Fanfiction.net Saved My Sanity!
I never thought I'd say this, but ...
Fanfiction.net just saved my sanity. Yes, The Pit of Voles just gave me a moment of triumph at 3:46 on a Sunday morning. Odd circumstances, I know, but allow me to explain.
There's this episode of 'Hustle', and it's been in my head since I first saw it because, in it, my favourite character dies. Or rather, he fakes his death. Please forgive me, but I'm going to go into some detail here:
By a series of circumstances that I can't recall, The Team get caught up with some Japanese (?) businessmen/scary 'kill you if you cross us' type people. (The Team, at this point, consists of Mickey, Ash, Stacie, Danny and Albert - so we're talking S1 to S4.) As a result, they get trapped in their own HQ (Eddie's Bar) by these men, and forced to either take it in turns or nominate someone to eat puffer fish sushi; one of the five pieces of sushi has the puffer fish poison in it. My favourite character steps up, being the noble magnificent bastard that he is, and eats a piece of sushi. He then keels over dead.
Cue the rest of the team rushing to his side, and me (and my Mum) screaming blue murder at the telly. (He's my Mum's favourite, too.) I was incredibly shaken by it, and it's one of the (few) moments in Hustle (much as I love the show) that I can remember clearly. That's one of the reasons why I love it so much - that feeling of horror when he 'dies', then the relief of seeing how The Team've actually pulled the wool over our eyes, and their enemies' eyes.
Except there's a problem. My parents don't remember it at all. At all.
I've related it to them several times; I know for a fact that they were there. The moment is etched on my memory. Like when I read the end of the Wind Singer trilogy and cried until there were tears streaming down my face. Like when I read that Sirius was dead in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and was completely beside myself. Like when I watched the cliffhanger at the end of 'The Stolen Earth' and hated my Dad for making me watch it on holiday and spend a week panicking that Ten was going to regenerate early. Some moments you just remember, even if it is related to a stupid thing like books or TV shows.
Their inability to remember this made me start to question my own mind. My inability to find the episode didn't help. (The Wikipedia episode guide appears to be the only one, and it's frankly rubbish if you can't remember the broad strokes of the con they were pulling.) The character's Wikipedia page and BBC page didn't mention the faked death. The internet at large seemed unable to find anything when I searched for the character's name and Hustle with any of the following: death, fake death, sushi, puffer fish, poison, and many combinations of the above.
To make matters worse, I could remember reading a fic about the episode. (It was an episode coda, where Stacie couldn't quite put his 'death' out of her mind. I remembered that in detail, too.)
Had I gone mad and dreamed an entire episode, with accompanying fanfic? (Thing is, it was an Ash/Stacie fic. I don't even like that pairing, why would I dream it up?!) So, I started to question myself. Was I going insane and making stuff up? If so, why could I remember it in so much detail?!
More importantly: should I contact the BBC with this awesome idea for an episode? :P
And tonight, after months of intermittent searching and about a week of intensive brain-wracking and Google searching, fanfiction.net saved my mind. I found the fic!
Actually, I found two. One called Ashes to Ashes, whose summary tipped me off: "An alternate ending to ep 5, what if one of those pieces of Puffer fish really had been poisonous?" (Made me jump out of me seat, punch the ceiling the air and shout "YES!!! IT EXISTS!", I can tell you.) And then I found Untitled, which was the fic I was actually remembering. (I'm linking them to prove their existance. So that I know I'm not going crazy.)
So, I went to Wikipedia and scanned through all the summaries of the fifth episode in series one to four - and I found it. It's not obvious, and I can see why I missed it. But I found it. Series 4, Episode 5.
GOTCHA!
Now all I have to do is wait until I get home and prove that I'm not a crazy to my parents. (And, in fact, prove to them that they're the crazy ones for forgetting such an epic peice of television!)
*deep sigh of relief*
And that's the story of how Fanfiction.net saved my sanity.
As a reward for putting up with my drivel, I'll give you a tip. If you can access it, go to the BBC iPlayer and watch Live At The Apollo S5E5. (You have until Saturday 5th February.) Ed Bryne, Adam Hills and Gina Yashere. I guarantee you will not be disappointed, and that you will have a very good laugh. XD
Right, I'm off to bed, since it's ten past four in the morning. At least I will sleep soundly, with the knowledge that I'm not off my rocker! G'night!
.
Fanfiction.net just saved my sanity. Yes, The Pit of Voles just gave me a moment of triumph at 3:46 on a Sunday morning. Odd circumstances, I know, but allow me to explain.
There's this episode of 'Hustle', and it's been in my head since I first saw it because, in it, my favourite character dies. Or rather, he fakes his death. Please forgive me, but I'm going to go into some detail here:
By a series of circumstances that I can't recall, The Team get caught up with some Japanese (?) businessmen/scary 'kill you if you cross us' type people. (The Team, at this point, consists of Mickey, Ash, Stacie, Danny and Albert - so we're talking S1 to S4.) As a result, they get trapped in their own HQ (Eddie's Bar) by these men, and forced to either take it in turns or nominate someone to eat puffer fish sushi; one of the five pieces of sushi has the puffer fish poison in it. My favourite character steps up, being the noble magnificent bastard that he is, and eats a piece of sushi. He then keels over dead.
Cue the rest of the team rushing to his side, and me (and my Mum) screaming blue murder at the telly. (He's my Mum's favourite, too.) I was incredibly shaken by it, and it's one of the (few) moments in Hustle (much as I love the show) that I can remember clearly. That's one of the reasons why I love it so much - that feeling of horror when he 'dies', then the relief of seeing how The Team've actually pulled the wool over our eyes, and their enemies' eyes.
Except there's a problem. My parents don't remember it at all. At all.
I've related it to them several times; I know for a fact that they were there. The moment is etched on my memory. Like when I read the end of the Wind Singer trilogy and cried until there were tears streaming down my face. Like when I read that Sirius was dead in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and was completely beside myself. Like when I watched the cliffhanger at the end of 'The Stolen Earth' and hated my Dad for making me watch it on holiday and spend a week panicking that Ten was going to regenerate early. Some moments you just remember, even if it is related to a stupid thing like books or TV shows.
Their inability to remember this made me start to question my own mind. My inability to find the episode didn't help. (The Wikipedia episode guide appears to be the only one, and it's frankly rubbish if you can't remember the broad strokes of the con they were pulling.) The character's Wikipedia page and BBC page didn't mention the faked death. The internet at large seemed unable to find anything when I searched for the character's name and Hustle with any of the following: death, fake death, sushi, puffer fish, poison, and many combinations of the above.
To make matters worse, I could remember reading a fic about the episode. (It was an episode coda, where Stacie couldn't quite put his 'death' out of her mind. I remembered that in detail, too.)
Had I gone mad and dreamed an entire episode, with accompanying fanfic? (Thing is, it was an Ash/Stacie fic. I don't even like that pairing, why would I dream it up?!) So, I started to question myself. Was I going insane and making stuff up? If so, why could I remember it in so much detail?!
More importantly: should I contact the BBC with this awesome idea for an episode? :P
And tonight, after months of intermittent searching and about a week of intensive brain-wracking and Google searching, fanfiction.net saved my mind. I found the fic!
Actually, I found two. One called Ashes to Ashes, whose summary tipped me off: "An alternate ending to ep 5, what if one of those pieces of Puffer fish really had been poisonous?" (Made me jump out of me seat, punch the ceiling the air and shout "YES!!! IT EXISTS!", I can tell you.) And then I found Untitled, which was the fic I was actually remembering. (I'm linking them to prove their existance. So that I know I'm not going crazy.)
So, I went to Wikipedia and scanned through all the summaries of the fifth episode in series one to four - and I found it. It's not obvious, and I can see why I missed it. But I found it. Series 4, Episode 5.
GOTCHA!
Now all I have to do is wait until I get home and prove that I'm not a crazy to my parents. (And, in fact, prove to them that they're the crazy ones for forgetting such an epic peice of television!)
*deep sigh of relief*
And that's the story of how Fanfiction.net saved my sanity.
As a reward for putting up with my drivel, I'll give you a tip. If you can access it, go to the BBC iPlayer and watch Live At The Apollo S5E5. (You have until Saturday 5th February.) Ed Bryne, Adam Hills and Gina Yashere. I guarantee you will not be disappointed, and that you will have a very good laugh. XD
Right, I'm off to bed, since it's ten past four in the morning. At least I will sleep soundly, with the knowledge that I'm not off my rocker! G'night!
.