Currently Reading

The main question that remains is whether to have it be a gender bending cross-over as proposed, or to have best fit characters in an AU inspired by Sound of Music. Or worst fit characters inspired by Sound of Music?

The captain would make a really good, well, captain. But the captain as Maria would be HILARIOUS, and I'm imagining Jayne as the head nun instead of Book, Simon as the captain... There's a lot of different ways that could go.

Must confess, I am seriously considering (well, okay, not really seriously!) a series of Firefly crossover fics with.... JAYNE AUSTEN.

Bytemite wrote:The main question that remains is whether to have it be a gender bending cross-over as proposed, or to have best fit characters in an AU inspired by Sound of Music. Or worst fit characters inspired by Sound of Music?

The captain would make a really good, well, captain. But the captain as Maria would be HILARIOUS, and I'm imagining Jayne as the head nun instead of Book, Simon as the captain... There's a lot of different ways that could go.

I think Mal absolutely should be Maria. He ends up in the nunnery at the end of the war, because Shadow's destroyed and he has no home to go to. But it isn't a good fit. Mal having lost faith and all.

But Best Fit and Worst Fit scenarios both have appeal. I must think about this!

He is assigned to teach the kids English, and music, and then, how to play and love.

So as a tutor instead of a governess.

If we tried to play most of the character roles and love interests straight, we could rework the setting as a guild house with Inara as the too proper house mistress and maybe widow who needs to let her hair down. Alternatively Zoe or Simon as Mal's stoic foil. Kaylee is one of the kids and tries to see Tracey on the side.

If we really want to screw it up, Jayne as either the Abbess or as Mal's foil would be highly inappropriate.

It should be noted that there's an Abbey in Salzberg where the priests (not nuns, not a convent) brew their own beer. Apparently this is not uncommon in Germany and Austria.

ebfiddler987 wrote:Must confess, I am seriously considering (well, okay, not really seriously!) a series of Firefly crossover fics with.... JAYNE AUSTEN.

Oh, sorry. Noticed this one.

There would be a lot more swearing, and boozing, and cigars. About the same card playing, but with actual gambling. Also, the male lead is always brazen, boisterous, and crude. He gets all the women, in scenes of a questionable nature that wouldn't be considered appropriate in Regency times.

Bytemite wrote:He is assigned to teach the kids English, and music, and then, how to play and love.

So as a tutor instead of a governess.

If we tried to play most of the character roles and love interests straight, we could rework the setting as a guild house with Inara as the too proper house mistress and maybe widow who needs to let her hair down. Alternatively Zoe or Simon as Mal's stoic foil. Kaylee is one of the kids and tries to see Tracey on the side.

If we really want to screw it up, Jayne as either the Abbess or as Mal's foil would be highly inappropriate.

So, if we go with the straight version, Mal enters a monastery after the war, Book is the abbot. Inara is the too-serious head of a house full of young companions-in-training (both boys and girls) and Mal is hired on as tutor. He teaches the kids English, music, how to play and love and shoot. Atherton Wing is the Baron who tries to woo Inara for all the wrong reasons. The rest of the crew might be cast as "the children" (young companions) -- but retain their usual characters.

This way, Simon and Kaylee aren't brother and sister. Same as Wash and Zoe. This would be kind of awkward. The characters themselves would object.

Simon and River can still be brother and sister.

Also adorable crew meddling between Mal and Inara and Atherton.

I recently re-read this one:

What My Heart Will Be Is A Tower by Alizarin on lj. It's a sort of short action-adventure focusing on Inara, Kaylee and River, which is certainly not something in abundant supply in this fandom. Loving look at all three of them.

I loved it as much as I did on the first read. ...in frigging 2006, which is scarier than I want to contemplate.

Cool, I will check that out.

Rouka, I will check that one out.

Meanwhile, I just stayed up too late reading this one:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=8597
Nathan Fillion finds himself aboard the real Serenity and has to act like Mal. Superbly done.

Very cool premise for the Inara Kaylee and River story, and that Riverspeak was superb (I kind of overdo it at times).

I was also reminded of a story I heard, when they were filming for the movie, the Reaver chase scene, Summer Glau had to go to the bathroom at one point. There's a rather funny picture of Nathan and Gina shrugging, and Nathan holding a roll of toilet paper, their backs turned to where you can just see the back of Summer's head where she's crouched down on the other side of the mule.

The only thing is, there's one point where Inara acts too graceful to touch Kaylee's soaked makeshift bandages, and that's out of character. Inara helped Simon operate on Kaylee in the pilot episode, and did triage with Simon in the unfilmed script of Dead or Alive.

But her using her sari as a flag, wearing only a negligee, and then shooting at intruders with a hold-out pistol made up for it.

Ha ha, fanboys and fangirls. If any of the cast ever showed up on Fireflyfans again, incognito or something, I bet that's how we'd all come across.

"“Kind of a short firing range, isn’t it, sir? Or were you just evening out your toenails?”

HA! Oh man, this is a delight! Nicely found, EB.

EDIT: It keeps getting better. The dry humour, it's just invigorating. They even threw in a really good Firefly verse story too. Though that family is pretty awful, I'm not sure why any of the crew would think it's good to work for them again.

Agent Rouka wrote:I recently re-read this one:

What My Heart Will Be Is A Tower by Alizarin on lj. It's a sort of short action-adventure focusing on Inara, Kaylee and River, which is certainly not something in abundant supply in this fandom. Loving look at all three of them.

I loved it as much as I did on the first read. ...in frigging 2006, which is scarier than I want to contemplate.

I loved it, too. That's a great premise to work from. We didn't get to see these three characters work together in an action/adventure, on the show. I like seeing stories where the action is not reserved only for the characters we'd expect it for (Mal, Jayne, Zoe) and instead things get turned upside down and shaken up a little bit.

Charlie was doing a fun one like that, where Simon and Inara decided to do a meet while Mal, Zoe, and Jayne had to sit in jail. And then Kaylee and River have to try to rescue SImon and Inara when it goes wrong.

I had to post you all some squee.

http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=10918

Oh, that's most definitely a squee-worthy fic. (*squees*)

Inara. So confused! Poor Mal. He had to ask her if she understood he was asking her to marry him. And she never does say yes, just starts talking about bridesmaid dresses. Ha.

My favourite part though is that the ring came from Shadow (and Earth That Was) and it was his mothers.

Intopaper and Goldy and Hawkmoth are three of the fanfic writers I've never met, but I love their work.

Bytemite wrote:really nice AU...http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=16970

This one says it's one of a series...does anyone know if the rest of the series was ever written or posted, and where it might be if so?

Yeah, I've read and enjoyed Hawkmoth stories. Haven't read much of Intopaper and Goldy, so I'll have to look into them.

Saw a cliosmuse story in the random quotes today at Fireflyfans, but the link didn't work.

Oh yeah. She posted her story twice because she decided there was another user name too close to hers. But one of the sets of stories didn't convert too the new board well.

Yes, you must find some Goldy or Hawkmoth fics!

I can get you started. I think a link to Goldy's profile is in that very story. The last two stories she did were a little dark, but they're nice too, and she also has some gems. And I think she has a livejournal too.

Hawkmoth did a very nice one about Inara having a nightmare, and Mal nearly breaks down the door when she starts crying out. Good stuff there about trust.

http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=2&tid=11934&mid=188951

This is another pretty one. Two in a series.

http://blu.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=5083

http://blu.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=5095

Yeah, the AU one was supposed to be a series, but I don't know that the author ever did anything more with it.

Here's another fun one.

http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=16350

I'm going to usurp Bytemite's prerogative here and post a link to a story she recommended to me.
http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=2105
I just read it and I am completely blown away. Although there's some headcanon and backstory going on there that differs from mine, the characterizations are just so true, the story is well-built and well-told. Just amazing.

This one's interesting so far.

http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=19118

I recently re-read this one, and was reminded of how much I enjoyed reading it the first time:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=16631
"Sneaking into the Captain's Bunk" series by valeriebean.