Gratuitous Meme is Gratuitous

[caitri]

caitri.dreamwidth.org/359698.htmlShamelessly liberated from tocourtdisaster:

Pick a character I write, and I will give you the top five ideas/concepts/other I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to depicting them accurately.


Five Things About Bones

Five Things About Mal Reynolds

Five Things About Richard Castle
(Yes, I KNOW I've never written Castle fic, but when has that stopped me from anything, ever?)

Five Things About Willow
(Holy fuck, it's been ten years since I've written fannishly about Buffy. I...don't even know how I feel about that.)

Five Things About Simon Tam

Five Things About Éomer

Five Things About Jim Kirk

Comments

[sally-daer.livejournal.com]

Bones, please?

Five Things About Bones

[caitri.livejournal.com]

1) He thinks of himself as Leonard. Not Len, not Leo, not Lenny, not even Bones. Leonard. In fact, he won't tolerate nicknames, mispronounciations (well, okay, maybe if there's an alien involved and he has to be diplomatic), or the alteration of his name in any way, shape, or form. Jim, and Jim only, gets to call him Bones, and that's because Jim is special, and worse, knows it. Dammit.

2) "Do no harm" is his first and most serious vow, the one he will not foreswear for the world. This is the one rule even Jim will never ask him to break. Because he is in Starfleet, he will act in the defense of himself and his comrades, but he will never shoot to kill. However, just because he doesn't want to fight doesn't mean that he won't, or that he's not good at it.

3) He's a grumpy cynical bastard because the universe is an unrelentingly dark, cold place. Jim, though, is the warmest part of it. The kid looks after Leonard's back, and Leonard looks after his. Especially after that one time with Spock... But because the world is that crummy, he's very careful about how much he opens himself up to it. Luckily, after all these years Jim finally knows that every time Leonard calls him a "stupid infant" he's really saying "I love you."

4) He is a proper Southern gentleman because that's the way his Mama taught him. He treats women with respect. He treats men with respect too, once they've actually, y'know, earned it. Above all, no bond is tighter or more revered than that of family. What the Enterprise crew learns, some quicker than others, over the years is that Leonard considers them his family.

5) Jim gets him. He gets Jim. Not everyone gets them. That's okay. If someone asks him why he and the kid are together, he'll usually snort and say something rude. But if he's had a little too much bourbon, or hell, maybe he's just feeling sentimental, he'll quote Kipling's "The Thousandth Man" for you. The whole thing. And if Jim overhears, he'll grin that little grin of his, and get that look in his eye, and sometimes finish the recitation with him--in unison.

Re: Five Things About Bones

[sail-aweigh.livejournal.com]

#5! ::drops down dead from ♥::

Re: Five Things About Bones

[gadgetorious.livejournal.com]

<33333333

Re: Five Things About Bones

[tocourtdisaster.livejournal.com]

<3333333 x infinity

Re: Five Things About Bones

[avictoriangirl]

Oh. This is PERFECT, bb. ♥!!!

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Malcolm Reynolds!

Five Things About Mal

[caitri.livejournal.com]

1) Mal will tell you he's an atheist, and that he doesn't believe in any God, Gods, or fat babies with feathers and harps. This is a lie. He does believe in God. He just thinks God's a nasty piece of work and they'd be better of if He, She, or It wasn't around mucking about with everyone.

2) He is an educated man. Self-educated. On his Ma's ranch, even with about forty ranchhands to help, there was more work than schoolin' had time for, but when he was a kid he read as many books on the cortex as he could get his hands on. Most folks assume he's not that smart, never mind he has a head for figures. That's fine by him. You wouldn't believe the gosse folks from the Core will spout if they think you don't understand 'em.

3) He don't believe in forgiveness. If you harm by accident, then it was by accident, and you atone or make do. If you harm a'purpose, that's somethin' else again. He does believe in fairness, though. And he expects his crew to believe in that as well.

4) Your crew is your family. You don't get that, you don't get nothin'. As Captain, the crew is his responsibility, which makes him the gorram Paterfamilias, which you better hold in mind.

5) He once told the moonbeam that the first rule of flyin' is love. He won't admit it to hardly anyone, but it is somethin' he believes with all his heart. The fewer that know that, the better.

[tn-tiger.livejournal.com]

Richard Castle!

Five Things About Richard Castle

[caitri.livejournal.com]

1) He always wanted to be a Space Cowboy when he grew up. This is a true story. It has to do with being five years old, Halloween, a cowboy hat and a homemade laser gun. Eventually he was old enough (twenty-three) to discover that by writing he could be a Space Cowboy, or a superhero, or a detective, or (and best of all) the guy who gets the girl in the end.

2) Alexis actually reminds him a lot of himself at her age. This actually doesn't give him near as many nightmares as he wants others to think it does.

3) He thinks Beckett is the perfect woman. He's not sure which idea terrifies him more: her finding out or her never finding out. He works equally hard at both, because one day Something will happen and things will have to be Real one way or the other, and that terrifies him most of all.

4) He used to secretly be afraid that the only things he was good at were making things up and taking care of his daughter. Though fully aware that the latter is the most important thing he could ever or would ever want to do, he's likewise thrilled every damn day that he and Beckett close a case.

5) He really wants to write a science fiction novel. It's about an intrepid space cowboy and his crew as they fly around an almost-dystopian galaxy, and their adventures as they get in and out of trouble with the law. His love interest is a woman who keeps telling him how much she can't stand him, when she really means she loves him.

[gadgetorious.livejournal.com]

Willow Rosenberg.

Five Things About Willow

[caitri.livejournal.com]

1) She truly loves Buffy. Not the way she loved Tara, or loves Kennedy, but not the way you'd love a sister either. She used to hate her a little too, though, in a way she could never even articulate to herself: How Buffy was power, even at her weakest. Even when Willow taps into the power of the Earth and can feel the Light infusing her, that kernel of darkness is inside her and the very opposite of her friend, and it scares her to death.

2) She never told Sheila about Tara. She's never told her about Kennedy either. But they talk maybe twice a year about nothing, and she knows she should feel guilty about that, too, but she doesn't.

3) She read The Mists of Avalon when she was ten. She things that explains quite a few things about her life, all of them after the fact.

4) She used to really hate being the lovable fuzzy one. It was embarrassing and lame, and makes her think of all those years of Cordy and her Cordettes laughing at her in the hallways. But now Cordy's dead, and she helped raise Dawn through the teenage years, and now being the lovable fuzzy one seems like the safest thing in the world, and very, very far away.

5) She truly believes that one day she and Oz will run into each other again, when they are both old and Bayarmaa and Kennedy and the pains of the past are safely behind them. She particularly believes this when the world is at stake, because the idea of "after" is precious and true and necessary.

[gadgetorious.livejournal.com]

Simon Tam!

Five Things About Simon Tam

[caitri.livejournal.com]

1) For the longest time, River was the world to Simon. They were the only people who truly got each other--the jokes and the games and the studies and--everything. It's funny how, when the world should've gotten smaller--when she lost herself in her own mind for a while--it got bigger too, because then there was Book to be wise and Wash to make jokes and Zoe to offer a word of advice, and strangely enough, Jayne to be there to save their lives. And of course, Mal looking on as he always does with that odd smile he has sometimes, like he gets something no one else does.

2) He tries to talk to Kaylee. He really does. Sometimes he rehearses whole speeches in his head but then he looks at her and every word goes straight out of his brain to be replaced by gosse, and even when the words are coming out of his mouth he know how horribly it's going, can see it on her face, but he can't stop. He supposes it means something that he finally gets the words right when he thinks they're going to die. But if they're gonna live, he's going to have to figure the words out every day...

3) There's an old proverb that home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in. But that night at the bar, when Mal picked up his sister and looked at her with that mixture of worry and confusion that was fatherly and brotherly all at once, he knew that's what it was. Simon never would have thought that Serenity would be home, but she is.

4) He really hates that his sister is a telepath though. He tries really hard not to think about it too much.

5) Simon Tam grew up lucky. He was smart and good looking and came of good family, and he had his whole life carefully planned out. He would be a doctor and find a smart, beautiful woman who was also of good family, and they would have travel and good jobs, and then at some point they would have children and River would be their doting auntie. And this is exactly what happened. Not the way he thought it would, of course, but the Fryes are really lovely people, and he's seen much more of the Rim than he ever thought he would, and River is a good aunt as is Zoe, and sure Mal and Jayne probably aren't the foster-uncles he would have picked out but the kids haven't turned out too wrong, but most importantly there is Kaylee, and that's that.

[tocourtdisaster.livejournal.com]

Have I mentioned lately that I love the way your mind works? So, could you tell me about your Eomer, please?

Five Things About Éomer 1/2

[caitri.livejournal.com]

1) He is a solitary man. Part of this is because he and his sister came to their Uncle’s house as children, and Théoden King was already pushing away his own son in his grief. Théodred was kind to them, but older and soon a Marshal himself. Thus he and Éowyn were all too often left to themselves, and the folk of the Mark are expected to grow up quickly. And, too, he was ever the elder, and the only son of his father, and it was his duty to see to his sister’s welfare, even above his own. When the War is over, he sees Éowyn with Faramir, and rejoices in her happiness, but he has the keep and the crown to see to, and doesn’t expect to find any for himself.

2) He thought he was going to die at Pelennor Fields. He thought the end was come, and finding his sister’s body on the field mere feet from that of his uncle merely seemed to confirm it. There are songs now of how he roused his men to battle fury in that last rout, of the spears he threw, but he doesn’t remember any of it. Sometimes he dreams of a feeling like ice in his stomach and burning behind his eyelids, and he knows he was thinking of Pelennor. But that’s all that battle glory has ever meant to him: nightmares and madness. He tried to explain it to Éowyn, once, but she didn’t believe him or affected not too. They call her Lady of the Shield-Arm now, but she never talks about the battle either, so maybe they aren’t as different as he has sometimes wondered.

3) War is all he has ever really known. He was fourteen when he went on his first patrol with the Riders, and for years the length and the breadth of Rohan was more of a home to him than the keep or the Golden Hall. Even after he is crowned King, he rides with his men to weed out the last pox of the land. He is more comfortable by far with a sword and a spear than sitting at court. He is thankful King Elessar is of the same mind, as is Prince Faramir—though of course he, born and bred in the White City, can also be very formal and reserved. Prince Imrahil is even more so. He thinks it must have to do with living behind stone walls all your life.

Five Things About Éomer 2/2

[caitri.livejournal.com]

4) Meeting Lothíriel the way he did was an accident. Everyone knows that. Falling in love with her was an accident, too. But some of the Gondorian gossips will tell you that his proposal to her was an accident, that he had no way of knowing that in Dol Amroth, a man gifting flowers to a maiden was tantamount to posting banns. (And it is true, that in Rohan such presents are simple things, because true wealth is counted in horses and grain.) But that is a lie. He knew exactly what he was doing when he picked them for her himself. She didn’t know that, though, and the flush of pleasure warring with embarrassment as she tried to explain it to him was pleasing, but not half as pleasing as when he asked her what sort of fool she thought the King of the Mark was, and he did know a thing about diplomacy, princess, and would she be so kind as to accept so that he might kiss her as he’d been longing to do these last several weeks? And then she finally understood, and he got his kiss, and later on the both of them got much more.

5) In his later years he looks on his kingdom and he doesn’t quite recognize it. The generation of his sons and daughters have always known safety, have known that the patrols along Fangborn and Ithilien are for peacekeeping purposes rather than for hunting Orc. The songs sung by bards at the hearth are about people he has known, and sometimes about him—he knows he should find it glorious but he doesn’t. He doesn’t stop them singing because it makes everyone else feel joyous and drink deeply, but when it starts Lothíriel is soon with him, her hand on his arm and her voice in his ear, pointing out this or that and making him laugh, and soon enough the song is done and they’ve moved on to some Elvish patter instead, though there are few enough of those about as well—even Legolas’s colony in Ithilien shrinks year by year it seems. The Dwarves and Hobbits grow ever less eager to travel from their own lands, saving of course those left of the old Fellowship. Éomer supposes that the Age of Man has begun in truth. He knows not what it means, but then he looks around at the faces of his kith and kin, and he finds it does not trouble him o’ermuch, either.

[avictoriangirl]

Since you did Bones, now you need to do Jim Kirk! ;)

Five Things About Jim Kirk

[caitri.livejournal.com]

1) Jim Kirk is not a victim. He is a survivor. It’s what he does best. The things he saw on Tarsus IV—well, a lot of them, anyway—are a matter of record. The things he saw at home though, well, Sam knows, and Bones too, a little bit. He doesn’t like talking about it though, any of it, but he doesn’t lock it away. He just accepts it, and promises himself that he’ll never let anyone else go through the things he did, not if he can stop it.

2) He hasn’t slept with half as many people as everyone likes to think. He likes a good time, yeah, but he also likes a lot of other things, too. He’s read more books than almost anyone he knows (their first year on the Enterprise, Spock is frequently astonished at the number of Terran, Andorian, Klinzhai, and yes, even Vulcan classics Kirk can draw on at will); he likes playing tri-dimensional chess and basketball; he enjoys listening to music and actually has a guitar he can strum with skill. But most of all, he enjoys being with a group of people. On the Enterprise he’ll usually share meals with Bones or Spock or both, but he’ll also frequently play host for Movie Night in Rec Room Two and sit side by side with the rank and file. To the amusement and sometimes dismay of the Admin Corps, he will also be among the first to throw popcorn at the screen when a popular film selection turns out to be…not so popular.

3) He comms Admiral Pike on a regular basis. When Uhura connected them at first, she thought it was because Jim was asking for advice on captaining a ship, though to be fair he didn’t seem to need as much help as she would have thought he did. It’s when Kirk is sick with Rigellian flu and Pike calls looking concerned that she realizes that the two men think of one another as family.

4) Everyone knew that he and McCoy were joined at the hip throughout the Academy, but it’s not until the senior staff are putting together the mission briefs on the return to Earth, when Spock asks McCoy why he had given Kirk a mudflea vaccination and they both look a little guilty that people start to suspect there’s something more. When the mission starts and it soon enough becomes common knowledge that the two share breakfast together almost every day, and later when it becomes clear that the Doctor’s quarters are scarcely used, some people blink in surprise. And afterwards, everyone agrees that they were pretty blind to have not seen it in the first place.

5) Jim is haunted by the half-memories of another Kirk. The other Jim Kirk did great things, but he was also lost for decades in a dream of his own making, only to die without his friends at the side of a strange captain from another century. Jim thinks he can do great things too, like his Father did, but he’s going to do them all with Bones, if Bones will let him. He explains this to Bones one night, and the man just shakes his head, and says, “You damn fool, you’re worryin’ about shadows on a cave wall. We’re what’s real, now.” And then he kisses him, and Jim relaxes, because while all that might have happened in another world, he is in this one—and he’s fine with that.

[aadarshinah.livejournal.com]

love this whole thing, but numbers 4 & 5 are just dead on *perfect*

[caitri.livejournal.com]

*G*G* Thanks, but, er--which fic? :)

[aadarshinah.livejournal.com]

So I looked up the poem because of this. And, wow, do I agree. Amazing, as always.

"'Tis neither promise nor prayer nor show will settle the finding for 'ee. Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em go by your looks, or your acts, or your glory. But if he finds you and you find him. The rest of the world don't matter; for the Thousandth Man will sink or swim with you in any water."

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks!!!!! And yeah, I reread that recently this week and my first thought was, Holy shit! This is the boys!!!!!!

[(Anonymous)]

Bones has the purest, most gentlemanly heart of all the guys. Yet he hides it under his grumpy crusty shell. I don't know.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

He's a beautiful broken boy. It's what makes him awesome.