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believerindaydreams · 7 years ago

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listing to port

did anyone want an author’s commentary for my fic “The List”?

well, here’s one anyway. MacGyver and FL comments below.

(notes short enough to be readable. I did try keeping notes for Fulgent Engineering, but those are scarily long now.)

The thought process was simple enough: I'd already written "A little honest extortion", where Jack figures out he's heading for the Neath, and I'd done the introduction to "Vertere", where he meets up with MacGyver. All I had to do here was get from one to the other.

I've always been very fond of "Brian's Return," and Jack is a materialist; the concept meshed very nicely with his character. He doesn't know much about the Neath, isn't specifically aware that he's going to be trapped in a whole different century, but he does know that what he brings along might be the last he'll ever see of Surface culture. With the additional complication of making purchases for a friend/fellow spy/something-or-other who he rightly suspects to have left his old life behind with nothing more than a couple of good knives and an extra shirt.

(I have not yet settled on a Correspondence shorthand for "Fulgent Engineering", but a sigil for "the understood loss; and a price beyond" is a strong candidate. The state of the Tireless Mechanic's Surface jacket in "Alike in Dignity" was a precisely considered detail.)

SAKs

Well, yeah. The folks on MacGyver Online, anti-slash though they may be, have done a terrific job of cataloguing minor details in the series; I'd have had to find another and less specific way of writing this scene if they hadn't listed all the SAK statistics for the Informed Clerk to spout off.

Jack's got the gant-coloured knife. Which is initially mistaken for a Spartan (because that's what they used while shooting "Serenity"), but as per the Parabola sequences in "Fulgent Engineering", is actually a genuine 19th century article. Or a dreamed-up version of the real thing, at least. Wonder what happens when Mac- or his Reflection- gets it back.

When Jack started thinking of people in Adjective-Noun formation...I don't know. I suspect, though, that it's a little more common in the Fallen London universe than just in the Neath.

Camping Gear

It just tickled me to suggest that Jack's reaction to safety gear is to say "Safety? Who needs safety?" I'm tempted to write the Doomed Camping Trip in which all of Mac's improvisations happen entirely because Jack's a cheapskate and everything he buys is broken.

Guitar

Over in Tanista's Neath stories, Penny Parker is playing Lois Lane on "The New Adventures of Lois and Clark". This is a sound suggestion and I went with it.

Jack's taste in bad newspapers, aside from setting up the later punchline, is probably something that'll be relevant either in "Deep Romantic" or "Vertere" in good time. Even if it's only as a joke.

Watches

Pete doesn't know nearly as much as he could about the Neath (and almost none of what he does know made it to MacGyver; Pete, much to his regret, was hoping it'd be a case of 'least said, soonest mended'). But he is, at minimum, aware that there's an Underzee.

Which is more that Jack did, but he can take a hint.

Tape deck

Heh. I went to a lot of trouble chewing over which one would be best.

Jack is being an optimistic idiot, of course; you can't recharge the Sony WM-F107 without several hours of sunlight. Of course, you can also carry sunlight in a box in the Neath, so he's lucked out there. (It also has a battery hookup, which Mac will no doubt be able to sort out.)

Making Jack a draft dodger seemed an obvious opposition, once I'd had the idea to bring in Toberman (he's from the MacGyver episode "The Spoilers": seemed the most likely candidate among Mac's friends to give a crafting hobby to.) And it seems to work pretty well for his character anyway.

Cassettes

And the Grateful Dead backstory let me set up Jack as someone who's been involved in bootlegs for ages (the tales of bootlegger Grateful Dead fans are something epic).

I've listened to all of these musicians at one point or another while writing "Ecstasy". Helps me get into the mood for writing these two. The epic-length "Brothers in Arms" tape will be immediately understandable to anyone who has ever seen that episode of Miami Vice with Bruce in it.

Clothing

More borrows from the official forums again. Plus a chance to follow up on Cynthia (several stories). I like Cynthia.

Another fic concept for some later date, Mac going on the run. I know I already did that a bit with my non-Ecstasy story "here is a memory", but that was more an exercise in how far it's possible to push my protagonist before he ceases to be recognisable.

Come to think of it, perhaps I could combine it with the Camping Trip From Hell as per above.

Guitar redux

Penny writes herself. I just put it to keyboard.

Books

So. Desert Island Discs stipulation: no one gets to pick the Bible or Shakespeare for their one book, because that'd be dull.

Plus my awareness of Tolstoy's opinion of the Bard (as mentioned in a very entertaining essay by Orwell), plus the idea of Murdoc implementing a plan that would have terrified Mac but hardly fazes Jack...the chain of thought here was pretty smooth.

Chow

For the record: I am completely unable to imagine Jack as a Seeker in any way, shape, or form. Besides, the rhythm of the fic worked better when I underplayed something.

Also, there's some character development happening. Not that Jack's exactly pleased about this.

Gemstones

Nikki Carpenter's adventure as a gemstone expert was from her first story, "Fire and Ice". Easy thought process. And she gets to point out all the practical concerns Jack ought to be considering, which I'm not on the grounds of being too dull to include. Writing is also about knowing what *not* to write.

Plane

Jack Dalton flies planes. This is as integral to the character as engineering for the Innocent Spy. Therefore: ouch.

He has an...unusual relationship with Kate (see "Rock the Cradle" for the details on this- even if you're a Failbetter fan and ignoring all these MacGyver continuity comments, watch it anyway, because it's hilarious. Lots of banter, the Innocent Spy commits atrocities with duck tape. And despite the plot hinging on Jack's heterosexual shagging, it also manages to be very gay.

Like, very gay.)

Duck tape

Natural bookend, if you're starting with the SAKs.

Another scene inspired by the "Deep Romantic" plotting with Tanista; Jack has a mum, we had to dispose of the mum to get him down to the Neath, how shall we get rid of her? Witness protection! (Consistent with the MacGyver episode that she was in: "Ma Dalton," funnily enough).

I think this scene was about the right note of sentiment and a mutual acknowledgement that, deep down, both of them are pretty selfish so-and-sos who just aren't interested in the other's life. Like mother, like son. Also, Nikki's pretty smart.

Spent ages agonising over the ending. I may yet rewrite it. But the quiet shift of emphasis, from the stuff he's been accumulating all story to who he's expecting to find?

I confess, I am rather proud of that part...

#macgyver #fallen london #fic

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