Sunday morning

[vaznetti]

This is all from sophia_helix. All of it.

First, a meme:

1. Comment to this post with the name of a character that I have written in fic.

2. I will comment telling you the following:
a. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her.
b. One of his/her best traits.
c. One of his/her worst traits.
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character.
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character.
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future (which may be more optimistic than realistic, but rousing old muses does sometimes gets work written)

Also, I am wondering whether I should do Sweet Charity, but I'm finding the website a little hard to navigate -- do I have to register to find anything out? Such as when stories would be due? I am just not sure that it would be worth it, or feasible given the way this year looks. In fact, I won't really know whether or not it would be feasible until after the sign-ups close, so it would be a leap of faith. Hm. And I am kind of weirded out by the whole idea.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Arvin Sloane. (I had to.*g*)

[vaznetti]

a. I think it was the change of heart -- or the apparent change of heart -- that we saw early in S3 which really got me interested in the character. Or perhaps it was watching him in The Box (which I saw when I started to catch up, in S2, because I missed S1 of Alias entirely), in the final scene when he tells Jack to cut off his finger.

I mean, he told Jack to cut off his finger. That's serious business! And then we had Sloane the philanthropist in early S3, and he kind of clicked into place. Up to that point, I was largely using him as cardboard villain.

b. Well, loyalty, which is rather odd, since Sloane makes it a habit to betray pretty much any organization he's ever been involved in, but he's very loyal to the people around him, even when he knows or suspects that they're betraying him. I'm not sure he lives up to his own standards, on this issue, but I think he is very loyal to people.

c. I think that his obsession with Rambaldi must be Sloane's worst character trait. It's the thing that gets in the way of all his natural attachments -- to Emily, to Nadia, and even to Jack and Sydney. And yet he can't seem to do without it, even as he knows what it costs him.

d. When I write him, he comes fairly easily. I like his tone of thought; he's analytical and (I think) self-aware.

e. Without a doubt, in Appointed Hours. Which, oddly enough, is the only piece I've devoted to Sloane. Hm.

f. Well, now that I realize I haven't written him much at all, perhaps I'll put him in something. After all, he's not going anywhere these days.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

"The Box" did it for me, too. Mind, I saw the episodes on dvd and thus completely from the pilot onwards. I had been intrigued before, but with "The Box", I said, okay, I give in. Arvin Sloane, I think I'm just the tiniest bit in love with you.

Agreed on virtue and vice, too.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Jack Bristow, please!

[vaznetti]

a. Jack actually had me in that first conversation with Danny, when Danny did try to reach out and Jack totally shut him down. And what strikes me about it is that Jack is almost certainly wrong about Danny there, but he's wrong in a very Jack way, and a way which shows his vulnerabilities exactly as he covers them up. And also, it was a masterful put-down.

I am not explaining this very well.

b. and c. are both Jack's love for Sydney. Because it's the thing that keeps him human, but it's also what can drive him to break every law and rule there is. I mean, he will do anything for her, which it wonderful and terrifying all at once.

d. Jack is kind of scary to write. He's easy, but I never know quite what he'll do. I feel like I spend a lot of authorial time wrangling him, even if the words come fairly easily.

e. I think I get him in Airs, Waters, Places, once or twice -- especially in some of the earlier scenes.

f. I would not rule it out. I mean, it's Jack.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that site is hard to navigate. You do have to create an account to see most of it, but then you can see who's offered what. You also can pick from three deadlines, which I think are 10/31, 11/30, and 12/31. (I went with the earliest because earlier in the semester is way better for me nowadays.) Looks like you can edit what you offer right up to when the auctions starts, too.

[vaznetti]

Ugh -- all those deadlines will be bad for me, I think. Maybe I should hold off and think about the next round, in the spring.

[elanurel.livejournal.com]

You do need to register before you can sign yourself up. I'm thinking about doing it myself. ;-P

[vaznetti]

It looks like the dates are not going to work out all that well for me; I may do it next round, I think.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

I want to know about Krycek, of course!

[vaznetti]

Oh my god, who can remember that far back?

a. I actually came to Krycek via fanfiction, particularly via crossovers. But on screen, the moment that caught my attention as a writer was the scene between him and Marita in the ship in RatB -- it was the suddenness of the reveal, even though it was already clear that Krycek was playing the game on a number of levels.

I think this may be why I've never been all that fond of ingenue Kryceks; they just don't interest me as much.

b. Krycek is very pragmatic. I think he's a problem-solver, which frankly is what the mytharc needs -- someone who can cut through all the nonsense and figure out what needs to be done, and then do it.

c. He does tend to get caught up in his own cleverness, though, doesn't he? And then there's the constant betrayal thing. I think that being loyal only to yourself in the end is something of a weakness.

d. He's such a pleasure to write, especially in his point of view. The words really just flow out. I have a very clear sense of who he is, although I can't be sure that anyone else really agrees with me.

e. I like all my Kryceks! But I am particularly fond of the Krycek in Free and Easy Ways to Save the Planet, because he is nervous, and I don't write Krycek when he's scared enough.

[rhi]

Joe Dawson.

[vaznetti]

a. I cannot remember why I decided that Joe would be the obvious character to use in that XF/HL crossover. Seriously, I have no idea. It's just that was always there, and there didn't seem to be any good reason not to write about him, and he had the right mix of knowledge and ignorance for what I wanted the narrator of the story to do.

b. I think it's that he cares. I mean, sure he's smart and observant, but Joe cares enough to break the rules when he has to. He cares enough to reach out to Duncan, in his way.

c. Joe tends to sideline himself. I think he sees himself as more passive than he really needs to be, and I think his job as a Watcher -- don't interfere! -- encourages that tendency. It's a problem, I think, because the fact that Joe cares makes him involve himself, and then he puts himself in positions where he needs to take action, even though he doesn't want to.

d. I've only written him the once, and it was a long time ago, but I recall him being fairly easy. the piece went pretty quickly, at least.

e. I think I caught him best in the scene with Krycek at the end of Joy, Watchfulness, Wishing -- when he suddenly realizes that he's being given the opportunity to approve of Krycek, or not, and not the other way around. Because Joe wouldn't realize that he's important enough to be making that kind of judgment, even though he is.

f. Well, I have no plans at the moment, but I rule nothing out. And hey, what ever happened to that crossover you showed me, the one with Joe and John?

[rhi]

Yeah, Joe just cares so damn much, and doesn't value himself nearly as much as others do!

And the damn thing is sitting around waiting for me to figure out what time of year it's taking place, so that I can rewrite it at Cord's graveside. That should fix most of the problems with it, I think. It's just taken until now for me to rewrite it without just throwing it out from sheer frustration.

[vaznetti]

...so that I can rewrite it at Cord's graveside.

Ah! and Oh! What a good idea -- that will really work, I suspect!

[hossgal.livejournal.com]

JOHN WINCHESTER!!!!!!

(*omg I can't believe I'm first to ask for him*)

*will have to do this herself*

- hg

[vaznetti]

::snorts::

a. Oddly, I didn't start thinking about John directly from the show. I was thinking about Dean, at first, and thinking about how functional Dean really is (this is what happens when the last pretty young man you write is Sark -- your definitions of functional are not like other people's), and thinking about how and why Dean is actually a working human being led me to John. And here I am.

b. John has an enormous capacity for love. It apparently manifests as craziness a lot of the time, but it's there, and I cannot bring myself to see it as anything but a good quality.

c. John is also cranky and untrusting, and does not get along with other human beings at all. Nor does he much care to.

d. I actually find John hard to write a lot of the time, except in the Firefly crossover, when he just kind of rolls out. But a lot of the time he's tough to write -- he's hard for me to get right.

e. Hm. Well, I'm pretty sure I got him in "May in November."

f. Oh, I have plans for John all right. There's the rest of Blessings, the Season 3 fic (really!), and the HL crossover, just for a start. I may well be writing John for the foreseeable future.

(Also, I posted a thing which you probably forgot that you asked for.)