Weekly Chat and Spectre Prompt Fest (25/09/2015)

[mi6-cafe-mod.livejournal.com]

A new Friday means a new Weekly Chat! Don’t forget that the weekly chat is open until Friday of next week.

Anon commenting is on so you don’t need an account to join in the fun! If you are using anon comments, if you could put your name/handle in the subject line/body of the comments that would be fab (just so everyone knows who they are talking to!)

Weekly Recs

It’s time again for you to give your weekly recs! This week we’re looking for your favourite fics/art you’ve seen over the past week and those fics/art that fit into the genre of the week!

This week the genre of fanwork recs we’re looking for is: drabbles. This week, we want those fics that are able to pack a punch in only a few words.

When reccing fic/art, please can you make a separate comment with ‘Week Rec’ in the subject title. If you’re commenting anon, then just put your handle in brackets after the ‘Weekly Rec’ bit - eg Weekly Rec (name). This just helps your friendly mod hunt down all your links and put them into the weekly rec post!

Spectre Prompt Fest!

The MI6 prompt bingo table continues! We’re releasing a new prompt every week up to when Spectre is released in the UK on November 6^th. You can write/draw/create anything of your choice in response to the prompt, and you can post fills for any of the revealed prompt!

This week the prompt is: “Flowers”.

Exploding Objects	Love doesn’t solve everything	Broken	Health and Safety	Possession
Never say never	“Make me disappear”	“No.”	The past has come back to haunt me	Suit Up
Starlight	Red	“I was taking some overdue holiday”	Flowers	Hidden
Hidden	Hidden	Hidden	Hidden	Hidden

You can post your fills anywhere you like – tumblr, in the comments section of the weekly chat, to your own LJ! Feel free to link your fills in the chat, and don’t forget to tag your prompt fills with #mi6cafeprompt so everyone can share the 00Q love!

There is now an A03 collection that you can post your fills to! See the link in the sidebar for more information.

MI6 Café Book + Film Club

Our next book for book club with be Moonraker, which will begin on 3^rd October (next week!!). You can find resources for Moonraker in the links on the sidebar.

Potential trigger warnings for Moonraker include:
-          Nazisim
-          Various slurs
-          Drug usage
-          Car accidents

In film club will be watching Goldfinger on November 7th. Please see the schedules for more information on times!

This week’s questions

1. Bond and Q have somehow ended up pet-sitting. Who would they pet-sit for, what would the animal be, and what would they like and dislike about the experience?


2. What fears have Bond and Q overcome in their lives?


3. What are Bond and Q always striving to get better at doing?


4. How did Q join MI6/become Quartermaster?


5. What departments tend to be on the opposite side of the MI6 battlefield from Q and/or Bond when it comes to MI6 politics?

Comments

[isthisrubble.livejournal.com]

4) How did Q join MI6/become Quartermaster?
I was just thinking about this the other day! Q did a double degree in something computer-y and something engineering-y (??? history student here I mean I know nothing about that stuff) and was studying... I think the next thing is Masters? in the computer whatever. As a hacker, Q's like the members of the Hacker Republic in the Millennium Trilogy, he doesn't (recreationally) distribute viruses or similar, and doesn't like people who do - he just wants to explore. So he's exploring, and suddenly he realises just how much of MI6's info he can access? Not the high security stuff, he wouldn't be able to get into that without revealing himself, but it worries him, because if he can do it, someone else could too.
So he realises he can get into the printer of the guy who is the old Q's computer specialist. He writes a huge list of things that can be improved in their security and how it could be done, updates his resume, writes a cover letter, downloads all their application forms from the website (idk if they would have been online in 2005... let's pretend they were, or he found them in the system somewhere) and fills them out, and then prints the whole lot out on this guy's printer when he's gone home for the night.
The Q Branch guy gets in the next day and is like wtf seCURITY BREACH but once they make sure nothing's going to explode he reads everything, then runs to find Q and says we need this guy. MI6 ends up covering some of Q's costs so that he can finish his Masters, sometime giving him assignments on the side. Half the time they give them to him during exams, which he supposes is a test of his multitasking. They give him a full time job once he's done, and for the next few years he just gets promoted a lot, branches out from pure computer stuff to other things like bombs etc. The old Q dies of heart failure a month and a half before the explosion, and Q has just got the Branch reorganised when Silva blows it all to hell.
... holy shit that's long

5) What departments tend to be on the opposite side of the MI6 battlefield from Q and/or Bond when it comes to MI6 politics?
Bond: Everyone. Well, not really, but he sure acts like it. Medical despairs of his self destructive tendencies, the people who deal with covering stuff up and containing damage etc want to sew his lips together and tie him to a chair so he can never use his real name or blow something up again, and the Ms and their staff just despair
Q: Finance and the Ms etc. Everyone fights with finance, though.

Castillon

[(Anonymous)]

1) OMG, my cat is the loudest and whiniest on the planet when it decides it's time for someone to feed him. I feel for Bond and Q for going through that! So cute though.

2) I love all of these answers! I especially like the canon call-backs to Bond's parents' deaths and what happened during Casino Royale. Great point about Q's family as well.

3) TOTAL AGREEMENT about Q Branch! Lol at "new and interesting ways to kill, etc" bc yeah, James Bond loves learning new techniques for his job the same way a chef loves learning new techniques to cook. I also love the idea that Bond thinks of being a good partner as a skill that he can actively work and get better at--which it is, but sometimes that's not how people conceptualize it.

How do you think Q and Bond work together to help each other get better at the things they're always trying to improve on?

4) Great headcanon! Hahahaha, love Q being so helpful and getting everyone a bit riled up. And definitely laughing at the jobs-during-exams thing, because that's pretty cruel but at the same time probably a really accurate idea of what it's like to be Q? "EVERYTHING IS EXAMS AND ALSO YOU HAVE TWELVE OTHER ESSENTIAL THINGS TO DO." I also love how your Q seems a bit blase about it ("supposes it's a test of his multitasking"), because the future Quartermaster would have to be, wouldn't he?

5) Love the idea of Q fighting with M about things, actually. And yeah, Bond would probably be offed by someone on his own side if he weren't so good at being charming after his terribleness. "so he can never use his real name or blow something up again" :D :D

Re: Castillon

[isthisrubble.livejournal.com]

1) I've never had cats (dogs! dogs are great! but Eve is a cat person imho) but I know exactly what hungry, attemtion hog pets are like

2) I've never been a fan of the Q-is-an-orphan-actually-everyone-at-MI6-is, because them having families is so much more interesting! And I bet Q is a worry-wart when his family are concerned

3) yay!

4) Q at that point had come out of the other side of extreme stress, and was at the point where you are beyond stress and therefore just chill and resigned to the worst...

5) M is caught between oooh that sound like an interesting idea and I have to be a responsible adult bc it's all on my head if it goes tits up so half the time when they are disagreeing with Bond or Q they actually agree! but they can't! because it's their job to control their subordinates (... as if anyone can control Bond)

Re: Castillon

[(Anonymous)]

5) Yeah, the burden of leadership and everything. Hence all those "I'm going to be exasperated with you for your insubordination but also give you lots of $$ and vacation time when you do a good job even when it's against my orders" thing.