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stunt_muppet at 11:07pm on 11/08/2008 under burn notice, csi, doctor who, fic fragments, l&o, music, svu
stunt_muppet at 11:07pm on 11/08/2008 under burn notice, csi, doctor who, fic fragments, l&o, music, svuFirst off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, silly_cleo!!! I hope the coming year is wonderful.
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You remember that writing meme I did a while earlier, with the fics written in the time it takes for one song to play? As a way of warming up for more serious/extensive writing, I did a few rounds of those on vacation. There are fourteen in total; I figured I'd post them up here.
The rules, in case you needed a reminder:
silly_cleo!!! I hope the coming year is wonderful.----
You remember that writing meme I did a while earlier, with the fics written in the time it takes for one song to play? As a way of warming up for more serious/extensive writing, I did a few rounds of those on vacation. There are fourteen in total; I figured I'd post them up here.
The rules, in case you needed a reminder:
1. Put your iPod or other mp3 player on Shuffle
2. Pick the first five/seven/ten songs that come up.
3. Write a short fic inspired by each of those songs. You may only write for the duration of the song - if the song lasts three minutes, you only write for three minutes. No cheating!*
*I still cheated. Mostly because I skipped any song where I didn’t know the language, because it was apparently Bollywood Day off in Shuffle-land.
1. "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen/We Three Kings" - The Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan (3:31)
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2. "Amazonic" - Maksim (3:20; not uploaded because iTunes is having issues with finding the file)
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3. "Arcus" - Amethystium (5:06)
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4. “Never Let Me Down Again” – Tina Root (Depeche Mode cover) (4:25)
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5. "Club Nowhere" - Blue Man Group (4:50)
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6. "They" - Jem (3:16)
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7. “You Keep Me Hanging On” – Kim Wilde (4:15)
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8. "Tequila Mockingbird" - Vanessa-Mae (3:29)
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9. "Song 2" - Blur (2:01)
But then, he'd never let them know about his excellent golf swing, either. One adjusts to meet the needs of one's surroundings.
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10. "Truth Be Known" - Atlas Plug (4:35)
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11. "Scorchio" - Bond (3:31)
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12. "Hijo de la Luna" - Sarah Brightman (4:27)
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13. "To The Pirates' Cave!" - Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack (3:30)
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14. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - Bono (from the Across the Universe soundtrack) (4:23)
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To bed.
Also, Middleman? Is AWESOME. If you're not watching it, please begin doing so.
1. "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen/We Three Kings" - The Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan (3:31)
“How d’ya even know any Christmas carols, though?” Rose asked, jogging to catch up with him. “I mean, you tell me you’re this nine-hundred-year-old alien; what do you know about Christmas on Earth?”
“What makes you think that song’s from Earth?” He grinned. “There’s a song over in the Severinth galaxy celebrating industry and efficiency – ‘The Glory of Accomplishment’, they call it.” He hummed a few bars. “Exact same tune.”
“You’re putting me on.”
“Singing it thousands of years before there was an Earth, let alone a Christmas.”
2. "Amazonic" - Maksim (3:20; not uploaded because iTunes is having issues with finding the file)
The place is a music-box, complete with a wind-up dancer in a tatty ball-gown spinning to the same ancient tune.
It must have been glorious, when it was still used; the mind conjures up images of emperors, princesses, royal dances, all those fairy-tale accoutrements. Of course, I’ve had enough education by now to know that those fantasies were bought with the broken backs of serfs and slaves, but…
It aches with emptiness now, here in its dust, and somewhere beneath the rags it all still glitters, still tempts.
3. "Arcus" - Amethystium (5:06)
Some days, Olivia Benson goes home on time. No new cases, cold trails, any number of reasons.
Some of those days she just stays at the station. Eventually, someone will need help, and she’ll be there when they do. Some of those days she goes straight home and sleeps until the next morning, or whenever she’s on duty. Some of those days she even makes the odd attempt at a social life.
And sometimes she walks.
It’s after the worst of the cases that she walks, after the serial rapists, the murderous pedophiles, the abuses that turn even her stomach. After those, she goes walking, or rides the subway aimlessly.
She watches the people around her as she does: the families, the daughters, the happily-marrieds. And she can’t completely shut off the cop in her brain, who says they aren’t all so happy.
But sometimes she can watch the crowds and know that they aren’t all victims, either. They aren’t all abusers. There’s more to the world than the people who end up in her station.
4. “Never Let Me Down Again” – Tina Root (Depeche Mode cover) (4:25)
It’s never quite as safe as it seems.
Not in the obvious sense – because the places they go never even seem safe, not remotely – but occasionally she takes her status as passenger and guest for granted. She forgets that any trip could be the last, that one day he could take off without her and not return.
And then the Doctor finds the Master again, in some far-off corner of the galaxy, and they greet one another with half-smiles, and she remembers.
If he hadn’t been forced to return to Earth, he wouldn’t have.
And while she never quite believed that he would abandon Earth to the Axons, she did believe that.
5. "Club Nowhere" - Blue Man Group (4:50)
He keeps odd hours. He’s there when she arrives in the morning and doesn’t leave when she does at night. The Brigadier tells her that he works through the night, occasionally disappearing into his TARDIS or heading out for a drive but rarely venturing outside the lab.
He sleeps when he’s tired, which isn’t very often, and which tends to be in the middle of the afternoon. She’s caught him, on occasion, slumped over in a chair in the garage or resting with his head on his arms on a lab bench.
He disregards the days and nights, as if to spite them for existing in such an orderly, uniform row.
She always wakes him when she finds him asleep, with an unceremonious nudge. “Wake up, Doctor. We’ve got work to do.”
He’ll have to learn to follow the days eventually.
6. "They" - Jem (3:16)
“I can’t believe you believe this crap.” Fin clicked through the website, growing ever more incredulous. “Secret organizations? Black-ops raids?”
“You’d rather think that all those eerily similar events are unfortunate accidents?” John rejoined, without raising his eyes.
“How many government agents have you met, John? Do they seem that organized to you?”
7. “You Keep Me Hanging On” – Kim Wilde (4:15)
“Stop. Seriously, stop that.” She massaged her forehead. “Sam, you’re embarrassing everyone.”
Sam made a noise like “pfft!” and kept dancing.
This was going to take a little more effort than she thought.
“Sam, I know – I know you’re upset.” She dodged a wildly swinging arm. “Look, I get that. And you should be upset. He treated you like crap. Okay? But – stop doing that – but a public striptease is not going to solve anything and – put that down, Sam, another shot isn’t either.”
8. "Tequila Mockingbird" - Vanessa-Mae (3:29)
Who was it that first compared a court case to a complicated dance? Because hers is a dance measured and precise.
There’s elegance and force in her movements, as she rises to the stand for the cross-examination. As she neatly punches a hole in his case it’s like a sharp turn, a twirl that stops just short, a calculated shift in her weight.
Perhaps he’ll observe her more closely the next time they dance in tandem.
9. "Song 2" - Blur (2:01)
He acts the classic hipster, dirty clothes and his sister’s mascara. He plays acoustic guitar badly, writes poetry equally badly, and smokes the worst of all – he’d never let his friends know that he never inhales, that he can’t keep the fragrant cloud down for an instant.
But then, he'd never let them know about his excellent golf swing, either. One adjusts to meet the needs of one's surroundings.
10. "Truth Be Known" - Atlas Plug (4:35)
It is 1986, and Polly Wright is in two places at once.
Rolling blackouts paralyze Great Britain, the light of a new planet cuts an arc in the sky, and Polly is standing in the street, watching (Polly is twenty years younger – so very young – and staring for the first time into a Cyberman’s blank eyes).
She laughs, too quiet for anyone to hear; you’ve stopped it, Polly Wright, you and Ben and the Doctor. You’ve stopped it already!
11. "Scorchio" - Bond (3:31)
You can take the firework metaphor quite a long way with Fiona. Unpredictable. Elaborate. Built of gunpowder and chemicals and liable to explode given the slightest provocation.
Bright, stunning when she finally goes off. Searing to the touch. Ready to shake you to the bones and blind you if you aren’t prepared.
12. "Hijo de la Luna" - Sarah Brightman (4:27)
“Nope. Sorry.” Greg shook his head as Catherine approached.
“What do you mean?”
“We absolutely, positively, can not conduct an investigation into this. And if we do, quote, we will be ‘cursed beyond anything we could imagine’. So there.” He shrugged innocently.
“I don’t know. I can imagine a lot.” She smirked. “Let me guess. Indian burial ground? Alignment of universal something-or-others?”
“Apparently, the moon struck our vic down in his sleep, as revenge for abandoning its cosmic children,” he said flatly. Not even a trace of sarcasm. He was good at that.
“The moon.”
“That’s what the witness told me.”
“Huh.” She switched her flashlight on. “Well, that’s new.”
13. "To The Pirates' Cave!" - Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack (3:30)
“You’ve got to be joking.”
“Martha, that’s a very serious pirate and that’s a very serious sword he’s holding.”
“A pirate. Honestly. You’ve landed me in an Errol Flynn movie.”
“Yes. Lovely. So I have. Whoever that is. Now do you think maybe you could climb a little faster?”
14. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - Bono (from the Across the Universe soundtrack) (4:23)
They show her the universe, resplendent, its darkest corners and its brightest stars, and for a while Jamie realizes why the Doctor loves company so.
Victoria is closer to his own age, closer to his own time, and he communicates with her in a way he simply can’t with the Doctor no matter how he wants to. But then they open the doors again, and he’s as mysterious as the Doctor ever was, both guide and fellow traveler.
To bed.
Also, Middleman? Is AWESOME. If you're not watching it, please begin doing so.
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10) <3333333333333333333 I LOVE THE CONCEPT. YAAAY.
13) Seriously, you wouldn't think so from a lot of the stuff they're weighed down by, but Ten and Martha have and easily invite some really ridiculously awesome banter.
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10) I'm afraid I can't take credit for it - there's a Short Trips story that I haven't read that uses the concept of Ben and Polly witnessing the events of The Tenth Planet in their own timelines. But it's a lovely idea and I had to pinch it.
13) I love lighter Ten-and-Martha banter! Almost everything I read about them is so very serious, and while I get why that happens, and a lot of it's lovely, I do miss the Ten and Martha of, say, The Shakespeare Code or The Lazarus Experiment or, so help me, Daleks in Manhattan.
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(Except for that one scene in the beginning where they come out of the elevator, because that one's cool.)
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Also, icon love. :D
Looooooooong comment ahoy!
Now all you need are longer songs, for I am greedy.Wait, ooh, "part 1"?1. Well, now I'm just not going to be satisfied until
Isomeone invents the full chorus to "The Glory of Accomplishment." :P (also: *tackles song file* I LOVE THAT ONE, and yet do not have it)2.
and somewhere beneath the rags it all still glitters, still tempts.
Guh. On pretty word art, I have not read the likes of you in a VERY long time.
3. Love the last paragraph. Kind of a sad but accurate commentary on her shifted perspective of the world.
4. So, when I finally kick my butt to a computer withuot internet and force myself to type my Utopia review, I'm going to have to ask you to explain who the Master is, because I'm feeling like there's a great faction of knowledge that other people have and I lack . That being said, the line about the half-smiles gave me a good little chill.
6. HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
7. Yeah, I giggled (inappropriately?) at "a public striptease is not going to solve anything."
8. Whoa, scary. For a moment there I believed that Mike didn't have a block of wood for a brain*. Nice work. (*wow, I did not know my animosity well for him was that deep. Sorry. I really do love this description of Connie)
12. AHAHA! THIS IS SO FANTASTIC, you writing for a fandom I know with a song I actually have! In a semi-related note, Greg is hilarious. Thank you.
13. I can so picture this scene. It fills me with joy.
Lastly: If you can tell me a precise reason why Middleman is awesome, I maaaaaay reconsider it. Provided the reason is not "cheesy fun." Because so far not even 3 trustworthy flist members telling me to watch it is overriding my feelings of "meh" that the previews bring.
Long comment gets long response!
(And yes, Part 1. I wrote a whole bunch over vacation, though none of it was actually finished, so there'll probably be more posts like this coming up. Eventually.)
1. I listen to that song all year round. It's too fun to restrict to Christmas.
Also, I just remembered that there's a bit in the old series where the Doctor sings a 'Venusian lullaby' that also has the exact same tune as "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". I don't know why I didn't remember that. Popular tune, that is. :P
2. I'm glad you liked that one - I wasn't sure about putting it up (or any of the originals, actually), and I was worried that it'd be overdone.
4. Yeah, that was the one thing about Utopia/The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords that gets tricky - it doesn't make a whole lot of sense without knowing at least something about old-series Master. Which is how I ended up exploring Old-School in the first place, and is actually kind of neat in a geeky way, but...still.
Basic facts: The Master is another Time Lord who was a close friend of the Doctor's while they were both at the Academy on Gallifrey. For no onscreen-specified reason, the Master became either evil or insane, depending on which interpretation you use, and when he shows up in the series it's as an enemy - but one that the Doctor is rather fond of. After the Third Doctor era (which is when he first appeared), the Master was a recurring villain, showing up in every Doctor's era. However, when we last saw him, he had used up his regenerations and was living in a stolen body, which is why it's such a shock for the Doctor that he's still alive.
Also, the old-series Master was at once a similar and very different character than the one you're about to see. Just a note.
6. :D There can never be enough conspiracy-theorist Munch.
7. Inappropriate nothing. T'was there for a giggle. XD
8. *gigglesnort* Really? I had almost no opinion of him until that episode, whereupon I promptly started to ship him and Connie provided that Connie wears the pants in the relationship.
12. Yay Sarah Brightman! I had no idea what I was going to do with that song, since it's such a self-contained story on its own, so...I just thought about how it'd sound outside of a song context.
Er. Well, "cheesy fun"
and "the lead male character is pretty"is a big part of it, to be honest. But one of the advertising blurbs described it as "a happy X-Files" and, while it hasn't got The X-Files' scope by a mile, it does have kind of that feel. Mostly, I love it because it's intensely geeky (in a real, honest geeky way, not a "we know what a computer does so we MUST be geeks" way), endlessly self-referential in regards to the conventions of the superhero genre, and...lots and lots of fun. Also there was an episode with flying zombie fish. And the lead character uses "ri-gosh-darn-diculous" and "Flowers for Algernon!" and "mother of pearl!" and such in lieu of expletives without a hint of irony.But your mileage may vary.
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whereupon I promptly started to ship him and Connie provided that Connie wears the pants in the relationship.
*snert* I think we can all agree on that.
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I had no idea what I was going to do with that song, since it's such a self-contained story on its own,
Me: ...it's what now?
Seems I never actually looked up the lyrics to Hijo de la Luna. Usually I try to at least get a basic idea of what my foreign-language songs are about, but I guess I just assumed this one meant something like "Dance of the Moon" (my Spanish skillz, they are non-existent! And it sounds like you could dance to it!) and never bothered to explore it further. Wow. Now having done so, my mind's kind of blown.
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I may actually give last night's episode of Middleman a shot, if I can find it, as TV Squad just reminded me that Kevin Sorbo was in it. And if anything's going to get me to look past the ludicrousness, it's going to be Kevin Sorbo, who excels at making ludicrous things seem...if not less so, than at least more acceptable.
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I thought the translated lyrics to Hijo de la Luna were in the CD booklet, though? Anyway, yeah. The actual meaning of the words is a little bizarre, considering how sweetly Sarah sings those opening stanzas.
And yes, Kevin Sorbo was in the most recent episode of Middleman. And he's a lot of fun in anything, so I definitely enjoyed him in that. I'd check the Wiki or something before you watch it, though, as there's already some background to the show by that point.