oops

[rivendellrose]

Note to self - when asking for writerly research help from medical student friend, it's a good idea to make clear why one is asking about the details of nasty messy death by impalement. Otherwise, friends of medical student friend may see one's comment and think one is a good candidate for a backwards coat and a rubber room.

Sorry, coramegan. I wasn't really paying attention to how totally out of whack that comment was going to look to someone who didn't know what I was talking about or why I'd be asking about it. o_O Heh. V now probably thinks that you're friends with a murderous psychopath.

Let's not mention my obsession with absorbed twins or any ohter branch of obscure 19th century teratology, shall we? That one might be even harder to explain...

Comments

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

ROFL

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm just special like that. *Sighs*

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Who's getting impaled?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I'll give you three guesses and the hint that it's canon not my fault.

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

LOL.

*smacks self for asking such a dumb question*

He is so humped.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Do you want the oh-so-disturbing medical analysis that I got? *g*

I can't help it, writing from River and Zoe's POVs makes me do and think bad things. River because... well... reader. Come on - she felt Book get shot from kilometers away, you can't tell me she didn't feel that. And then... er... aftermath.

I still am kind of appalled and relieved that I seem to be the only person in fandom who went through a horribly morbid few moments of wondering "but... the Reavers would've been too distracted by the living members of the crew to be concerned with the body, RIGHT??!!"

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

"but... the Reavers would've been too distracted by the living members of the crew to be concerned with the body, RIGHT??!!"

EEP. Nope, sure never thought of that one on my own, thankyouverymuch. *scrubs brain*

I have, however, spent some brain cells thinking about River being able to feel that as well as she felt Book getting shot, and I'd love to hear your take on it!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I am apparently a sick human being. It took me about an hour and a half after the movie, and then I literally screamed at one of my housemates, then wailed in frustration when she said it was possible.

...Sorry for sharing the misery? If it makes you feel any better, they did drop that guy on Lilac as soon as Mal shot him. So... the likelihood is good that they bypassed the ship completely and took off after the others.

It's odd, because she's so clearly Very Upset by Book getting shot, but we don't see any indication of something like that when we meet up with her and the others after what happened to Wash. I mean, I would think that at least Simon and Inara would be trying to calm her down (not to mention knowing that something bad must've happened). We do get that she's not surprised when Zoe says he's not coming, but... total lack of reaction seems kind of odd for the circumstances, given closer proximity and certainly a closer bond than she and Book had by the third darned episode. I'm still trying to figure out how I can explain that for the fic I'm working on.

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Well, she does freak out a bit -- "She picked a sweet bung of a time to go helpless on us". I always just thought it was about the Reavers being in such close proximity to her, but who knows? Maybe it was about that.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's true... kind of a delayed reaction, maybe? I always thought it was the Reavers being so close, too, but the script for the scene actually says that she's out of it before they really start closing in, before she refers to them and their rage. So maybe she was in shock from what she caught off Wash.

The other reason there was less of a reaction with Wash, I suppose, might be that the script says he has time to open his mouth in shock, and then he's dead. Or at least passed out from shock, according to my friend. ;)

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Not too delayed, really -- that whole thing happens pretty quick. I'd say it's no more than a minute or two between when Mal pulls Zoe out of the way on Serenity and when Jayne and Mal throw the grenades and pull the door closed. Not enough time to really process what happened.

Besides, we didn't get to see River in that moment -- she was elsewhere on the ship. Who knows what she went through?

Also, what is this "script" you speak of?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That's true - although when Book was shot she reacted immediately, so anything is a delay compared to that. And, as you said, short of asking Joss I suppose we'd never know exactly what happened in that instant.

Ahhh - the visual companion to Serenity has the full shooting script in it. My absolute joy when it comes to fact-checking and wonderful little 'hey, cool little bits that didn't get in' treasure-trove. ;)

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess my point is that we didn't see River in that exact second that things happened, so her experience is completely open to interpretation, luckily for you and your fic. ^_^

Also -- Must. Get. Visual. Companion. How could I have missed the whole script-included part? The best thing I could find online is a transcript that someone just typed up while they were watching it.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

True. I'd have loved to see it, though - pity they couldn't fit it in.

Yeah, the visual companion is pretty handy that way. The interviews and stuff are nice, too, but the script... ah, so handy for a fic-writer. There's also this (http://twiztv.com/scripts/firefly/), if you haven't seen it already... Very handy stuff. With some lovely bits that didn't make it to filming, too.

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the episode scripts come in handy quite often in my icon-making / fic-making. Never did find a suitable movie script, though.

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

...Vlad Dracul? What?

*slinks off to the history section*

(Also, what's teratology?)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

*Amused* More or less, I guess... except with fanfic?

Teratology is literally the study of 'monsters' - really, it's the study of birth defects.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Who are you killing? *whimpers*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

As I told jayneaintagirl, I'll give you three guesses............

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Got it. I thought maybe you were gonna kill someone else.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Nah, I wouldn't do that. I just needed details for River-POV stuff, and for some stuff with Zoe dealing with the body.

[coramegan.livejournal.com]

LOL! No, that was one of the highlights of my day. If only I could have seen the actual look on his face. I mean, wow. I understood everything you said and why you asked and all, via geekdom and psychic former-roommate connection. It's a writer thing, he wouldn't understand. ;-) Really, it was freaking hilarious. If you could post more of those, you know, a couple per week, that would make me feel so special. ♥♥♥

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I figured you'd understand, but I didn't realize exactly how bizarre it'd look to 'outsiders' until it was too late. *g*

Don't tempt me, or I'll start nagging you about potential side-effects of a stripped amygdala, or playing "how could this work" with Cardassian physiology.

...That latter's been a thorn niggling at my brain for sooo long, I have to say. Mammalian reptiles! Or maybe monotremes....

[coramegan.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd been thinking about the stripped amygdala thing myself. I'm sure I'll be reading more about the amygdala while I study for the Boards, so I'll let you know if I come up with anything. ;-)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Awesome! It might turn into one of those things that totally wouldn't work in reality, but it'd be so fun if there was a little bit of scientific wiggle room to bring in new details. XD