Audience of Strangers

There has been meme-ing! Also at least one lost post, which is why this took so long. ladybird97 gave me seven things to write about, and I have. (Will happily come up with seven suggestions, for anyone commenting who is interested?)

( Rainbows, puppies, the thing you're proudest of, new beginnings, the best yarn ever, the moment when it all makes sense, and coffee. )

List 15 of your favorite TV shows/movies/books/etc and post them here for everyone to guess your favorite character from each. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly and put the answer and who guessed it.

Some of you may be surprised to see things like Doctor Who not on the list. That's because I think it's unfair to ask people to guess about a character that's no longer on a still-running show.

(Yes. Nine is my Doctor.)

01. Misfits (TV) - Simon (guessed by jasmine_koran on LJ)
02. Criminal Minds (TV) - Spencer Reid (guessed by risen_one on LJ)
03. The Stand (book) - Glen Bateman (guessed by theweaselking)
04. Leverage (TV) - Parker (guessed by theweaselking)
05. Feed (book) - Georgia (guessed by Heath via GChat)
06. Breaking Bad (TV) - Jesse Pinkman (guessed by theweaselking)
07. Brick (movie)
08. Deathtrap (movie. or play)
09. Streets of Fire (movie)
10. Fallout (computer game)
11. Gossip Girl (TV) - Blair Waldorf (guessed by snakey with an assist from risen_one on LJ)
12. V (TV, the original series)
13. Fringe (TV) - Walter Bishop (guessed by theweaselking)
14. The Narnia series (books) - Puddleglum (guessed by snakey
15. Days (book)

So! Guess my favourite characters from each.

From rosicrucian

• The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
• The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
• The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
• Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post it in your own journal.

...God but this could get weirdly addictive.

(1) Faultless incomprehension, that I couldn't fix and couldn't save him from no matter how I tried.

(2) No, I don't either. I think the amount of pettiness, whining, lack of thought, and institutionalization of the Geek Social Fallacies that I've run across on the one forum I still made any effort to vist manged to sour most of the good memories I had of the old forums.

(3) Uhm... There's really things to do year-round, though if you're not up for forty below or thirty-five above, I'd avoid February and July/August. It takes longer to get around in winter, which is probably a bad thing. But, I mean, it's *Ottawa*; there's always stuff to see, and unless you're after a specific festival, it's always there.

(4) The extensive development of the world and story outside of combat and monster-hunting; not just that there *is* one, but that the games make it clear over and over that personal interaction matters. Vampire's politics, Wraith's emotional existence and ties, and Deadlands Fear Levels and Tale-Tellin' are things where you *have to* roleplay to make progress. More, they're so essential to the game that *everything in the world* recognizes them as vitally important, and the PCs are respected or feared for how they affect those things. No Vampire elder says "Yes yes, I'm sure everyone likes and listens to Cassandra, but what does it matter?" No Reckoner says "My, those folks are having people beat back their fear across half the West--nah, I have more important things to do than send Los Diablos after them."

You can get this in other games and game settings. But WoD and Deadlands make them essential.

Deadlands' "sexism is for the villainous and the shamefully ignorant" probably gets it points, too, as does WoD's explicitly modern setting. Neither game seems at all self-conscious about the idea of female players or characters.

Combine that with the relative newness of the games (meaning you're less likely to run into guys who've been playing it since 1974, and are sure they can help you if you just hand them your character sheet and let them tell you what to do, or else sees it as a competition and has wanked the system so hard you can't do anything when they're around because they've got it all covered), and you're golden.

(5) Ohh. Tough one. Honestly, I'm going to go with cute and funny; they don't make me laugh past the initial "Oh, a Cthulhu reference!", but "insult" is a rather charged word, and of all the things that I could insist be treated with unswerving dignity, solemnity, and respect, I am afraid that Lovecraft's short stories are fairly low on the list.

(It's not that I usually find the joke takes to be funny, usually, but they often seem to be less of an insult and more of a missing the point.)

When you hear the phrase children of the razor, what comes to mind? (Comments screened by default. No mockery for responses will be given.)

*placing bets with self on who, if anyone, will mention Lansdale*

BPAL order shipped yesterday. Bliss!

benchilada.">1. God or no God?

...I am actually going to take a pass on this one, since I need to be out of here in an hour, and I can't articulate enough in that time.

2. Marvel vs DC?

Started out with Marvel--I think Alpha Flight #6 was my first one ever. Kind of flipped through them for a while, then turned into a massive X-Men geek when I was about fourteen. Gave up on them around the time they switched to an alternate world for four issues, by which time I'd picked up other books--mostly Vertigo, some of the standalone graphic novels from each line, and a mild interest in Batman.

Now... meh, I don't know. I've sworn off both for the foreseeable future.

Summation: I've read more Marvel, but DC brought me Vertigo. For that, DC.

3. Why do hurt the ones we love?

Because we get worked up and snappish about things that are important to us that aren't going quite right, and we sometimes don't watch what we do or say when we assume someone's going to understand us.

4. Super power you always wanted.

Ability to let people hear and understand what other people are trying to say. (Which I actually did not realize until very recently is "Doug Ramsay's powers, made accessible to multiple people.")

5. Your own reality show, what would it be. You can be outside the box.

Uhm. No. No way, no how, no. Those things are creepy.

EDIT: Oh, right, it's St. Patrick's Day. Thank god I wasn't planning on going out tonight.

Feels very odd to be doing this now. And since it's tking forever to finish, I have just decided to snip the ones i haven't written answers to yet.
Italicized duplicate responses.

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Proposed.
(Also got my ear pierced. Properly. And a haircut that would be a mohawk if it was narrower and had gel or something. These are secondary.)

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Didn't make any. Probably not.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
None. (It's been a slow year.)

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
A healthy Toby-cat.

7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 17. Not so much the date, more the event. (Again, see 1. Hint: not earrings.)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
See 1.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing of note, IIRC.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
theweaselking.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Mostly, figures that theweaselking posted news stories about.
(This isn't a duplicate entry. I'm proud of that.)

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent. Then my cats.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
See 1.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
Can't really think of one.

20. How will did you be spending Christmas?
Breakfast with John's family. Went home and curled up with a movie, IIRC. Diablo may also have been involved.

21. How will did you be spending New Year's Eve?
Dinner with John's family. Went by Angela and Antra's for their New Year's Party. First time in years I haven't spent midnight quietly at home, preparing to wash the dishes.

22. Did you fall in love in 2006?
No.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Deadwood, no question about it.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Prestige, with an honourable mention for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less slacking.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Not paying attention. Not paying attention. Not paying atten-- oh, hey, today seems like a day to spend two hours fussing over how I look. Not paying attention.
Also, painted toenails. A lot.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"You were my sunny day rain
You were the clouds in the sky
You were the darkest sky
But your lips spoke gold and honey
That's why I'm happy when it rains."
- Jesus and Mary Chain, "Happy When It Rains"

Yanked from harald387, here (his has the numbers still in, handy if you want to do this yourself). Links of names in the list are to pictures.

Choose twelve of your original characters in any particular order, without looking at the questions under the cut. Then answer the questions.

1) Mallory Manson
2) Melianthe Blackmoor, Mistress of the Mystic Arts
3) Sam Murdock
4) Velvet van Sloane
5) Jack Hollow
6) Zed Torrain
7) Astrid Iysekch
8) Bloody Boots
9) Staples Peterson
10) Tulsa Andrakis
11) Epworth
12) Jenny Spikestones

You know, I left out Black Shuck for this, on the theory that he is not *technically* an original character, but merely a figure from folklore that I was geeking madly and writing stories about at age... hrm... seven. So this had better be good.

( No peeking at the questions untill you've whipped up that list, unless you're not going to do the meme. )

Bloody freaking hell.

( I'm the /Star Wars/ character who can't remember names. )
Little punk.