Backstories R Us
I posted this meme the other day, in which I invited people to name a character from an array of fandoms (Harry Potter, Pet Shop of Horrors, House, Jeeves & Wooster or any of the Star Treks except for Enterprise), and in return, I would supply some backstory or a take on how I see/interpret the character. I posted it as a bit of fun, but it's actually proved to be a very good writing exercise for me, so I thought I'd gather the responses here (cleaned up a little) for those who haven't seen them.
Three facts about Minerva McGonagall:
1) She can hold her whisky better than anybody at Hogwarts... except for Hagrid.
2) She was married at some point before she started teaching at Hogwarts, but she isn't married now.
3) She hexed Dumbledore's portrait silent after finding out that he a) cruelly used both Harry and Severus as human sacrifices and b) didn't trust her enough to share any of the secret plans with her.
Five Things That Never Happened to Ronald Weasley:
1) He never married Hermione, because thankfully, the two of them realized that neither could provide what the other person really wanted, and they were better off as good friends anyway.
2) He never became an auror because George needed him more than the Ministry of Magic did, and anyway, creating practical jokes was loads more fun than filling out paperwork.
3) He never forgot that he was filling in for Fred, though, and on the night when Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes opened their twentieth location, Ron poured three toasts: one for himself, one for George, and one for their silent, dearly-missed partner in crime.
4) He never stopped being friends with either Harry or Hermione, even after Harry became a Snape apologist and Hermione started dating the greasy git.
5) He never regretted getting married a bit later than usual, because Gabrielle Delacour was beautiful and sophisticated and he loved her, and she was worth every moment of the wait to be with her.
Three Facts about Rowena Ravenclaw:
1) She was good friends with Helga Hufflepuff, because she understood that wisdom was only gained through hard work.
2) The man she married and the man she loved were two different people, but she was prudent enough to justify this choice to herself.
3) It was said that she died of a broken heart, and this is true. It was a long and slow and painful process, and it began the day that Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts castle, never to return.
Five Things that Never Happened to Lisa Cuddy:
1) She could never quite swallow the guilt when she saw House limping, so even when he pushed well beyond the boundaries of what was acceptable, she couldn't bring herself to condemn him. She owed him that much.
2) She never fell in love with Wilson, pretty and inoffensive as he was. When she was honest with herself, she suspected that the problem was that he was too pretty and inoffensive, though she didn't like to think about what that meant.
3) She never regretted standing by House, though there were days when she came damn close to it.
4) She never fully understood what standard she was using to judge the men she met on her blind dates, but she knew without a doubt that none of them were equal to it.
5) She never got tired of the satisfaction she felt in her position, whenever those who had doubted her were forced to depend on her favor.
Three Facts about Elim Garak:
1) His current line of work is not so different from his former profession: both tailors and assassins must work neatly and carefully and precisely, in an effort to make the results of their handiwork look as natural as possible.
2) He doesn't know quite what to call the feelings he has when in the company of Julian Bashir; he only knows that in Julian's presence, he feels more alive than he has in all his days in exile.
3) Garak secretly suspects that he would do anything, no matter how cold-blooded, if the reward for doing so would be the chance to go back home to the Cardassian Empire. Even if he knew the target. Even if the target was Julian.
One reason (among many) that Data is awsomecakes: he's strong enough to bend metal bars without difficulty, but he has the gentlest soul of them all, capable of appreciating the value of every life, no matter what obnoxious or unusual form it takes.
Three Facts about Jean-Luc Picard:
1. As a boy, he took equal delight in reading Shakespeare's thoughtful heroes and the men of action in seedy detective novels, a contrast that shows in the life he's chosen for himself: a bold adventurer with the sensitive soul of a poet.
2. The only thing standing between Picard and a relationship with Beverly Crusher is the ghost of Jack Crusher.
3. There are times--late at night and early in the morning, in the place between sleep and wakefulness--when Picard thinks he can hear the whispering of the collective, even now, and it chills him more than anything else he's ever heard.
Three Facts about Luna Lovegood:
1. She knew that Professor Snape had been bullied at school long before Harry told her. She recognized it in the hunch of his shoulders and the look in his eyes and the way he snapped at the first whisper of disrespect.
2. She understands that there's very little proof that the creatures she seeks exist--but she also knows that there's no proof that they don't exist, either, so she doesn't see why she should stop looking.
3. When she was younger, her favorite soft toy was Horace the Horklump. She brought him with her to Hogwarts, but she never took him out of her trunk, because she didn't mind if the other girls hid her quills and shoes and such--those were only things, after all--but Horace was her friend, and she though it would be very sad for him if he were lost.
Q-Chan is as protective as a tiny, cute, fluffy winged rabbit can be. He's always there to look out for the safety and well-being of D and Chris, in any situation. Even when it means having to work in tandem with Leon (*g*), Q-Chan, will make sure that his chosen charges will come to no harm.
Three Facts about Madeline Bassett:
1. Madeline had no idea what a newt actually was until her engagement to Gussie, but she was sure she would love them instantly because Gussie did.
2. Madeline can't decide whether she more admires or pities Bertie for bravely hiding his heartbreak over her so well and pretending to be perfectly happy living as a lonely bachelor with Jeeves.
3. Madeline went through a brief hunger strike in her younger years, when it occurred to her that fruits and vegetables might have feelings, too, and it must be wickedly cruel to eat them.
Gul Dukat is awesomecakes because he makes conflicted moral ambiguity look dead sexy, and there is a strange glimmer of decency in him, if you look very closely. Then again, this may only make his ultimate choices all the more despicable: he could have been a good man, if he'd wanted to be.
Three Facts about Severus Snape:
1. He's either a virgin or relatively inexperienced. Not that people can't differentiate between love and sex and seek one without the other--it's just that an intensely private, secretly needy man like Snape doesn't plausibly strike me as one of those people. It seems like he gives everything or nothing, so when he lost the opportunity to give everything... he contented himself with nothing. Until he survived Nagini's attack, and then he met the woman (or man) of his dreams and decided that sex was actually pretty fun after all, and he should have a lot more of it to make up for lost time.
2. The bookcases at Spinner's End are all his doing. He always wanted a house with a library in, and although he could never afford that sort of house, he did figure out how to create a library of his own.
3. He isn't actually all that tall; it's just that the looming and swooping and the billowing black robes make him look like a much larger man--which is, of course, exactly his intent. Besides, what man doesn't look tall to a bunch of eleven-year-olds?
Three Facts about Julian Bashir:
1. Because of the genetic "enhancement" his parents gave him, Julian has never been quite sure how much of him is himself, and how much a creation of the procedure. If his brilliance isn't really his, then who's to say what else is an illusion?
2. With his scores, he could have had any prime medical post in Starfleet. He chose to come to DS9, to the broken-down frontier, because he wanted to give his all in a place that had the least. If his parents broke the rules to grant him boons, then the least he could do was use those talents to serve.
3. He has always loved Dax. No matter the form, no matter the time or place, he has always loved the essence that is Dax, and he always will.
Three Facts about Bertie Wooster:
1. He purposely looks for call-and-response songs to play on the piano, because then he has an excuse to rope Jeeves into a duet.
2. When he was a boy, he once overheard Aunt Agatha say that she thought Bertie was a very poor exchange for the lives of her brother and sister-in-law.
3. Sometimes, Bertie finds himself entranced just by the pleasure of watching Jeeves work: pouring tea, ironing, arranging life's chaos just so with certainty, deftness and grace. Watching Jeeves soothes something inside Bertie that he didn't even realize was sore.
Three Facts about Reginald Jeeves:
1. Jeeves was quiet and reserved even as a boy, but he read a great deal, and in his imagination, he traveled the world, talked with kings and learned from the greatest of minds.
2. Jeeves loves working with Bertie's clothes. As he smoothes lapels and straightens seams and fastens cuffs and collars, he is careful not to let his touch linger too long, or to cross the line between professional concern and tenderness. He knows the difference between the two, and while the first is what makes him exceptional at his work, the second is an indulgence he refuses to allow himself.
3. Jeeves finds Bertie's taste in music to be execrable, but all the same, he feels an odd sense of pleasure whenever the young master takes the piano, and Jeeves' gaze is inevitably drawn to the play of those fingers over the keys, nimble and talented and unexpectedly delicate in their touch.
If you'd still like to play along with the game, just drop a comment asking for a character from one of the fandoms listed and suggesting which letter you'd prefer!
Three facts about Minerva McGonagall:
1) She can hold her whisky better than anybody at Hogwarts... except for Hagrid.
2) She was married at some point before she started teaching at Hogwarts, but she isn't married now.
3) She hexed Dumbledore's portrait silent after finding out that he a) cruelly used both Harry and Severus as human sacrifices and b) didn't trust her enough to share any of the secret plans with her.
Five Things That Never Happened to Ronald Weasley:
1) He never married Hermione, because thankfully, the two of them realized that neither could provide what the other person really wanted, and they were better off as good friends anyway.
2) He never became an auror because George needed him more than the Ministry of Magic did, and anyway, creating practical jokes was loads more fun than filling out paperwork.
3) He never forgot that he was filling in for Fred, though, and on the night when Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes opened their twentieth location, Ron poured three toasts: one for himself, one for George, and one for their silent, dearly-missed partner in crime.
4) He never stopped being friends with either Harry or Hermione, even after Harry became a Snape apologist and Hermione started dating the greasy git.
5) He never regretted getting married a bit later than usual, because Gabrielle Delacour was beautiful and sophisticated and he loved her, and she was worth every moment of the wait to be with her.
Three Facts about Rowena Ravenclaw:
1) She was good friends with Helga Hufflepuff, because she understood that wisdom was only gained through hard work.
2) The man she married and the man she loved were two different people, but she was prudent enough to justify this choice to herself.
3) It was said that she died of a broken heart, and this is true. It was a long and slow and painful process, and it began the day that Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts castle, never to return.
Five Things that Never Happened to Lisa Cuddy:
1) She could never quite swallow the guilt when she saw House limping, so even when he pushed well beyond the boundaries of what was acceptable, she couldn't bring herself to condemn him. She owed him that much.
2) She never fell in love with Wilson, pretty and inoffensive as he was. When she was honest with herself, she suspected that the problem was that he was too pretty and inoffensive, though she didn't like to think about what that meant.
3) She never regretted standing by House, though there were days when she came damn close to it.
4) She never fully understood what standard she was using to judge the men she met on her blind dates, but she knew without a doubt that none of them were equal to it.
5) She never got tired of the satisfaction she felt in her position, whenever those who had doubted her were forced to depend on her favor.
Three Facts about Elim Garak:
1) His current line of work is not so different from his former profession: both tailors and assassins must work neatly and carefully and precisely, in an effort to make the results of their handiwork look as natural as possible.
2) He doesn't know quite what to call the feelings he has when in the company of Julian Bashir; he only knows that in Julian's presence, he feels more alive than he has in all his days in exile.
3) Garak secretly suspects that he would do anything, no matter how cold-blooded, if the reward for doing so would be the chance to go back home to the Cardassian Empire. Even if he knew the target. Even if the target was Julian.
One reason (among many) that Data is awsomecakes: he's strong enough to bend metal bars without difficulty, but he has the gentlest soul of them all, capable of appreciating the value of every life, no matter what obnoxious or unusual form it takes.
Three Facts about Jean-Luc Picard:
1. As a boy, he took equal delight in reading Shakespeare's thoughtful heroes and the men of action in seedy detective novels, a contrast that shows in the life he's chosen for himself: a bold adventurer with the sensitive soul of a poet.
2. The only thing standing between Picard and a relationship with Beverly Crusher is the ghost of Jack Crusher.
3. There are times--late at night and early in the morning, in the place between sleep and wakefulness--when Picard thinks he can hear the whispering of the collective, even now, and it chills him more than anything else he's ever heard.
Three Facts about Luna Lovegood:
1. She knew that Professor Snape had been bullied at school long before Harry told her. She recognized it in the hunch of his shoulders and the look in his eyes and the way he snapped at the first whisper of disrespect.
2. She understands that there's very little proof that the creatures she seeks exist--but she also knows that there's no proof that they don't exist, either, so she doesn't see why she should stop looking.
3. When she was younger, her favorite soft toy was Horace the Horklump. She brought him with her to Hogwarts, but she never took him out of her trunk, because she didn't mind if the other girls hid her quills and shoes and such--those were only things, after all--but Horace was her friend, and she though it would be very sad for him if he were lost.
Q-Chan is as protective as a tiny, cute, fluffy winged rabbit can be. He's always there to look out for the safety and well-being of D and Chris, in any situation. Even when it means having to work in tandem with Leon (*g*), Q-Chan, will make sure that his chosen charges will come to no harm.
Three Facts about Madeline Bassett:
1. Madeline had no idea what a newt actually was until her engagement to Gussie, but she was sure she would love them instantly because Gussie did.
2. Madeline can't decide whether she more admires or pities Bertie for bravely hiding his heartbreak over her so well and pretending to be perfectly happy living as a lonely bachelor with Jeeves.
3. Madeline went through a brief hunger strike in her younger years, when it occurred to her that fruits and vegetables might have feelings, too, and it must be wickedly cruel to eat them.
Gul Dukat is awesomecakes because he makes conflicted moral ambiguity look dead sexy, and there is a strange glimmer of decency in him, if you look very closely. Then again, this may only make his ultimate choices all the more despicable: he could have been a good man, if he'd wanted to be.
Three Facts about Severus Snape:
1. He's either a virgin or relatively inexperienced. Not that people can't differentiate between love and sex and seek one without the other--it's just that an intensely private, secretly needy man like Snape doesn't plausibly strike me as one of those people. It seems like he gives everything or nothing, so when he lost the opportunity to give everything... he contented himself with nothing. Until he survived Nagini's attack, and then he met the woman (or man) of his dreams and decided that sex was actually pretty fun after all, and he should have a lot more of it to make up for lost time.
2. The bookcases at Spinner's End are all his doing. He always wanted a house with a library in, and although he could never afford that sort of house, he did figure out how to create a library of his own.
3. He isn't actually all that tall; it's just that the looming and swooping and the billowing black robes make him look like a much larger man--which is, of course, exactly his intent. Besides, what man doesn't look tall to a bunch of eleven-year-olds?
Three Facts about Julian Bashir:
1. Because of the genetic "enhancement" his parents gave him, Julian has never been quite sure how much of him is himself, and how much a creation of the procedure. If his brilliance isn't really his, then who's to say what else is an illusion?
2. With his scores, he could have had any prime medical post in Starfleet. He chose to come to DS9, to the broken-down frontier, because he wanted to give his all in a place that had the least. If his parents broke the rules to grant him boons, then the least he could do was use those talents to serve.
3. He has always loved Dax. No matter the form, no matter the time or place, he has always loved the essence that is Dax, and he always will.
Three Facts about Bertie Wooster:
1. He purposely looks for call-and-response songs to play on the piano, because then he has an excuse to rope Jeeves into a duet.
2. When he was a boy, he once overheard Aunt Agatha say that she thought Bertie was a very poor exchange for the lives of her brother and sister-in-law.
3. Sometimes, Bertie finds himself entranced just by the pleasure of watching Jeeves work: pouring tea, ironing, arranging life's chaos just so with certainty, deftness and grace. Watching Jeeves soothes something inside Bertie that he didn't even realize was sore.
Three Facts about Reginald Jeeves:
1. Jeeves was quiet and reserved even as a boy, but he read a great deal, and in his imagination, he traveled the world, talked with kings and learned from the greatest of minds.
2. Jeeves loves working with Bertie's clothes. As he smoothes lapels and straightens seams and fastens cuffs and collars, he is careful not to let his touch linger too long, or to cross the line between professional concern and tenderness. He knows the difference between the two, and while the first is what makes him exceptional at his work, the second is an indulgence he refuses to allow himself.
3. Jeeves finds Bertie's taste in music to be execrable, but all the same, he feels an odd sense of pleasure whenever the young master takes the piano, and Jeeves' gaze is inevitably drawn to the play of those fingers over the keys, nimble and talented and unexpectedly delicate in their touch.
If you'd still like to play along with the game, just drop a comment asking for a character from one of the fandoms listed and suggesting which letter you'd prefer!