quirk/way for you, but why did you decide to have the inner and outer thoughts like this?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-21 02:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-21 03:02 am (UTC)My headspace for Methos? Imagine being the oldest thing ever and then write. *shrugs* This, in particular? The prompt called for remaining sane while playing The Game - which, in and of itself is horrible. Every immortal is a killer, and some people just aren't designed for that, so they die.
But Methos is the ultimate survivor. There is nothing he won't do. No one he won't kill, if it comes down to it.
... he's actually fairly easy to write. I love him.
As to the parentheses - *shrugs* The entire drabble is from Methos' pov, and he doesn't lie to himself. To everyone else, yes. But if he starts lying to himself, he might lose himself, and while he's not the sanest being in the world, if he loses his mind comletely, he'll die.
And Methos refuses to die.
So the parentheses are Methos answering himself. And since the drabble is about surviving The Game, it made sense at the time.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-21 03:04 am (UTC)Yeah. I remember after I wrote a Supernatural fic, I was explaining it to my mom - it ended happily because no one was in a coma or dead. Even though Dean was heartbroken, it was happy because he wasn't in a coma or dead. *shrugs*
Of course, in hindsight, every single preseries Supernatural fic is sad because I always know what comes next for them.
I can do fluff. Just not all that often, and no one ever believes me.