From: nakeisha	Date: 14th April 2006 07:40 (UTC)		(Link)

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed.

However, next time I'm going to make it tougher -- I made it too easy for you to hit 100 words exactly. :)

ROFL. You are kidding, aren't you? Hitting 100 words was the hardest writing I have ever done. Believe me, this was a challenge and a half. Really.

	From: periwinkle27	Date: 14th April 2006 19:03 (UTC)		(Link)

I was mostly kidding about it being easy. I went nuts trying to hit a 100 words myself and I had to ruin my style to cut the last two words I needed. I was just thinking that it was easier to cut one word from a list than from a sentence.

	From: nakeisha	Date: 15th April 2006 06:14 (UTC)		(Link)

Good theory and yes, on the face of it, I'd agree with you - and would have thought that too, but...

Actually, this one took me the longest to write and prune (apart from my G/D one yesterday, when I got to the 'OMG, I have 101 words). I'd already parred the single words so much, that to lose one meant losing so much. I ended up cutting from the final bit about 'decades later'.

	From: nakeisha	Date: 15th April 2006 07:27 (UTC)		(Link)

This is exactly what I was thinking as I read these.

I'm glad to hear this. I'd hoped it would evoke these thoughts.

Thank you for reading and commenting.

	From: nakeisha	Date: 16th April 2006 09:48 (UTC)		(Link)

Do you know that your comment is almost twice as long as the drabble? :-)

Thank you for reading it, Cindy, I appreciate it.

I don't think 'fragile' would ever occur to me or to the Solo I'm writing in regards to Illya.

As I said in my recent essay, different people see/view/interpret the characters in different ways. To me and my Napoleon on very first impression, fragile did/would occur.

The first meeting story in which Solo and Kuryakin dislike each other on sight and/or make wrong assumptions about one another is certainly a recurring one.

It wasn't meant to imply any dislike, not at all. Just a very quick glimpse of what surface traits went through one another's mind upon their first meeting. In my little MFU world they become close friends as well as partners pretty much straight off. This was merely meant to show a snapshot of how they viewed one another straight off. First meeting, so to speak. There wasn't dislike involved, there couldn't be, they didnt' know one another.

It was a snapshot, nothing more. Impressions gained in the first few minutes, and we all do that, and often we are wrong. It wasn't meant to imply any dislike or anything, it was a first impression no more no less.

Thank you again for reading it.

	From: st_crispins	Date: 16th April 2006 13:13 (UTC)		(Link)

Do you know that your comment is almost twice as long as the drabble? :-)


What can I say? I'm a professor? :)

As I said in my recent essay, different people see/view/interpret the characters in different ways.

Oh absolutely. And that was exactly my point. That bit struck me of how different we see him.

Really, the comment wasn't meant to be criticism, merely an observation of perspectives and a point of discussion.

It wasn't meant to imply any dislike, not at all.

Some of their first impressions seemed rather on the negative side ---ie: cocky and brash (which I'd certainly agree with) and "angry" and "unable to back me up" (this latter one in particular would be serious for an agent) so I couldn't help but interpret the moment as having a sort of tension between them.

Again, just meant it as a starting point for discussion. In her LJ, Shay noted that people just aren't giving feedback or commenting enough, so I was responding to her call for action :)

	From: nakeisha	Date: 16th April 2006 13:42 (UTC)		(Link)

Some of their first impressions seemed rather on the negative side ---ie: cocky and brash (which I'd certainly agree with) and "angry" and "unable to back me up" (this latter one in particular would be serious for an agent) so I couldn't help but interpret the moment as having a sort of tension between them.

They were negative, yes. But negative doesn't have to imply dislike. You can care about someone deeply and still see their negative points and side. But in life we make these snap decisions based on first impressions, because we don't have anything else to go on to begin with, and often those first impressions are correct and often they are not. And rightly or wrongly they can colour our judgement.

Take the person who walks into an interview reeking of cigarette smoke, or perfume or chewing gum. This person may turn out to be the perfect employee, and you may get on really well, and you may find all this out the next day, but your snap decision would focus on those things. But as dislike really cannot be formed at the time of meeting, it's too strong a word to use, that's what I think. If I were interviewing the person reeking of cigarette smoke (and I have done so), I couldn't say I disliked them, I didn't know them, but my thoughts would probably be more negative than positive.

In my MFU 'world', Napoleon & Illya have been partnered for a while before the show begins, they are too in key with one another (I feel) for that to have been their beginning, but given the man Napoleon is, I can certainly see him as seeing Illya as looking fairly fragile and thus unable to back him up. It's a physical reaction that has nothing to do with his Survival School record or anything like that. You can see scores or records or references and see on paper what a person is able to do, but that doesn't necessarily stop you from thinking something else.

One of Illya's greatest strengths, I feel is his looks, not just his build, but his hair and how being. The fact that he does look deceptively weaker than most, smaller, lighter, etc. we know that he's used that against many foes, he's lulled them into a false sense of security, but seeing him just seeing him, not in action, etc. you don't think what a strong man, what power, what muscles, etc. It's a natural thought to have, especially for a man like Napoleon, who is more the traditional man.

One of Napoleon's greatest strengths is his facade of not being overly intelligent and of being beyond obsessed with his clothes. He is intelligent and okay, yes, he is obsessed with his clothes, but he uses those abilities, again like Illya uses his looks, to lull people, albeit in a different way.

Ans also, of course, most people put on a facade when meeting someone for the first time. And spies and folk used to being undercover will slip into those roles naturally, even sub-consciously and give of auras they might not intend to. And two men used to this world will be even more wary, not to mention the whole Cold War thing.

Plus, Napoleon would have seen Illya's record, he knows that academically Illya is more intelligent than him, so that's got to make him a little wary. You've got two men to an extent playing games with one another, not trying to outscore, at least not consciously, but neither are going to give on a first meeting.

And gossip being like it is, no matter what era we're in, Illya will have known about Napoleon and his women and clothes, and we know that both those things are of little if any importance to Illya, so he'll come with expectations of his own.

So yes, there were a lot of negatives, but that wasn't in any way intended to mean dislike. A degree of tension, maybe, but all perfectly natural tension.

People from this kind of world, spend their lives playing games and not being who they really are, to my mind it's natural that these things would carry over outside of the good vs bad, and most of the time it wouldn't be consciously. It's only when you get to know someone that the positives outweigh the negatives and the facades are dropped, and you realise how wrong and foolish you'd been.

Having said that, clearly some of the points negative or not, happen to be true - on both sides :-)

	From: st_crispins	Date: 16th April 2006 14:15 (UTC)		(Link)

But as dislike really cannot be formed at the time of meeting

See, I'm not so sure of that. I think people can absolutely loathe each other on first sight. That impression may change over time or may not. It's not rational of course, but I think it does happen.

People from this kind of world, spend their lives playing games and not being who they really are

Yes! Exactly! Which makes me think that perhaps Solo and Kuryakin might size each other up and conclude that what they're looking at is deceptive. That Kuryakin looks small but he's wiry and he has those big capable looking hands. That Solo might look like a shallow prima donna, but if you watch his eyes, you can literally see the thought processes and figure out that indeed, there's intelligence there.

So maybe adding a bit of complexity to those first impressions ---they are spies after all ---and what they think about each other would then also tell us more about what they think about themselves.

I wrote a scene once in which Solo is playing a 'game' with pre-teen Allyson about sizing up people. She naturally takes stock of very superficial traits of people sitting around them in a cafe. She's observant but has not developed a facility for complexity yet. Then he shows her how to look for small clues and use them to create a fuller picture of each stranger.

But then, I know it's a drabble and that limits how much you can pack in.

	From: nakeisha	Date: 16th April 2006 15:04 (UTC)		(Link)

See, I'm not so sure of that. I think people can absolutely loathe each other on first sight. That impression may change over time or may not. It's not rational of course, but I think it does happen.

I disagree really, but it may be more a case of splitting hairs. I do not think it is possible to genuinely loathe someone on first sight, you may think you do, you may hate everything about their looks, their voice, their clothes, their everything, but you can't deep down, truly, honestly, realistically loathe them, as you don't know them. That can only come later when you do know them.

Yes! Exactly! Which makes me think that perhaps Solo and Kuryakin might size each other up and conclude that what they're looking at is deceptive. That Kuryakin looks small but he's wiry and he has those big capable looking hands. That Solo might look like a shallow prima donna, but if you watch his eyes, you can literally see the thought processes and figure out that indeed, there's intelligence there.

True. But that sizing up so to speak wouldn't be an instant reaction, which the drabble was. It was meant to portray first thoughts. And whatever kind of person you are, you can be sizing someone up, but nonetheless the brain does it's own thing and certain words come into it. Your gut reaction is one thing, the sizing up is something different. The overwhelming hit of perfume at an interviewing. At the same time you are thinking 'this person is possibly trying to make a good impression and/or is nervous', your senses are being hit with the scent and you are also thinking how strong it is. And it'd be the sense related word you would almost certainly use if asked for a first impression, not the sizing up and realisation, etc. but the wham of the senses. And negative stuff always hits far stronger than positive stuff.

At a very base level we are all affected by the superficial traits, no matter what we're trained in, it's the way we are. We'll see something and think 'that's pretty or that's ugly' before we rationalise it or think about it or anaylse it and look for clues. We take what we hear, see, smell, taste, etc. then we understand it. But on the quick fire 'what's that' we react, we don't anaylse. And that goes for spies and detectives as for everyone else. And of course sometimes the two go hand in hand especially when working, after all they don't have time for a lengthy analysis of whether to shoot or not, they'd be dead if they did, but not always. The physical reaction is far more powerful and instant than the anayltical one.

	From: nakeisha	Date: 13th May 2006 12:00 (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Your MFU drabble

::Waves madly:: Nice to see you around.

I made a quick post yesterday (it might have been after you'd looked) Update I'm just having one of 'those' times. I think it's a hang-over from the pressure of my parents move and the continued pressure for several weeks afterwards. Plus, just really getting back into the mindset of them actually being near us again.

Anyway. Thank you so much. I'm delighted that you enjoyed this drabble. And that it brightened your morning. There are several others, actually. I had several requests for MFU drabbles.

If you are interested click on the following links:

Directions

Partners

Age Does Not Weary

A Break In Proceedings