More questions!
From adam_donovan:
1. Who is the most irritating person you have encountered on this mission? Be absolutely honest because I am incapable of being offended.
Oh, now that's just not fair! You're all such lovely people. Some of you deeper down than others, I'll grant you, but the loveliness remains underneath it all.
Yeah, okay, it's Belinda.
2. As we're all pretty much suffering from homesickness, yet we know we can't get back home; what would be the one thing - if you could - that you would send back for from home to make your stay less painful?
Some sort of intergalactic telephone so that I could talk to my family any time I want. Or were you talking realistically? ('Cause, yeah, the rates alone would probably kill us.) My elephants.
I just realised how weird that sounded. No, not real ones, stupid. The wooden ones, with the trunks up so when they face the door they're supposed to bring good luck. My dad gave me the first one before my final exams in high school - it's sitting in my quarters right now - and the rest of them, about eight or so that I had to leave, came from various family members over the years, so hokey or not they're really special to me. There's a memory in each of 'em, the kind you can't find in photographs.
3. I had this girl once who had the strangest obsession, and I couldn't fathom what she was on about. It really confused me and -- what's with the attraction to lavender scented tissues?
Well, they smell nice? Also, they were always on special at my local supermarket. But, oh! You know what, I've just thought of a secondary function for the scent. It's like kind of an indicator. When you can't smell the lavender as you blow your nose, you know you're coming down with something.
4. What is the biggest secret you have? (Must be something you've never told anyone before, and something that quite possibly could uncover why you are the way you are - not that it's a bad thing)
I like that. That was clever. Just slippin' it in there between the lavender tissues and the self-deprecation and oh, by the way, what's your deep dark secret, Tell? Hahah. My deep dark secret is that I don't have any deep dark secrets. You'd better believe it. I'm as shallow as a puddle in midsummer, no doubt about it, and I am not in any way completely copping out of this question.
5. Did I ramble on too much in writing those questions?
...you can ramble too much?
From aricamuse:
1. Where is your practice doctor?
Oh, I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a Ph.D in geophysics.
2. What is your favorite recreational activity?
I'm told going to other planets doesn't count because it's my job. Huh.
Put Stackhouse and Mayday in a room together. Find ear plugs and a good solid hiding place. Popcorn optional.
3. Why did you become a doctor?
Science can tell us so much about who we are, where we come from... Truth is, we've barely even brushed the tip of the iceberg and there's nothing I'd love better than to dig down even a little bit deeper. The entire history of humankind is hung on a timeline of exploration and discovery, and this is... this is what's next.
And now here I am in the Pegasus Galaxy, in the lost city of the Ancients... So it's worked out pretty well for me. I guess you could use the same point to argue that somewhere along the way things must have gone horribly downhill, but I like to stay optimistic.
4. Favorite food?
Oh, don't tempt me! Seriously. We might have supplemented our MREs with some edible stuff, but Pegasus produce just isn't the same as Earth food, you know? I almost feel cheated; none of the Athosian livestock tastes like chicken. Even the chickens don't taste like chicken. On the other hand, all of the MREs do, regardless of content, so...
Right, I should just answer the question, shouldn't I? I miss a good pasta.
5. Why ask me for questions? Any particular reason?
Well, you were offering?
From i_hear_a_voice:
1. What should I know about you if we're going to be friends?
My birthday, April 21, is the exact same date as when Apollo 16 landed on the moon and is traditionally seen as the date when Rome was founded, and in 1944 on that very day women in France were given the right to vote. So, yay for the sisterhood! Incidentally, it's also the birthday of Catherine the Great and Queen Elizabeth II.
All right, you probably don't have to know that, but I thought it was interesting anyway.
What should you know about me...? Well, I talk all the time and I'm sort of a complete geek, but other than that, I'm perfectly normal.
Oh, and I'm currently stranded in the Pegasus Galaxy.
2. What's your favorite color?
Blue. It's the colour of the sky and, well, I've always been interested in what's going on up there. It's also the ocean around Atlantis. On the other hand, it also reminds me of the Wraith and... just, no. Orange is a fun colour, it just amuses me. It's so blatant and shameless, you just gotta love it.
3. What's your favorite memory?
Christmas has always been a really big thing in my family, you know, we were always the first house out with the fairy lights and the tinsel and all that - and the Christmas tree, Dad and the boys would always set out early and come back with the biggest tree the car could handle. And it was kind of a tradition that we'd all be there to decorate it. Well, this particular time wasn't really any different from any of the others. I was probably about your age, actually.
My two eldest brothers had moved out by then, but they'd both made it back for the holidays - Danny had brought Rebecca (his wife) and their daughter Annie, who couldn't have been older than two. So it's just this snapshot in my mind; all of us there together, Mom probably on her usual spiel about the mess made by the pine needles, Dad teasing her the whole time as he set up the lights that nobody else was allowed to touch, all of us just talking and laughing over some of the hideous home-made decorations of our elementary school years that our parents always treated like masterpieces (and then mistook the angels for Santas), while Annie threatened to disappear in a tangle of tinsel. There were other days, but for some reason that one sticks out for me, especially now. The other one is right after we arrived in Pegasus, when the failsafe activated and Atlantis rose to the ocean's surface. Seeing the water beating against the windows, and then suddenly the sunlight bursting through and all these possibilities suddenly seemed so real. It was like the whole galaxy had suddenly opened up for us again.
4. What's the nicest thing you ever did for someone else?
... This should be an easier question to answer than it's proving to be. Gee, this is just making me feel mean. I'm nice, really I am! But the nicest thing ever? Er...
5. What's the nicest thing someone did for you?
Believed in me.
As always, ask and questions will eventuate.
1. Who is the most irritating person you have encountered on this mission? Be absolutely honest because I am incapable of being offended.
Oh, now that's just not fair! You're all such lovely people. Some of you deeper down than others, I'll grant you, but the loveliness remains underneath it all.
Yeah, okay, it's Belinda.
2. As we're all pretty much suffering from homesickness, yet we know we can't get back home; what would be the one thing - if you could - that you would send back for from home to make your stay less painful?
Some sort of intergalactic telephone so that I could talk to my family any time I want. Or were you talking realistically? ('Cause, yeah, the rates alone would probably kill us.) My elephants.
I just realised how weird that sounded. No, not real ones, stupid. The wooden ones, with the trunks up so when they face the door they're supposed to bring good luck. My dad gave me the first one before my final exams in high school - it's sitting in my quarters right now - and the rest of them, about eight or so that I had to leave, came from various family members over the years, so hokey or not they're really special to me. There's a memory in each of 'em, the kind you can't find in photographs.
3. I had this girl once who had the strangest obsession, and I couldn't fathom what she was on about. It really confused me and -- what's with the attraction to lavender scented tissues?
Well, they smell nice? Also, they were always on special at my local supermarket. But, oh! You know what, I've just thought of a secondary function for the scent. It's like kind of an indicator. When you can't smell the lavender as you blow your nose, you know you're coming down with something.
4. What is the biggest secret you have? (Must be something you've never told anyone before, and something that quite possibly could uncover why you are the way you are - not that it's a bad thing)
I like that. That was clever. Just slippin' it in there between the lavender tissues and the self-deprecation and oh, by the way, what's your deep dark secret, Tell? Hahah. My deep dark secret is that I don't have any deep dark secrets. You'd better believe it. I'm as shallow as a puddle in midsummer, no doubt about it, and I am not in any way completely copping out of this question.
5. Did I ramble on too much in writing those questions?
...you can ramble too much?
From aricamuse:
1. Where is your practice doctor?
Oh, I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a Ph.D in geophysics.
2. What is your favorite recreational activity?
I'm told going to other planets doesn't count because it's my job. Huh.
Put Stackhouse and Mayday in a room together. Find ear plugs and a good solid hiding place. Popcorn optional.
3. Why did you become a doctor?
Science can tell us so much about who we are, where we come from... Truth is, we've barely even brushed the tip of the iceberg and there's nothing I'd love better than to dig down even a little bit deeper. The entire history of humankind is hung on a timeline of exploration and discovery, and this is... this is what's next.
And now here I am in the Pegasus Galaxy, in the lost city of the Ancients... So it's worked out pretty well for me. I guess you could use the same point to argue that somewhere along the way things must have gone horribly downhill, but I like to stay optimistic.
4. Favorite food?
Oh, don't tempt me! Seriously. We might have supplemented our MREs with some edible stuff, but Pegasus produce just isn't the same as Earth food, you know? I almost feel cheated; none of the Athosian livestock tastes like chicken. Even the chickens don't taste like chicken. On the other hand, all of the MREs do, regardless of content, so...
Right, I should just answer the question, shouldn't I? I miss a good pasta.
5. Why ask me for questions? Any particular reason?
Well, you were offering?
From i_hear_a_voice:
1. What should I know about you if we're going to be friends?
My birthday, April 21, is the exact same date as when Apollo 16 landed on the moon and is traditionally seen as the date when Rome was founded, and in 1944 on that very day women in France were given the right to vote. So, yay for the sisterhood! Incidentally, it's also the birthday of Catherine the Great and Queen Elizabeth II.
All right, you probably don't have to know that, but I thought it was interesting anyway.
What should you know about me...? Well, I talk all the time and I'm sort of a complete geek, but other than that, I'm perfectly normal.
Oh, and I'm currently stranded in the Pegasus Galaxy.
2. What's your favorite color?
Blue. It's the colour of the sky and, well, I've always been interested in what's going on up there. It's also the ocean around Atlantis. On the other hand, it also reminds me of the Wraith and... just, no. Orange is a fun colour, it just amuses me. It's so blatant and shameless, you just gotta love it.
3. What's your favorite memory?
Christmas has always been a really big thing in my family, you know, we were always the first house out with the fairy lights and the tinsel and all that - and the Christmas tree, Dad and the boys would always set out early and come back with the biggest tree the car could handle. And it was kind of a tradition that we'd all be there to decorate it. Well, this particular time wasn't really any different from any of the others. I was probably about your age, actually.
My two eldest brothers had moved out by then, but they'd both made it back for the holidays - Danny had brought Rebecca (his wife) and their daughter Annie, who couldn't have been older than two. So it's just this snapshot in my mind; all of us there together, Mom probably on her usual spiel about the mess made by the pine needles, Dad teasing her the whole time as he set up the lights that nobody else was allowed to touch, all of us just talking and laughing over some of the hideous home-made decorations of our elementary school years that our parents always treated like masterpieces (and then mistook the angels for Santas), while Annie threatened to disappear in a tangle of tinsel. There were other days, but for some reason that one sticks out for me, especially now. The other one is right after we arrived in Pegasus, when the failsafe activated and Atlantis rose to the ocean's surface. Seeing the water beating against the windows, and then suddenly the sunlight bursting through and all these possibilities suddenly seemed so real. It was like the whole galaxy had suddenly opened up for us again.
4. What's the nicest thing you ever did for someone else?
... This should be an easier question to answer than it's proving to be. Gee, this is just making me feel mean. I'm nice, really I am! But the nicest thing ever? Er...
5. What's the nicest thing someone did for you?
Believed in me.
As always, ask and questions will eventuate.