Yuletide reveals, and what I've been watching lately
First off, Yuletide. I was assigned to valmora, who wanted Molly and Nightingale, and their prompts made me think about this exchange in RoL:
"Molly can do haemomancy," said Nightingale. "It's very impressive."
I sorted through my slim store of Greek. "Divination through the agency of blood?"
Nightingale chewed thoughtfully and swallowed. "Perhaps that's not the best term for it," he said. "Molly can help you extend your sense of vestigia out some distance."
"How far?"
"Two or three miles," said Nightingale. "I only did it the once, so it's hard to tell."
"What was it like?"
"Like stepping into the world of ghosts," said Nightingale. "It may even be the world of ghosts, for all I know. It might be possible to find Henry Pyke that way."
"Why can't we do it that way now?" I asked.
"Because the odds are five to one against you surviving the experience," said Nightingale.
And once you think about it there are a LOT of questions, like HOW and WHY did Molly and Nightingale decide it would be interesting to see what happened if Molly bit Nightingale's neck and sucked his blood? I mean, what chain of events would lead up to that? And then I stuck that together with all the weird metaphysical bits of RoL where characters are in one place and also simultaneously in some other only partially real or only partially real-in-our-universe place - and how that's different from when Peter actually literally goes bodily to fairyland. And the bits we learned about Molly's backstory in Lies Sleeping. So I decided to dive headfirst into all that and wrote five to one against. I meant to write all sorts of treats, but none of them actually got completed because wrangling metaphysics for this fic took all my brain, plus I somehow got in a muddle about exactly when Cub was breaking up for Christmas and suddenly discovered I had a week less to write than I thought I did.
And my gifts! I said I thought my Nirvana in Fire/Temeraire fusion, Seed, had to be written by someone I knew, and I was right, so thank you very much, darling
spatz, because you really took that idea and ran with it. And the lovely
greerwatson wrote me my surprise bonus treat for Mrs Pollifax, Flight at Christmas. Thank you both very much!
***
So now, several years after everyone else, I have started watching the new Star Trek Discovery, and wow, it definitely knows how to get my attention. I have watched the first three episodes so far, and am very sad to discover that the whole show is not going to be wonderful mentorship feels and loyalty kink between Captain Georgiou and Michael, but I am definitely enjoying the ride anyway. Also, Tilly is pure delight. I have a feeling I'm going to like this show a lot.
In other things I am watching a long time after everyone else, I have also started with the original 1970s Upstairs Downstairs, and wow, they really knew how to skewer the class distinctions back then. Really good. Again, I've only watched the first four episodes so far, but I'm very interested to see more.
Also watched the original I, Claudius which was pretty good, there was a lot I recognised from Suetonius and Tacitius as well as Graves's take on it. It was frankly a lot darker than stuff I usually watch, but anything that gets into Caligula's relationship with his sister and with reality is going to go to some pretty grisly places. Derek Jacobi was fantastic, of course, and so was John Hurt. Because it's just following the historical events, it was a bit woolly in terms of plot, it's very this-happens-then-that-happens in a way that reminds me of nothing so much as second-rate fanfic that follows canon events without making enough of them. It picked up a lot in the final episodes when Claudius is Emperor, the difference between when he's observing events and when he's actually the protagonist of them was very notable. And I loved Augustus, who was almost exactly how I picture him in the full annoying-but-good politician way. Also, I got a bit fed up of the way all the women were villains.
Crossposted at https://philomytha.dreamwidth.org/158029.html. There are
comments there.
"Molly can do haemomancy," said Nightingale. "It's very impressive."
I sorted through my slim store of Greek. "Divination through the agency of blood?"
Nightingale chewed thoughtfully and swallowed. "Perhaps that's not the best term for it," he said. "Molly can help you extend your sense of vestigia out some distance."
"How far?"
"Two or three miles," said Nightingale. "I only did it the once, so it's hard to tell."
"What was it like?"
"Like stepping into the world of ghosts," said Nightingale. "It may even be the world of ghosts, for all I know. It might be possible to find Henry Pyke that way."
"Why can't we do it that way now?" I asked.
"Because the odds are five to one against you surviving the experience," said Nightingale.
And once you think about it there are a LOT of questions, like HOW and WHY did Molly and Nightingale decide it would be interesting to see what happened if Molly bit Nightingale's neck and sucked his blood? I mean, what chain of events would lead up to that? And then I stuck that together with all the weird metaphysical bits of RoL where characters are in one place and also simultaneously in some other only partially real or only partially real-in-our-universe place - and how that's different from when Peter actually literally goes bodily to fairyland. And the bits we learned about Molly's backstory in Lies Sleeping. So I decided to dive headfirst into all that and wrote five to one against. I meant to write all sorts of treats, but none of them actually got completed because wrangling metaphysics for this fic took all my brain, plus I somehow got in a muddle about exactly when Cub was breaking up for Christmas and suddenly discovered I had a week less to write than I thought I did.
And my gifts! I said I thought my Nirvana in Fire/Temeraire fusion, Seed, had to be written by someone I knew, and I was right, so thank you very much, darling
spatz, because you really took that idea and ran with it. And the lovely
greerwatson wrote me my surprise bonus treat for Mrs Pollifax, Flight at Christmas. Thank you both very much!
***
So now, several years after everyone else, I have started watching the new Star Trek Discovery, and wow, it definitely knows how to get my attention. I have watched the first three episodes so far, and am very sad to discover that the whole show is not going to be wonderful mentorship feels and loyalty kink between Captain Georgiou and Michael, but I am definitely enjoying the ride anyway. Also, Tilly is pure delight. I have a feeling I'm going to like this show a lot.
In other things I am watching a long time after everyone else, I have also started with the original 1970s Upstairs Downstairs, and wow, they really knew how to skewer the class distinctions back then. Really good. Again, I've only watched the first four episodes so far, but I'm very interested to see more.
Also watched the original I, Claudius which was pretty good, there was a lot I recognised from Suetonius and Tacitius as well as Graves's take on it. It was frankly a lot darker than stuff I usually watch, but anything that gets into Caligula's relationship with his sister and with reality is going to go to some pretty grisly places. Derek Jacobi was fantastic, of course, and so was John Hurt. Because it's just following the historical events, it was a bit woolly in terms of plot, it's very this-happens-then-that-happens in a way that reminds me of nothing so much as second-rate fanfic that follows canon events without making enough of them. It picked up a lot in the final episodes when Claudius is Emperor, the difference between when he's observing events and when he's actually the protagonist of them was very notable. And I loved Augustus, who was almost exactly how I picture him in the full annoying-but-good politician way. Also, I got a bit fed up of the way all the women were villains.
Crossposted at https://philomytha.dreamwidth.org/158029.html. There are
comments there.