Two memes

[daibhidc]

Memed from john_elliott and lost_spook:

First meme:

Give me one fandom I write/rec/read AND a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, etc) or another time period (Ancient Rome, Regency England, etc). I will then explain the gist of the story I would write for that AU.

Second meme:

Give me a pairing and I will tell you:

1. What they most commonly do during sex
2. Who has prettier hair
3. What they argue about most often
4. Who'd cope best if the other one died
5. The happiest plausible happily-ever-after I can think of for them.

(Note: I am almost certainly going to completely ignore question 1.)

Comments

[rhiannon-s.livejournal.com]

Hmm, do you do Ciaphas Cain?

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Sorry, no. (I'm actually just about to compose a post about how I know nothing about Warhammer 40,000 -- and I only know that this is relevent because Cain is a TVTropes meme.)

[rhiannon-s.livejournal.com]

synchronicity, don't you love it. Let me recommend the Ciaphas Cain books then, you don't really need to know about the W40K world as they're pretty self contained (and fun). I avoided them for ages, then took the plunge due to Waterstones 3 for 2 deal and getting the first omnibus for free. I'm so glad I did because they are wonderful stories.

Anyway, remind me what the fandoms you are famliar with are again, because the only two I really know you are fan of are Discworld and Dr Who and they are so flexible virtually any/every setting/scenario has been done already in-canon.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

DC and Marvel (um, same problem...)
Red Dwarf
Star Trek
The Muppets (also the same problem)
LOTR
Dragonlance
Agatha Christie
Sherlock Holmes
Futurama
Simpsons (and again; is there an AU that hasn't been a Treehouse of Horror?)
Diogenes Club/Anno Dracula
Radio 4 comedy

[rhiannon-s.livejournal.com]

Lord of the Rings, as an 80s "socially aware" British sitcom.

Arnold J. Rimmer/Gytha Ogg

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

1) Hmm, tricky. Maybe something like:

Opening shot of Bag End Tower Block. In Flat Eleventy-One, Frodo Baggins (Nicholas Lyndhurst) is worried that his Uncle Bilbo has disappeared after his birthday, and he's got no way of paying the rent. Gandalf (Alexi Sayle), the crazy guy who lives in the flat below, offers him a job. With the bungling assistance of his best mate, lovable buffoon Sammy (Bill Bailey), he agrees to take a load of hooky gold rings to Sauron, kingpin of the Mordor Estate (Adrian Edmundson).

But on the way he gets mugged by a motorbike gang called the Black Riders and loses the rings. It's down to the Sensible Female Character, Galadriel (Linda Robson), to sort everything out...

2)
2. Um ... no-score draw?
3. Whether it's appropriate to follow up all 23 verses of the Space Corps Anthem with all 23 verses of the Hedgehog Song.
4. Gytha's used to loss, having buried at least one husband. Rimsy isn't even used to having someone who likes him, so he's unlikely to react well to losing her.
5. I honestly can't imagine Rimmer ever getting a plausible happily-ever-after. His life just doesn't work that way.

[john_amend_all]

1. Torchwood in a high-fantasy world of elves, dwarves and the like.


2. Jonathan Creek / Melanie Bush.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

1) Our tale begins in the town of Caer Dyff. Unknown to most of its inhabitants, the town was founded on the Scar, a portal to the Otherworld. Periodically, evil fey and demons emerge from the Scar and terrorise the townspeople.

Defending them is the Knight Commander of the Order of the Wooden Torch, Sir Jacques Hearkens. The last survivor of the Order (which was based in a city decimated by a force of unliving armoured knights created by the sorcerer Loomik Kybus), Sir Jacques survived because, long ago, he was cursed with eternal life by the goddess Flower-of-the-Wolf. He moved to Caer Dyff and reformed the Order to defend people from the creatures of the Scar.

The new Order comprises:
Sir Jacques's squire, Ynto, who spends his time being a deadpan snarker (but SPOILER ALERT will make a Heroic Sacrifice in the final act).
Gwynedd, a former member of the Caer Dyff city guard, who became Sir Jacques's second in command.
Toshiala, an elven sorceress whose scrying alerts the Order when the Scar is active. She's working on a spell to close the Scar forever.
Yvaine the Harpist, who is ironically an undead healer.

They are aided by Guardsman Ndi ap Daffyd, and Gwynedd's husban Rhylyam.

The big story in a heroic fantasy setting, of course, would be the rise of the Dark Lord. Or in this case, Dark Lady. A former Knight of the Torch who turned to necromancy and was thought dead, Lady Susella now plots to seize control of the Scar, and unleash its horrors permenantly.

And then, in the best tradition of the genre, defeating her merely unleashes an even worse Dark Lord: The Grey Man, who has a mysterious connection to Sir Jacques...

2)
2. Speaking personally, Mel wins because her hair is exactly the same shade of bright orange as Irn Bru.
3. Everything. All the time. This is how all Jonathan's past relationships have worked, and it's not a million miles away from Mel and the Doctor. It's a formula they're used to.
4. Mel. Really. Jonathan looks stoic most of the time because he bottles everything in (and then periodically explodes), whereas Mel is tougher than she appears.
5. They settle in a windmill near Pease Pottage, and on a regular basis someone gets murdered in a way that requires lateral thinking and forensic computing to solve.

[john_amend_all]

They both work surprisingly well. I think it's the Welsh aspects of the first one (and I particularly like the goddess Flower-of-the-Wolf).

The windmill they'd be living in is almost certainly this one — by an odd coincidence, a few hundred metres from Clayton Tunnel.