Light-Years Ahead of Where We Should Be....

Comm Close

lightyearsmod — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:07:33 GMT

Since interest in doing prompts is waning, I'm going to gear my support toward existing comms such as Lucky 7's, Oncoming Storms, and Charloft. Thanks to everyone that put forth some effort and turned out some very good drabbles.

Prompt 20.2

shot_my_shoes — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:13:24 GMT

A friend has been kidnapped and you're being blackmailed to do something you normally would never do. The usual. But it's okay, your friend is so irritating the kidnapper decides to return them rather than put up with them.

Harry knew better than to let himself be blackmailed. He still had contacts at UNIT and MI5, so Sarah's kidnappers weren't hard to track down. Although discovering they were aliens mafe it harder to keep MI5 out of it and let UNIT deal with it.

Just as Harry was despairing, Sarah asked what was going on.

Amazed to see her, Harry spun round and hugged her briefly. "What happened?" he asked. "What did you do to them?" He dreaded to think.

She grinned. "I complained. They were such chauvinists."

Harry laughed. He could just imagine what she put them through.

Prompt Set 022

lightyearsmod — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:07:17 GMT

Blue Oyster Cult lyrics:

1. "Workshop of the Telescopes"
By silverfish imperetrix, whose incorrupted eye
Sees through the charms of doctors and their wives
By salamander, drake, and the power that was undine
Rise to claim Saturn, ring and sky
By those who see with their eyes closed
You'll know me by my black telescope

2. "Mistress of the Salmon Salt"
In the fall when plants return
By harvest time, she knows the score
Ripe and ready to the eye
But rotten somehow to the core

3. "Flaming Telepaths"
Experiments that failed too many times
Transformations that were too hard to find
Poison's in my bloodstream, poison's in my pride
I'm after rebellion, I'll settle for lies

4. "E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence"
I'm in fairy rings and tower beds
"Don't report this," three men said
Books by the blameless and by the dead
King in yellow, queen in red

5. "Nosferatu"
He screamed with fear, he'd stayed too long in her room
The morning sun had come too soon
The spell was broken with a kiss of doom
He vanished into dust, left her all alone

Mod Note: An activity check is going to happen next Thursday. Also, recommendations are still open for posting.

Prompt Set 021

lightyearsmod — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:55:47 GMT

Monty Python quotes:

1. “Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!”

2. “-She turned me into a newt!
-A newt?
-I got better...”

3. “Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help! I'm being repressed!”

4. “He's not the Messiah - he's a very naughty boy.”

5. “Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!”

Prompt Set 020

lightyearsmod — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:43:07 GMT

Victimization. We all have our enemies. One of your enemies does one or more of these things to you:

1. You are phased to another plane of existance. You are invisible and can't be heard while others are buying into your enemy's plans. Optionally, your reflection can still be seen.

2. A friend has been kidnapped and you're being blackmailed to do something you normally would never do. The usual. But it's okay, your friend is so irritating the kidnapper decides to return them rather than put up with them.

3. You were being worshipped as a mythical figure in an exotic kingdom. But now you just figured out your role is to be sacraficed to their god/goddess in some bizarre and uncomfortable way.

4. Someone switches bodies with you, but as a side-effect you figure out that you can switch again with anyone you want. And again and again if necessary. Try not to wreak too much chaos before you get back to yourself.

5. Come up with a plot for a polar opposite duplicate of your character to do against the prime version of your character, possibly with a history to provide them with motivation to do so if you don't have a negative version readily available.

Prompt Set 019

lightyearsmod — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:44:30 GMT

In The News: Use one of these news stories as a prompt.

1. Rare Monster Jellyfish Caught on Tape

2. Laser creates clouds over Germany

3. Resurrected woolly mammoth blood protein

4. Robot becomes your weight loss buddy

5. Killer Fungus seen in Pacific Northwest

Prompt 015.2

beta_five — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:40:57 GMT

Prompt 015.2: (A sentient plant that communicates with flowers.)

Character: Gary Seven
Fandom: Star Trek | Assignment: Earth
Words: 380
Notes: This is probably my shortest prompt ever, but it was intended to be introspection as part of an RP opening post. Septos is from the Star Trek novel "Assignment: Eternity"

Prompt Set 018

lightyearsmod — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:30:12 GMT

James Bond Themes

1. "Diamonds are Forever" - Shirley Bassey
Diamonds are forever,
Sparkling round my little finger.
Unlike men, the diamonds linger;
Men are mere mortals who
Are not worth going to your grave for.

2. "You Only Live Twice" - Nancy Sinatra
You only live twice or so it seems,
One life for yourself and one for your dreams.
You drift through the years and life seems tame,
Till one dream appears and love is its name.

3. "The World is Not Enought" - Garbage
People like us
Know how to survive
There's no point in living
If you can't feel alive

4. "Thunderball" - Tom Jones
He knows the meaning of success.
His needs are more so he gives less.
They call him the winner who takes all,
And he strikes like thunderball.

5. "The Man with the Golden Gun" - Lulu
Love is required whenever he's hired,
It comes just before the kill.
No-one can catch him, no hit man can match him
For his million dollar skill.

Rec Set 002

lightyearsmod — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:10:15 GMT

►Name: Twilight Zone RPG

►Information: Journal and Log based role-play community where the action takes place in the main community. It's very heavily based off the old Twilight Zone RPG, discourages anime, and is an excellent place for human type characters. There is also a wide variety of fandoms the characters are drawn from.

►Name: Time and Crack

►Information: A small Doctor Who oriented journal RP. There are quite a few rarely seen Who characters.

►Name: All Good Things RP

►Information: A relatively new RP where you can play any universe version of a Star Trek character you wish, and also original Trek characters if you have enough information. Based off the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "All Good Things".

►►►Leave Recommendations Here◄◄◄

Prompt Set 017

lightyearsmod — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:18:16 GMT

Carl Sagan quotes:

1. "But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."

2. "For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."

3. "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."

4. "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

5. "The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent."

[(Late because of moving difficulties. My apologies. Recs will go up a little later today.)]

Rec Set 001

lightyearsmod — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:26:33 GMT

►Name: Lucky 7's

►Information: Lucky 7's is a prompt community that releases a list of prompts at the beginning of each month, as you may guess, in groups of 7.

It's a prompt community where you reply with a link to your prompt in the prompt post rather than submit to the community proper. The mods are active and quick to reply to questions.

They also accept affiliations with other communities. They haven't had a lot of submissions this month despite some very good prompts, so I highly recommend checking them out.

►Name: Note Meets Letter

►Information: notemeetsletter describes itself as "a community for writers and musicians who are up for a challenge." It focuses on writers that draw a great deal of inspiration from music, taking away as much as a single line to complete a whole story.

There is a tag and posting standard, and they have song challenges. It's a new community and the mods are very enthusiastic about inspiring others and promoting good writing.

►Name: Charloft

►Information: Charloft has been one of the most consistent prompt communities out there for quite a while. There is no activity requirement and it puts out prompts daily. You also can submit directly to the community.

Charloft is an impressive source of mun prompts, especially when you need to take a look at how you write your character analytically or just coming up with a spur of the moment RP scenario.

►►►Leave Recommendations Here◄◄◄

Prompt Set 016

lightyearsmod — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:16:55 GMT

Word Combination Set: Use any five of these in a prompt.

Cloaking Device	Gas Giant	Space Station	Nebula	Cluster
Space Barge	Alien Gangster	Shotgun Wedding	Furry Companion	Laser Scalpal
Granite	Formica	Marble	Silica	Peat
Marsh	Stratosphere	Suburb	Lonely Path	Doghouse
Library	Law Firm	Asylum	Temple	Missile Silo

Mod Not: I'm moving over the next couple of weeks, but I intend to start up the sunday update as soon as that settles.

Prompt Set 015

lightyearsmod — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:22:38 GMT

First Contact. Invent your own individual roughly based off one of these concepts to have their first extraterrestrial encounter with.

1. An artificial intelligence from an extinct civilization.

2. A sentient plant that communicates with flowers.

3. A people based off an anglerfish.

4. A race with five genders.

5. A race that only lives for two days as an adult.

Prompt 008.4

veryverylast — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:32:09 GMT

You just found an android's head. Still activated and still speaking, at that. It would really like to be attached to its body again. Help it out.

( Don't wander off. He'd told her the very first time they'd met not to wander off. Why did they never listen? )

Character: The Eleventh Doctor, feat. Amy
Wordcount: 976

Prompt Set 014

lightyearsmod — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:11:04 GMT

Mun Prompts:

1. Science fiction canons frequently have action sequences or high pressure situations. Do you try to incorporate these into your writing or role-play? Or do you focus almost entirely on the domestic aspects of the character?

2. Do you enjoy panfandoms or crossovers, or do you not like your canons to touch?

3. Where do you think the line lies between "crack" and "completely out of character"?

4. What is the most bizarre thing you can recall having to research for writing your character, even if it was only looking through Wikipedia?

5. Is there an outstanding character resource online for you to reference for your canons, such as a blog, wiki, or fansite? What sort of personal references do you use for yourself?

Prompt 9.2

shot_my_shoes — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 19:45:42 GMT

What was the most terrible instalment of your canon in your opinion? Why did you dislike it so much? Tell us what happened that you didn't approve of and what you would have done it better.

There isn't a lot of canon for Harry, but the worst is Harry Sullivan's War. I feel slightly guilty about saying that it's the most terrible instalment of Harry's canon because it was Ian Marter who wrote it. And because he played Harry you sort of think that he must have known what he was talking about.

It is well-written and he does give a lot of background for Harry, which is great. Without this book there would be a lot more we don't know about him - given that we don't know very much at all, that's saying a lot.

However, the plot, which is a bit James Bond like, is unlikely even in a Bond film. It's just putting Harry into the hero's role and everyone else into the villain's role just a bit too much. And Harry doesn't seem like the sort of man a lot of people would want to kill (thump over the head maybe, but kill, not so much).

What does it make it better, though, is the short story called The Man from DOCTO(R) by Andrew Collins in Short Trips: Companions. In this story we find out that Harry is fond of telling his friends stories from his time with the Doctor, but he does have a tendency to exaggerate and in some cases, completely make things up. Since it's his role in events that he exaggerates, with this in mind, Harry Sullivan's War reads like a story that Harry is telling.

So I think that some of the events in the book did happen, but most of it was exaggerated by Harry and, in fact, no one tried to kill him, and he certainly never hung off the side of the Eiffel Tower. I also interpret the fact that he drives a red sports car as Harry having a mid-life crisis - the book does start with him worrying over turning 40, after all. And I can't quite see any other reason for him driving a car like that.

Prompt Set 013

lightyearsmod — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:35:36 GMT

Lovesick... Literally.... Here are some terrible romantic scenarios to find yourself in. Good luck.

1. Flower Power: A laboratory formulated a new hybrid breed of rose whose scent is meant to be lethal. Meant to be, that is. Instead, either you die in 48 hours unless you attempt to procreate with the next person smelling of cheap dollar store cologne.

2. Siren Song: In space there's a planet where people are psychically compelled to go, drawn by the siren dreams of the aliens that live there. They're also encouraged to bring their wealth and prized possessions.

3. Obsession: A wealthy and/or influential individual will stop at nothing to have you, even soliciting the aid of the greatest minds in the galaxy. Alternately, you can also be the unfortunate individual solicited for this terrible task.

4. Between a Rock and a....: You're being held hostage with a married couple whose relationship is on the fritz. This would probably be easier to get out of if they would try to get along. Help them with it.

5. Giving up the Ghost: A temporal distortion, a flicker in space, a step into an alternate universe; however it happens you have one last chance to say good-bye to someone that you loved dearly. Don't squander it.

prompt 09.2

doctor6 — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:00:04 GMT

What was the most terrible installment of your canon in your opinion? Why did you dislike it so much? Tell us what happened that you didn't approve of and what you would have done it better.

Character: Sixth Doctor
Fandom: Doctor Who (classic)

Colin Baker's tenure as the Doctor was arguably one of the most difficult because of (a) the series being placed on hiatus in 1985 for a season and (b) the animosity toward his Doctor's brash and loud personality. Unlike his predecessors (and future incarnations), he wasn't able to develop/evolve the character to the best of his ability because of the expanse of time between seasons caused by the hiatus. In many respects, his stories seem disjointed from before and after the hiatus -- including physically, as Colin Baker's weight changed from one to the other.

The Sixth Doctor's final season was a story arc comprised of four episodes collectively called the Trial of a Time Lord. The Doctor is put on trial before the Gallifreyan High Counsel for transgressing the Laws of the Time Lords and for committing genocide. Ultimately, it is revealed that the Doctor has been 'framed' by the Prosecution, the Valeyard (railyard, boneyard, knackersyard, etc., etc.).

I don't dislike Trial of a Time Lord as a whole, but I despise one of the episodes which is a poorly written mass of contradictions -- Mindwarp. It is a 'flashback' used as evidence for the Prosecution during the trial. In it, the Doctor and Peri learn that an old adversary, Sil of Thoros Beta, is supplying advanced weapons to the king of a primitive culture. At the same time, there's a plot about transplanting the brain of one of Sil's countrymen, Kiv, into a more suitable vessel. The unwitting Peri is the intended host. The Doctor is callous and unconcerned about Peri's well being throughout the story until, near the end, he appears to be on his way to rescue her just as the Time Lords snatch him out of his time line and into the courtroom. The operation is an apparent success, Peri becomes Kiv, and the primitive king arrives moments later to "destroy" Kiv/Peri.

Mindwarp is supposedly the Valeyard's reworking of actual events (by tampering with the Matrix), in order to frame and convict the Doctor before the High Counsel. While the Doctor (in the courtroom) appears genuinely crushed/upset about Peri's fate, it is short lived. Peri becomes an after thought as the story arc continues.

Also as an afterthought, at the end of the final episode, The Ultimate Foe, it is revealed that the Valeyard even lied about Peri's fate. She's alive and well and living as a queen, married to the barbarian king.

I'm not the biggest fan of Perpugillium Brown, but she deserved better than a dismissive, convoluted, and poorly written departure. I'm not upset by the shock value of Peri's "dying" or that she did so because the Doctor supposedly abandoned her/failed to rescue her in the nick of time. My biggest complaint is the trite "oh, btw, Peri's fine and you can go on with your lives, Doctor." Which he clearly does, without a second thought, as he and Mel head off into the Gallifreyan sunset in the TARDIS.

I don't believe the Doctor would have accepted anything the Matrix projected after learning it had been tampered with by the Valeyard and the Master. Once acquitted, his first action would have been to reassure himself that Peri was, indeed, well -- or (realistically) truly dead.

Prompt Set 012

lightyearsmod — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:17:31 GMT

The Tossers lyrics:

1. "D'ampton Wyrm"
"John D'ampton went a'fishin' once, a'fishin in the wier,
He caught a fish upon his hook and thought it mighty queer,
Now what kinda fish it was John D'ampton couldn't tell,
But he didn't like the look of it so he threw it down a well.

Now the worm got fat an' growed an' growed an awful size,
With great big teeth an' a great big mouth an' great big goggle eyes,
An' when it night it crawled about lookin' for some booze,
An' it felt dry upon the road, it milked a dozen coos.

2. "Not Forgotten"
It’s still tonight under the stars,
The wind is calm, no windows barred.
All birds sleep sound, back from afar,
And all the land is at peace.

The morning rose upon that day,
Our son from us was taken away.
And all the children that died that day,
For that, there is no cause.

3. "The Last Night on Earth"
Well, tonight is our last night on earth my friends
So let's sleep with the stars as our ceiling
And kiss me one time and please make it good
It could be our last night until morn

4. "First League Out From Land"
Time is a test of trouble on this endless sea of wine
And only sailor knows this trouble, to each is theirs, is thine
The shanty's a fucking survival test that only the brutish know
And if I fall down into my own I won't ask you to go

5. "Faraway"
Well here I am again
In a foreign town where I know no one
On another continent
Well it's four o'clock and I'm with someone
That I haven't met before
But I don't feel like I should leave
Well I might not find the door
Anyway the miracle's stirring me

Prompt 009.2

empirical_data — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:07:46 GMT

2. What was the most terrible installment of your canon in your opinion? Why did you dislike it so much? Tell us what happened that you didn't approve of and what you would have done it better.

(Star Trek: Countdown comic)

Character: Data
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Words: 498

Prompt Set 011

lightyearsmod — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:40:44 GMT

Crossover Zoology. Let's imagine that different universes have convergent evolution, and your character is about to have an unfortunate encounter with a species they've never met before.

Choose one of these or have the creature be remarkably similar. Remember to aim outside your fandom.

1. Krayt Dragon.

2. Cardassian Vole.

3. Flagisallus.

4. Krites

5. Budong.

Prompt Set 010

lightyearsmod — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:49:46 GMT

Mark Twain quotes:

1. "Scientists have odious manners, except when you prop up their theory; then you can borrow money of them."

2. "In the laboratory there are no fustian ranks, no brummagem aristocracies; the domain of Science is a republic, and all its citizens are brothers and equals, its princes of Monaco and its stonemasons of Cromarty meeting, barren of man-made gauds and meretricious decorations, upon the one majestic level!"

3. "I have found out there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them."

4. "Water is an individual, an animal, and is alive, remove the hydrogen and it is an animal and is alive; the remaining oxygen is also an individual, an animal, and is alive. Recapitulation: the two individuals combined, constitute a third individual--and yet each continues to be an individual....here was mute Nature explaining the sublime mystery of the Trinity so luminously that even the commonest understanding could comprehend it, whereas many a trained master of words had labored to do it with speech and failed."

5. "As for the dinosaur--But Noah's conscience was easy; it was not named in his cargo list and he and the boys were not aware that there was such a creature. He said he could not blame himself for not knowing about the dinosaur, because it was an American animal, and America had not then been discovered."

Five things that happened at Harry's wedding

shot_my_shoes — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:32:31 GMT

Prompt 008.2: Coerce an enemy to put down their superweapon. Right when they're about to act, show them that there's another path.

Getting married
It was a perfectly normal wedding - to start with anyway. Harry hadn't expected anything but a perfectly normal wedding - this was the part of his life that was perfectly normal and mostly untouched by alien influences. And it wasn't as if aliens invaded on a daily basis, so he only expected perfectly normal things to disrupt it. Which, of course, they did.

There was the usual panic about last minute changes that Harry had done his best to avoid. He had his stag night two days before the wedding, but he returned home the following afternoon when the drink was wearing off and the hangover was kicking in. Elaine was unsympathetic, but then she'd had her hen night while he was in Geneva and he only had her word for how drunk she hadn't been.

On the day there'd been something about flowers, which Harry wasn't really listening to, and then Elaine complaining that he hadn't been listening. He was almost glad when they got to the hotel and went to separate rooms to get ready. While he dressed he reminded himself it was just stress and he really did want to marry her.

Once they actually got to the wedding all they'd had to worry about was getting married and that turned out to be the easy part. Harry's main aim for afterwards was his knee holding up for their first dance, which it did, although Elaine did help to hold him up. So he was happy. But he should have known it wouldn't last...

Talking aliens out of destruction
Later on, when he'd wandered out for a breather from the overheated room, Harry noticed the wall down one of the corridors rippled. He'd seen too much of this sort of thing to do anything as stupid as to touch it, so he reached out with his walking stick. Which the wall started to suck in.

Bracing himself against the opposite wall Harry pulled back and managed to achieve a sort of equilibrium. But there was only so long he could hold it, so he was glad when he heard someone else coming. He only hoped they weren't too scared by what they saw and would be able to help him pull.

"Harry, what have you got yourself into?"

He breathed a sigh of relief. Out of all of the people invited to his wedding, Sarah was probably the most useful person to have come along now. "I don't know," he said, "but can you please help pull?" His arms were starting to ache. He could have let go of his walking stick if he'd had to, but he quite fancied the idea of being able to walk back to the reception.

Keeping her distance from the wall, Sarah grabbed hold of his walking stick further down and pulled. It was slow, but it was definitely moving. Then all of a sudden it was free and Sarah fell back against him.

"What is it?" she asked, once they were both on their feet.

"Not something you should touch," was all he could recommend. Beyond that it wasn't something he'd seen before.

"I definitely wouldn't touch it. That's a gateway to another world."

Harry and Sarah both turned at the sound of the voice. "Doctor!" Sarah exclaimed. Harry recognised this brown-suited, dark haired version of him from the UNIT files, but he hadn't expected to see him, especially not at his wedding.

"What world does it go to?" Harry asked.

"Well..." The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the wall. "Looks like Brimharia. Definitely not somewhere you want to go. Full of fire. Bit like hell really." He frowned. "Except the biblical idea of hell's not quite right."

"Doctor." Sarah cut him off before he could carry on down that route. "How do we close it?"

"Ah, now that's a tricky one." He looked at the readout on his sonic screwdriver.

"Whatever you're planning, I think you'd better do it fast." Harry could see something coming through the gateway although it was too soon to tell what it was yet.

The Doctor looked up at him. "Were you listening to me, Harry? I just said I don't know how to close it."

Harry had had plenty of practise at ignoring that. "So what do we do?" Whatever was coming through now looked a lot like a devil, which was concerning.

"We run." The Doctor took off, Sarah after him.

Harry sighed. "That's easier said than done." He opted for the fastest walk he could manage, which, given what he'd already put his knee through that evening, wasn't very fast at all. "Where's Sarah?" he asked the Doctor, when he caught up at the end of the corridor. They were close enough to the reception to hear the music but there was no one else around here, which he was glad about.

"Gone around to the other end of the corridor. Between her sonic lipstick and my sonic screwdriver, we should be able to stop anything else from coming through."

It was a start, he supposed. "That's not closing it, though."

The Doctor looked at him and frowned. "Why are you and Sarah dressed like that?"

"This my wedding reception."

The Doctor looked around.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Not here obviously. In a room down there." He pointed.

"Oh, congratulations." The Doctor grinned and shook his hand.

"I didn't expect aliens to be paying a visit. Any of them," he added, giving the Doctor a look.

"I picked up the gateway on the TARDIS scanners and thought I should take a look."

Harry couldn't say he wasn't grateful, he just wished the aliens had picked a better time. Any time except this evening would have done if the Doctor was going to turn up to sort it out.

"Hello!" the Doctor called, sounding far too happy for someone in the middle of a crisis. Harry worried that some innocent bystanders had arrived, but when he turned to look he was it was the red, horned alien.

The alien stopped in front of them. "This world needs to be cleansed," it said.

At least they weren't trying to invade. Mind you, that all depended on what cleansed meant. "I'm sure this hotel doesn't have any rats," he said.

The alien turned to him and Harry squirmed under its stare. "There is the perfect vehicle," it said, then pointed beyond the Doctor's shoulder. In its hand was a gun that Harry could have sworn wasn't there before. And when it pressed the trigger there was a buzzing noise that Harry didn't like the sound of at all.

"Oh, no, not the TARDIS." The Doctor turned and ran towards it, but only got a few steps before he bounced off what Harry assumed was an invisible forcefield. Harry bent down to him, to check he was all right, but the Doctor waved him away.

If they couldn't get to the TARDIS, then they'd have to get to the alien. Harry wondered how far Sarah had got. This hotel was a bit of a maze in places and he could only assume the Doctor knew what he was talking about and this corridor wasn't a dead end.

He stepped closer to the alien. "Why?" he asked, sounding braver than he felt. "What have we done that means you need to cleanse this planet?"

"You have committed sin," the alien replied, sternly.

Harry blinked. He hadn't expected religion from an alien looking like that. He saw Sarah come up behind it and carefully didn't look at her. From the way she wasn't looking at him he presumed her miming was for the Doctor's benefit.

"What will that achieve?" Harry asked, wanting to keep it talking, even if he wasn't sure how much of an effect it was going to have. "If we're all dead then we can't learn the error of our ways."

"Hmm." The alien stroked his chin as he considered it. "Perhaps you're right. I must consult the judiciary."

Harry gave a sigh of relief as the alien pressed a button on his gun and the buzzing stopped. Then he turned round and walked back to the gateway. Sarah had to press herself against the wall to keep him from walking into her. "That was too easy," Harry said.

The Doctor switched off his sonic screwdriver, which Harry presumed meant he was letting the alien go. "Now I have enough data to close the gateway," he said and ran off. Harry only managed a few steps before he heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS dematerialising.

"Where's he going?" Sarah asked.

Harry shrugged. "Closing the gateway, apparently," he said, although Sarah had heard the same words he had.

It was only a minute before they heard the TARDIS materialise behind them this time and when they reached the section of wall where the gateway had been, it was no longer there. But the TARDIS was parked beside it with the door ajar. Sarah pushed it open and stepped inside, so Harry thought that he ought to follow her, just in case.

Inside, the Doctor was leaning back against the console, grinning.

"What did you do?" Sarah asked.

"Are we safe?" Harry asked at the same time.

"The gateway is closed forever. They won't be coming back. Or ever leaving their planet." The Doctor twirled his sonic screwdriver before putting it back in his jacket pocket. "They need to do something about their own sins before they pass judgement on others."

Harry supposed he couldn't disagree with that. He was glad to know they were gone, but he would file a report with UNIT after his honeymoon, in case they ever came back again.

"More importantly," the Doctor said, stepping forwards to face Harry. "What have you done to your leg?"

"It's my knee. And it wasn't me, an alien pointed at it and now the inside of it's degenerating."

"Oh." The Doctor frowned and bent down to peer at it. Not that anything was visible on the surface - and he certainly wouldn't be able to see anything through Harry's best trousers.

"I don't suppose you know what it is," Harry said hopefully.

"I don't know." The Doctor stood up. "Come with me." He bounded around the console room and out of the door at the back. Sarah and Harry exchanged glances and followed him.

Some answers
In the TARDIS sickbay the Doctor ran all sorts of scanners over Harry's knee, never once saying anything beyond "Hmmm," which infuriated Harry no end. Sarah got to see what he was doing, even if she didn't understand it, but all he could do was lie down and ask questions which the Doctor never answered.

Eventually he put the equipment away and Harry sat up. "So what's your diagnosis, Doctor?"

"Nanobots."

"They don't do that," Sarah commented. Harry had heard of them but never so far come across them, so he didn't know everything they could do.

"These ones do. They've been programmed to eat anything they come in contact with."

Sarah blinked. Harry asked, "Can you get them out?"

"Yes, but they'd eat any container I put them in."

As much as Harry wanted them out so he could be sure a knee replacement wouldn't degrade the same way, he wouldn't wish them on anyone else. At least they were just in his knee and not in some vital organ, which was something.

"We'll turn them off," Sarah suggested. "I've done that before."

"I think," the Doctor said slowly, "there's a dead man's switch."

"So if we turn them off they get worse?" Harry asked.

He nodded. "But I can slow them down."

Harry closed his eyes. For a moment he'd been so hopeful and now the best he'd have to live with was for his knee to get worse more slowly. "Let's do that," he said, since it was better than nothing.

The Doctor tapped away at the keys on a console. Harry didn't feel anything, but he was thinking all the time. "What would happen," he asked, "if they got exposed to the air? Say if we cut my knee open, or my leg off, or I died?"

The Doctor hit the final key hard and turned to face Harry. "There's a lot more to eat outside of you."

Harry nodded. He had a feeling there wasn't going to be an easy solution. If there was he and Martha would have found it by now.

"Do you know anyone that can help?" Sarah asked.

The Doctor frowned as he thought. "I'm not sure. I'd have to visit a few places."

Harry stood before the Doctor could do anything else. "Not now. Not this evening. This is my wedding and I'm not going anywhere."

The Doctor opened his mouth and then closed it again. "I'll drop by when I have something, shall I?"

Harry nodded. "Now," he said, "I have to get back to my wife."

Sarah didn't linger too long with the Doctor, maybe because she knew Harry was waiting. Despite him not wanting to leave for many good reasons - what were the chances of the Doctor getting them back in five minutes and not five days or five weeks or five months time? - he was still a little reluctant to go back to his ordinary life, knowing that there was nothing he could do to help himself.

Sarah managed to smile at him as they left, but she was still looking at where the TARDIS was after it had dematerialised.

"Come on, old girl," Harry said, putting an arm around her. "We've got a party to get back to."

Jealous wife
They were nearly back at the room at the reception was held in when they met Elaine coming out of it. "I wondered where you'd got to," she said, in an odd voice.

"You'll never believe it--" Harry began, but she didn't let him continue.

"Then don't tell me." She turned and stomped off down the stairs.

Harry blinked and let go of Sarah. "I'll just go back to the party," she said. Harry nodded, then followed Elaine and was just in time to see her go into the toilets. After a moment's hesitation he cautiously opened the door. No one was in there except Elaine, sitting on a large padded stool in the centre of the room and she looked as if she might be crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly and sat down beside her.

She moved away. "You can't be in here, this is the Ladies."

"I'm not going anywhere." This was supposed to be a happy day, not one for arguments.

She sniffed and he offered her his handkerchief. She did at least take that. "Our wedding," she said eventually, "and you're off with an old girlfriend. I knew it was a mistake to invite them."

When that subject hadn't come up earlier, Harry had assumed she was happier about it. After all, he had married her, not Esther or Sarah and he was sure that would make her feel secure enough not to be so jealous. Obviously not.

"There were aliens. We had to deal with them, that was all." And seeing the Doctor so briefly had upset Sarah a little and that was hardly something he could ignore.

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"Yes. Because it's the truth."

She just turned away from him a little more.

He sighed. "Do you really think I would think about other women like that? Because if so then maybe you don't know me that well." Which didn't say much for their marriage, and it hadn't even lasted a whole day yet.

At that she she looked round at him. "I'm sorry." She sighed. "I wasn't always this insecure."

He smiled at her. "Everyone has their faults and I love you anyway."

"Do you?"

He frowned at the question. "Of course I do. Why else would I marry you?"

She shrugged. "It's just that you never tell me."

"Because you know I do." Although now he knew that assumption might not be as right as he previously thought.

"But it's nice to hear it sometimes."

He nodded. "All right." He supposed he could see the logic in that. He tried touching her again and this time she relaxed into a hug. "I love that I can talk to you about anything," he said into her hair. "And that you're patient and you care and keep me sane and--"

He couldn't continue because she lifted her head and kissed him, stopping just long enough to say "I love you" and in the end Harry had to pull away, as much as he hated to. "People will be wondering where we are," he pointed out. And he was in the Ladies.

"Give me a minute," she said. "I can't go out looking like I've been crying."

He loitered outside the door, trying not to look shifty, but it really was only a minute. She did look better, he noticed. You'd have to look closely to see there had been anything wrong. She smiled at him and he escorted her back into the party, hoping that would see the end of her jealous streaks.

Wedding night
It was late by the time they went to bed. Speaking to all their friends had been too good an opportunity to miss and Harry and Elaine were some of the last people to go to bed. The Doctor had come back, although Harry got the impression that it wasn't quite so soon from his perspective. He didn't have any more news for Harry yet, but he and Sarah (well, mostly the Doctor) were eating the remains of the buffet. Given the Doctor's tendency not to sleep, Harry thought it best to leave them to it.

Harry had been keen to keep Elaine away from their room to keep it a surprise. So when they entered he looked round to check someone had brought her things up here. Meanwhile she'd spotted the red rose he'd left on her pillow, although it was a bit wilted by now.

"Thank you," she said, smiling as she smelled it.

He smiled back. "Wait until you see the bathroom."

She frowned. "I saw it when we looked round."

"Yes, but you missed a bit." He held out a hand, which she took and let him lead her to the bathroom.

"It does look the same as before," she complained, upon entering it.

"But have you looked behind the door?"

Curiously, she let go of his hand and peered around the door. "Oh!"

Harry smiled. When she kissed him he knew he'd done the right thing in wanting to be married in this hotel, even though it was more expensive.

"Do we have enough time in the morning for the jacuzzi?" she asked afterwards.

He nodded. "Plenty. As long as we don't spend too much time in bed."

"Then do you mind if we just go to sleep? I know it's not traditional on your wedding night, but I'm so tired."

He smiled. "I was thinking the same thing."

Not that they got much sleep anyway - Harry made sure to set the alarm early enough so they had plenty of time to enjoy the jacuzzi before breakfast.

Prompt 9.3 Canon puncture/fourth wall

go_downswinging — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:18:06 GMT

Many of us have had to deal with canon puncture if we play in popular fandoms, or breaking the fourth wall. How do you handle it?

I’m very fortunate in that the Supernatural canon has the boys and everything that happened to them already canon punctured so it’s not an issue for Dean. He even has fangirls and is aware of fanfiction and discussion boards about his life thanks to the episode Monster at the End of This Book. Link to the funniest scene ever where they’re discussing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF8gd6UICx4

For other characters though, it’s hard. In Buffy comic canon, Harmony had a reality show and talked about Slayers as well as Andrew having infomercials about becoming a Slayer so when Buffy is canon punctured I always have her blame Andrew for selling the story to either TV or comics depending on how she’s canon punctured.

I was in oncoming_storms prompt community and they had a prompt about your character channel surfing and coming across the tv show based on their life. I had it set in Pete’s World with Rose and Jackie more upset about the choice of actresses and how they were portrayed than by the content of the show.

No matter how my pup is canon punctured, I try to handle it realistically for the character. Some would be traumatized to think that their lives were used for entertainment purposes. Others would be flattered and find it funny that they had fans. Because of the diversity of the types of reactions it would have, I prefer to be forewarned so I can figure out how I’m going to deal with it.

On the flip side, if my character is a big geek for say Batman like Dean is, I would handle it differently. I wouldn’t canon puncture Bruce Wayne/Batman pup without express permission, but the fanboy squeezing would be internalized.

These situations would also be handled realistically. When Dean met Clark Kent from Kansas on his arrival in a game, he thought the man was either delusional or the worst scam artist on the planet for picking the name Clark Kent and saying he’s from Kansas. While Dean will pick out old rocker names or old TV characters for aliases he would never go to someone obvious like Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne.

In the end, I try to stay very true to character in the response to either being canon punctured or seeing someone that they talk about in their own canons as fictional characters.

Mun for Dean Winchester ~*~ Supernatural ~*~ 394 words ~*~ Comment

Prompt 9.2 - Fix what went wrong

trueslayer — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:13:41 GMT

What was the most terrible installment of your canon in your opinion? Why did you dislike it so much? Tell us what happened that you didn't approve of and what you would have done it better.

There are so many in Buffy’s canon that makes me twitch and to be honest that’s why I got into fanfiction in the beginning. I wanted to make something “wrong”, right. The one huge problem I had with Buffy’s canon (besides Spike) was the three amigo nerds that were the supposedly big bad. I thought it was stupid from beginning to end and laughable after defeating Glory the hellgoddess. I get what Joss and company were trying to do, to show that with all of Buffy’s powers, she was vulnerable to the real world of bullets. That was about the only shining moment out of that story arc, but that the Scoobies who had been fighting cohesively since high school and have faced hell, literally, couldn’t defeat not very good Lex Luthor wanna bes bugged me.

To “fix” that problem, I would have had Buffy and company defeat Team Dork and them getting pissed off, summoning some kind of huge bad demon to vanquish the Slayer and her little dogs, too. Tara’s death could still happen, Willow could still go dark and even join the big bad to try to defeat Buffy with Xander talking her down and in the end it’s Xander’s comfort of Willow that saves the day like it did before.

The joys of writing fanfic where you can make what you see in your mind a much better outcome than what the writers did.

Mun to Buffy Summers ~*~ BtVS ~*~ 238 words ~*~ Comment