Out from under the bridge

Sorry!

2006-08-12T21:50:20Z

Sorry! First I was overwhelmed with my job, then I'd just got out of the habit of checking the LJ. I think I eventually found myself in a feedback loop where I subconciously avoided thinking about the hoedown, because I got worried about how long it had been...

I'll add my next bit tomorrow. If I can remember what it was!!

:::Taps Mic::: Testing... testing....

2006-04-14T18:02:23Z

Just a note to say I've not forgotten about the Hoedown. I hadd turned my attention to the Art Gsrden (I never expected it to take all my attention, or I would have announced my brief hiatus). I emailed my piece to the editor last night, though, and now I am ready to get back into the swing of things.

narm00 and daibhid_c: I noticed you've both deleted your replies to the Nadine's Group Thread. Are you going to combine your additions into something new, or what? Just wondering... What happens in that thread may soon impact Estandre's group, is all...

Personally, I'm expecting the two groups to meet up soon, I just wanted a chance for Sailor Gallifrey to get connected with the party, and I doubted she'd be trying to meditate in the industrial center of the city; besides, a "casual" walk from the park to the bioengineering lab may give Estandre's group a chance to uncover some useful clues...

Nadine

2006-04-05T00:00:29Z

Imran, if I've got Nadine's abilities or her attitude to them wrong, please let me know, because I'm not *quite* sure about the scene as it stands.

BTW, I hate to sound picky, but I thought you said earlier the technology that transformed her was based on the Mondasian meanies? So how come she's never heard of them?

I've got a theory...

2006-04-03T18:38:01Z

Here's a possible theory that's been rattling around in my head which might link Sailor Gallifrey's presence on Shemis with the mission of Nadine's group.

What if Shemis is where the Gallifreyan Muses died? What if some essence of them had managed to survive their deaths? What if someone tried to create living beings using those essences - in other words, the trio?

SG, then, would be here to commemerate their deaths with the spirit of Shemis.

The Bosses would be after the trio because of some side-effect of the original bio-engineering - not their musely qualities, though, because we've established the Bosses aren't interested in those.

How's that sound?

Heard this on the radio, yesterday; and it gave me some ideas, maybe, for the hoedown

2006-03-26T19:14:40Z

[cross-posted from capriuni, with extra, Hoedown-oriented, postscripts]

This American Life: Superpowers
I only listen to this show sometimes, but this time it really captivated me, and I can't quite put my finger on why. I guess maybe it's because the issue strikes right to the core of our sense of vulnerability. And I'm at a point in my life, right now, where I am feeling particularly vulnerable.

I highly recommend it. Go and listen, particularly if you have broadband. And if you don't have broadband, go anyway, if you have time.

(Oh -- and for the record? I'd choose "Flight," hands down. "Invisibility" sucks)
---
Postscript 1: "Act Three" (Superheroes with powers that make no sense) struck me as a particularly pro-fun idea, and I think we could have some real fun if we encountered some "heros" like that in our story. (~37 minutes in)

Postscript 2: "Act Four" (Wonder Twins) is really tragic (especially since it's a true story), but it gave me some insight into how our Lise, Mish, and Zenk might interact with the more adult Hoedowners. Not that our three believe they, themselves, have superpowers, but they're only a few years older than these "Wonder Twins," and this piece illustrated the complex mix of violence and loneliness that comes out when kids this young are used by adults in war.

Out of action for a bit...

2006-03-23T23:48:45Z

Just so everyone knows, I made my latest post with the intention of staying out of the center of the action. On Sunday (March 26), I'm going away to a camp for my spring break, and I will have no Internet access until the following Saturday (April 1). I may update again before that if I feel like it. Feel free to use my characters, and have fun with the story! I'll see you after the break!

By the way, I'm very happy with how the Hoedown is going this year. I'm participating as much as I want to, and more importantly, I'm enjoying the story and finding it interesting. Keep up the good work! :)

As we about to disembark on Shemis....

2006-03-21T21:56:16Z

Some questions, in no particular order:

sailorgallifrey: Would you mind if I moved your entry (word for word) to the reply section of the previous thread, so your character can be there to greet the hoedowners as they land (figuratively) in her lap?

dabhid_c: Earlier, you mentioned that you had a scene for Carr, of the "I'm sure you're all wondering why I gathered you in the library" variety. Do you still want to do that? If so, it might be helpful if you sketched out a general outline of your theory, to help us all figure out where to go from here...

narm00: Whatever happened to your avatars Marin and Allie? They just seem to have disappeared into the crowd -- Nadine, too. I have a feeling Nadine, in particular, will be in her element in this part of the story, as we unravel the mystery of the trio's parents, and their flight from Shemis...

And, just as a general aside: I think this Hoedown in particular has a certain Sherlock Holmes aura about it.... I almost want to give Estandre a deerstalker cap and a pipe (but don't worry, I won't).

Um, Ann...

2006-03-19T09:55:09Z

Could we delete the last two replies to the Shemis post? From your response, I think I muffed what I was trying to say; to whit, that having all this happen to /this/ trio is suspiciously coincidental, and Estandre doesn't trust coincidence. Perhaps there is a unifying 'something' linking all of this together, and perhaps not (and if there is, it's not Musely; we established the Bosses aren't inclined that way); either way, Estandre is wary.

I apologise if it came across as too Musely; that certainly wasn't my intent when I wrote it.

Hoedown '06 -- quick and dirty recap of the story so far

2006-03-18T03:07:25Z

Some long time participants to Hoedowns past have told me this would be helpful -- very broad strokes here, just a general overview of where we are now:

This year, the party was interupted when a very small, very badly damaged, TARDIS materialized inside Sweetheart's ballroom -- disguised as one of the crystal baubles on one of the chandeliers.

Its pilot, a humanoid mouse in barouque costume (named Arthur Nonny) told us that he had narrowly escaped the clutches of three bandits, who were out to steal all TARDISes, So the Doctors hid their own collection of TARDIS by materializing in each others' Zero Rooms.

We then headed to the time and place near where the bandits were last seen: the space port planet of Odrem. There, we split into two groups. One group goes to find the bandits, and the other goes to bring retrieve Arthur Nonny's family and bring them back to Sweetheart to stay while their TARDIS repairs itself.

The first group is confronted by the bandits who somehow identify the Third Doctor as a Timelord, and threaten to take him hostage. But with thehelp of Nadine, a secret agent type who has also been on their trail, the Hoedowners overpower the three of them, and discover that they are only teenagers, each carrying a mysterious object (A sword, a sextant, and a shuttle). The unconscious three are taken back to the Hoedown, where Maid TARDIS (Sweetheart) reveals the three objects to be artifacts of three of Gallifrey's ancient muses. The objects are confiscated, to be returned to Gallifrey's senior surviving muse at the end of the adventure.

Meanwhile, the second group, having retrieved Arthur's family from the inn where they were staying, is detected by the bandits' bosses -- nasty, giant lizard creatures, who also identify the Second Doctor as a Time Lord, and chase the second group back to Sweetheart. Sweetheart dematerializes just as the Bosses are about to catch the hoedowners, and the creatures follow Sweetheart into the Vortex for a short distance, before we lose them.

Estandre, Sweetheart's pilot, interigates the three teens, and discovers they are war orphans who "found" the three musely artifacts by accident, and then found each other; using the sextant to find more Timelord tech left behind in the wake of the Time War, they started a black market ring to try to survive, and caught the attention of their "Bosses," of whom they are terrified. Two of the Hoedowners, ("TARDIS Tails" -- an Eighth Doctor/Garfield fictitype -- and Dabhid Chelonidae) go back to Odrem to see if they can get any extra information on the Bosses using a muse-version of a geiger counter. They return shortly and report that the Bosses seem more interested in the three teenagers than the artifacts.

Estandre decides that a key piece of the puzzle is likely to be found in life stories of the teens' parents. (who all died on the same day during the war). So the Hoedown is now headed to those parents' homeworld, Shemis.

And that's where we are, now.

May I please beg your indulgence, again (sorry)?

2006-03-14T23:36:40Z

Imran -- you make a good point, in your reply to my latest addition in tardis_hoedown, about how the kids wouldn't necessarily know the coordinates of their home planet.

I'm not entirely happy with what I wrote last night/this morning, particularly with how Estandre asked about their parents' deaths, and how they responded (they'd want to know why he was asking, not just challenge his assumption, and deny that their parents had anything to do with the Bosses). That's what you get when you try to write while severly sleep deprived (and you accidently erase the whole post one sentance away from completion, and have to rewrite the whole thing from the beginning...).

I'd like to rewrite it, if that's okay with everybody (the basic info will be the same -- nothing in the story itself will change), and I can change his question about the coordinates as I do that.

We seem to be spending a great deal of time, this go-'round ...

2006-03-11T02:37:59Z

hanging around the buffets, talking about stuff... while the fictional guests are probably greatful for this, I think Eloise is getting nervous, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

And my authorial self is getting the writers' version of itchy feet -- wanting to explore alien ~~quarries~~ planets, and get into some goofy, exciting action.

...But I'm not quite sure how to do it...

Any ideas?

Quick thing...

2006-03-05T18:33:00Z

/If/ the Muses' artifacts have been on Odrem all this time - which is a possibility, but not definite yet - then it suggests that Agave, Philomela and Penelope died there.

This might tie in with Bob's speculation about Muse activity...

(If they died elsewhere, and the artifacts gravitated to Odrem, it'd be unlikely to rule out Bob's speculation...)

:::Whoosh!!:::

2006-03-05T05:41:56Z

"It must work that way," said Eighth, "Under our laws of physics, he'd just collapse into a pile of pigment. Toons can't really exist with our physical laws."

"Um..." said Fitz.

"Yes, all right, but that was a different situation *entirely*."

Say what?

What was a different situatation entirely?

Question for our newer members (and,.perhaps, our older ones, too)

2006-03-01T19:55:48Z

This question goes out specifically to: barbarafett, jackie_tyler, jamesbowman, pete_wisdom and mythverdandi, but also, generally, to our old regulars:

Every year, I go into the Hoedown expecting to start a completely new story, that can exist on its own, independant of its own past. But the stories that have worked the best, as narratives, turn out to be the ones where we develop, even further, our own alternate Doctor Who universe, with its own unique backstory and subplot threads (such as the "six muses of Gallifrey," who exist here, and no where else).

Would it be helpful if I tried to write up a synopsis of the continuing Hoedown Saga, giving an overview of the previous 4 stories (though I don't think we did much new world building in #4)? Including where it ties into Classic and New Who, and where it spins off wildly into the Nth Dimension of the Fictiverse?

I could post it here, and link to it in tardis_hoedown's info page....

Questions: Anybody else itching to write this? The Kids, the musely artifacts, & apologies...

2006-02-28T06:17:51Z

Okay, it feels like I'm hogging the story here. Am I, or should I just keep adding bits as ideas come to me?

Anybody want to take these three kids under their authorial wing, or should they be freelance for all the writers (a bit like the Doctors)?

I guess the next segment of the story should be the kids' apologies to the Nonny mice.

I'm also thinking that each of the artifacts are reflections of the each of the kids, and the particular kind of creative spark each one posesses (and therefore, that kid's personality). AIUI, Lise, the girl, has the sextant -- for the muse of romance and journey tales, yes?

And the Sword of Magnificience and the Shuttle go to the boys. Which boy gets which, do you think? The muse of weaving I kind of understand -- maybe this is the creation of tapestries ... would that be the equivalent of visual arts? Maybe that kid is a particularly good illustrator (If so, I know a Chinese folktale where that skill is used in defeating evil -- could come in handy)? Or would the weaving, in this case, have more to do with the "Web of Time," being as Penelope was a Gallifreyan muse...

But I'm stumped on the Muse of Magnificience. What is that? War epics? Royal geneologies?

Any ideas, gang?

Sincerely,
Me.

A league of our own?

2006-02-27T04:20:21Z

Just for kicks, last night, I thought I'd do a GoogleFight for the Pro-Fun Troll Hoedown, but I couldn't think of another subgenre of Doctor Who fanfiction that's comparable. So I posted this question in dwcanon_fodder.

Just thought you'd be interested.

BTW, did you know that "Subreality" is a recognized term in philosophy? I found that out in the course of playing around in that googlefight thing.

This is why I love doing the Hoedown.... But --

2006-02-26T22:14:29Z

Well! I'm glad I ended my last entry with Estandre's question, instead of continuing with their answer (as I was planning to, when I started), because that interview certainly went in a different direction than the one in my head. And it's good exercise for me to try and keep up. Already, my mental wheels are whirring and clicking and ... yeah. This is fun.

Now, for the But:

"It was this." the girl said, pointing to the picture of the sextant. "Once it found the sword and that other thing..."

She frowned. "Wait a minute. Why are there /six/ of these?"

"The other three were destroyed. A long, long time ago." Estandre said. :::They must have been, if Philomela's sextant couldn't find them. Anastasia's and Chloe's were probably eaten by Typhon. Electra's... hm. She never mentioned it.:::

"...Destroyed?" the redhead echoed.

"Mm." Estandre said.

First off, Estandre had already slipped the diary back into his pocket before he asked what happened next, so she couldn't have pointed to the picture. Second, each of the three found their objects independantly of each other, and kinda drifted together after that.*. Third -- and this is the big one -- I think it's really out of character for Estandre to tell them anything about the artifacts right away, especially since he's unsure of their characters, and whether he can trust them. He'd be much more interested in learning exactly what they knew about the artifacts, before voluteering any information. At the very least, he'd wait until after he'd heard their apologies to the Nonny Clan.

Would you mind if I redacted that portion of your entry (while leaving the main plot developments intact)?

*I don't even think they'd know that it was the sextant that brought them together (any more than they would know that it was actually the artifacts that had found them, and not the other way around) -- at least, not at first.

Hey, Imran?

2006-02-23T23:18:49Z

Just out of curiousity, what were you thinking when you gave the Three* the muses' great artifacts? I have a feeling that that is first thing Estandre is going to ask them about, when he comes into the game room (which should be any second now). And I have an idea for what I want the Three's answer be, but I wanted to check with you, first, before I set it into words, and the idea became a permanant part of the story.

Which came first: the Bosses finding the Three, or the Three finding the artifacts? And do the artifacts have any bearing on the Three's ability to recognize the Doctor as a Time Lord?

*(we really should start thinking about giving the three of them names, now that the role of great, mysterious, hulking menace has shifted to other parties)

Why I really want the pro-fun troll Hoedowns to be a widely recognized subgenre of Doctor Who

2006-02-23T00:31:06Z

Top ten reasons:

10. Rolly Polly Trollies in Birthday hats are cute.

09. If Pro-Fun Trolldom becomes a recognized facet of the Internet, then maybe we'll hear less fear-mongering about it on the evening news.

08. It might earn an article in Wikipedia, written by someone else.

07. It will make me a Big Name Fan, and I can have groupies.

06. There's too much fear and dread and anger in the world, today, and a pro-fun troll meme (in the original meaning of the word) would be a force for good.

05. Non-linear plots and stories of silliness are good for the soul.
04. Big Finish might weave some good, rollicking fiddle and banjo tunes into the plots of their Adventures.

03. I want a set of plush trolls to cuddle.
02. Florestandrezopretrizon is a damn fine character (and I can say that, 'cause he was created, by a whole bunch of writers).

And the Number One Reason:
I could go to a Doctor Who convention with a bunch of birthday hats and party tooters, and people would recognize that I was in a themed costume.

[crossposted to capriuni -- not many on flist know or about or care to follow the Hoedown, but many know about the joys of simple con costuming]

Fallen

2006-02-22T05:55:28Z

So, Daibhid: is the bit halfway through your post where Merivale Carr unobtrusively metamorphoses into Gideon Fell a plot point, or what?

My own thoughts on the Three

2006-02-21T22:58:51Z

Sorry about my own bombshell with these mysterious beasts, but we were already reaching a consensus that the Three were not in it, themselves, and were part of a bigger operation. And Marin's/Third Doctor's group snatched them out of the web that had been set up just as Eloise's/Second's group moved into the same area at the same time. There was bound to be reprocussions; I thought about the "masterminds" being more ordinary humanoids, and having them actually snatch the Doctor. But that would have been a bit too much like "The search for Spock" for me, so I went with this tack, instead.
--

Perhaps they are siblings, or just close friends. They've lost their families in the Time War, somehow, probably, and banded together to create their own family.

It's likely that they were found by the real masterminds behind this trading ring, and promised protection and, maybe, a share of the wealth from the sales of Timelord tech. Mostly, though, they just like dealing in it because it's teh shiney, and uber-cool, and they are, at heart, very geeky kids.

Maybe its begun to dawn on them that they are being exploited, maybe not, but in any case, they're desperate to please their "Bosses."

Those "Bosses" are using the kids (and maybe others like them) as a front for their trading operation because people are more willing to mae deals with someone they see as vulnerable, then they are with great hulking beasts with scales and claws ready to eat them up.

(I'm thinking of my own experience with door-to-door magazine sales: "...And if I get 50,000 points, I'll earn a trip to Paris and a full scholarship to college..." And, in the meantime, there's an unmarked white van nearby, and you can tell they're being watched, and that the whole thing is just this side of being legal, and their "managers" probably find all sorts of reasons to dock their pay, so they're basically acting as fresh-faced slave labor, and that whole promise of the trip to Paris is a scam. But if you tell them that, will they believe you, or will they get in trouble? and ...yeah. The use of adolescents as sales agents is very effective. :::chagrin:::)

Hm...

2006-02-19T07:46:29Z

Now, she had someone else to worry about -- the Nonny's TARDIS, rebuilding herself within Beloved's zero room. Would the presence of the Artifacts affect that ship's consciousness, as the pressence of Electra had affected her own?

Well... there is a way for Beloved to find out. The Three had a TARDIS of their own, after all, and they /did/ bring the artifacts inside him (to my mind, the Three's TARDIS comes across as male). So... what effects have they had on /him/? (The effect Electra had on Beloved seems partly to have resulted from her nature as a muse, and partly from her earliest role as Gallifrey's lifegiver.)

Beloved's new console room?

2006-02-19T05:42:18Z

Would someone be so kind as to point to the correct place (if she or he knows it) in the redacted "Goodnight, Sweetheart" where her console room shifts back to the way it was when Florestandrezoreptrizon was first her pilot?

I know I wrote that bit, but I lack the stamina to go trawling through all the chapters to find it, right now (and it would be and even bigger chore to search my own hard drive). Still, a TARDIS's console room is the best snapshot of the ship's "personality," and with all the different TARDISes potentially acting as characters in this story, I'd like to remind myself of Sweetheart/Beloved's.

Everyday is Somebody's Birthday!

2006-02-18T00:07:07Z

And, today, it just happens to be daibhid_c's!

YaY!!!

(sorry if this embarrasses you, Daibhid. But isn't that what friends are supposed to do on birthdays?) ;-)

A bit about Nadine

2006-02-17T18:11:09Z

Okay... My apologies for the bombshell I've just dropped on the Hoedowners (unfortunately, the idea got into my head and refused to leave).

While they pick themselves up from that, it occurs to me I haven't covered who and what Nadine is, at least in the story.

Nadine /appears/ to be a human-seeming robot - metallic silver skin, blank metallic eyes, bob of dark hair. She isn't. What she is could best be described as a living nanobot colony contained in a machine shell. She /used/ to be human, or close enough, a member of a black ops team, until her commander decided she'd make a good test subject for his experiments into transhumanism, attempting to improve on the Cybermen's designs. The Eighth Doctor, with Nadine's help, managed to shut the projects down before the commander could extend them to the rest of his planet's populace.

She set off into the wider galaxy, getting herself together, until she ran across rumours of the Three, which led her to Odrem, and the encounter with Third.

Her nanobots are programmed to modify Nadine, and /only/ Nadine. No-one else. Within that range, they can do quite a bit, but only at Nadine's conscious command.

Two additional points: one, Nadine is original to the current Hoedown; she hasn't appeared anywhere else, and two, linking back to the discussion in the last thread, she was inspired by a couple of characters in DC Comics.