This is Kerth Quiz #9 - Best Original / Supporting Character. And in case you're wondering, yes, we got a slight overlap this time around
To spice things up, I revisited an idea started by Erin
two years ago . I only picked quotes and excerpts that are from the POV of the character in question. I also made sure to not include the character’s name. If necessary, I redacted the name and replaced it with a fitting pronoun in brackets.
Instructions are blatantly copied/linked from last year’s Kerth Quizzes.
SPIFFY DISCLAIMER THINGY! All the stories featured in this quiz qualify for the Best Original / Supporting Character, but this quiz is not a stamp of recommendation for nomination. There are other stories which qualify for this category, but this quiz only covers 10.
Recommendations for other eligible stories are *very* welcome and encouraged!
QUIZ RULES: Two points for getting the story and author from the quote; one point for getting it from the excerpt. Specify which is which, or you'll automatically get one point instead of two. Open hard drive and archive, *don't* forget to snip the excerpts in your replies, and don't forget the spoiler space when you post in the replies thread.
The DEADLINE for entries for this quiz is Wednesday, February 15th 2012, by 11:59 p.m.
More elaborate quiz instructions can be found
here .
Please post your answers
here .
Good luck and have fun!
Michael
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Quote #1:
“Nothing except the ability to disarm a cloaked vessel with such precision. Helmsman, set a course for home. We shall report back to the Resource Acquisition Committee while our ship is repaired.”
Quote #2:
He aimed at his fallen opponent. “Good bye, Clark Kent.” He squeezed the trigger then looked on in horror as Wanda drove toward Superman and the beam.
Quote #3:
“Yo-de-lay. Yo-de-lay. Yo-de-lay-hee-who.”
Quote #4:
And, [he] asked himself, what would happen when they got him inside? What would they do? What could they do? None of them were doctors; none of them knew anything about Kryptonian physiology. How could they help him?
Quote #5:
"Mama, there was a cat and I called it Midnight but it was actually Shadow and he knows and I don't know what to do and-"
Quote #6:
An odd look flashes in Clark’s eyes. It’s there and gone in less than a second, but my Dark Passenger stirs sleepily at it nonetheless.
Quote #7:
“It is incumbent upon me to assist lesser beings in their time of need. The burden is placed upon me by my family, by my people, by the costume I wear and the mission I must accomplish, and by the debt owed to the common class by the noble class.”
Quote #8:
Staring at the devastation around them, [he] wondered how it had all gone so wrong.
Quote #9:
He nodded quickly, and then reached out and took her other hand. “I don’t know how best to explain this to you, Lois, but your child wasn’t supposed to die.”
Quote #10:
I want Ume to understand who I am and where I came from. I want to be sure that she can truly accept this part of me. So much of who I am is shaped by a stranger.
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Excerpt #1:
“The beings on this planet, although technologically fairly primitive, are too physically capable to warrant the effort of attempting to subdue them. In fact, engaging them at all could prove our ruin. At the next Resource Acquisitions Committee meeting, I will recommend in the strongest possible terms against attempting to colonize this planet, and I will further recommend that we prohibit future transit in this area of space.”
Excerpt #2:
Wanda turned to go back to the bed to lie down. The drugs that had made her compliant also sapped her energy. Since he took her, she had spent much of the time napping. He had hoped she would be more interested in him – the ‘Wanda’ persona had seemed rather promiscuous – after all, he had pulled her out of a dive in Suicide Slum where she’d been making money as a ‘singer’. [He] had hoped he would be able to convince her to sleep with him. But Deter had warned him that the drugs that kept her confused also diminished libido and while ‘Wanda’ seemed to buy into the idea that they had been lovers, she hadn’t shown any interest in having sex with him.
Excerpt #3:
How did I work out that Clark Kent is Superman? It was the little bits and pieces at first. They both arrived in Metropolis around the same time. They both have brown hair and eyes. I guess they are roughly the same height, but that’s been hard to prove because I have never, and I mean never, seen them together. How could I have?
Excerpt #4:
[He] hated the necessity — wanted only to beg her to call whoever she thought could help his son — but he stepped forward with the habitual words of caution. “Lois, it’s not that simple. No matter that the word means nothing to those of us who know him, Clark is an alien. His physiology is vastly different from our own. And if Sam does help him, he’ll be here, monitoring him and ... studying ... him.” [He] had to swallow down that fierce protectiveness and terrible accompanying fear before he could continue. “None of us will be able to reveal who Superman is to us. We’ll have to be very careful not to slip up. And we’ll have to have an excuse for why Clark isn’t here — and why we are.”
Excerpt #5:
She jumped to her feet, scattering poor Midnight. Shadow actually. "If you tell anyone," she began, then searched for a threat "I'll...I'll..." She couldn't find a threat. She might be able to throw him through a wall or drop him from a hundred feet up, but she'd never be able to do that to a human being. "I'll never talk to you again in my life!" she threatened and then made a dash for outside.
Excerpt #6:
Clark seems distracted as he walks. He’s holding himself back from running into the alley, I can see by the way he carries himself. Suddenly, he stops. I duck behind a dumpster at the mouth of the alley, just as he tosses another careful, cursory glance around. I’m confident that he hasn’t seen me. But I’m confused. Other than Clark and myself, there is no one remotely in or near this place. There is a whoosh of sound and a disturbance of wind. I chance a peek out just far enough to see Clark start to spin.
Excerpt #7:
And she was certain that Superman felt the same way. Surely he had been manipulated in marrying the Lane woman! Surely he would prefer to have a mate who could more nearly match him in strength and might. Surely he would rather not be married to such a thin, drab little thing who could not live her own life but was forced to write about the lives of others, a mere shadow of a woman who had not given him a child. Surely Superman would grasp at the opportunity to select a more suitable mate.
Excerpt #8:
Something happened to his vision, and the men around him suddenly appeared to have no skin. He grimaced as the muted noises all around him suddenly became shockingly loud. Suddenly he could hear everything in a thirty mile radius, and it was all he could do to drop to the ground with his hands over his ears.
Excerpt #9:
Tempus laughed at his angry friend. “Kent quashed your plan, didn’t he?”
[He] frowned. “Yeah, I bet I could have convinced Lane if I’d been able to isolate her from him.”
Tempus laughed harder. “Like that would be possible given the circumstances.” He got up from the chair, walked over to his disappointed friend. “Hey, buddy, it was a good effort, but it was doomed from the start. We both know that Kent would never give up Lane for anything.”
“I guess … but I thought for sure I could trade on their altruistic personalities to make it finally happen. We could finally be free of this soulless, boring excuse for a society.”
Excerpt #10:
“Your bride, Yamato Ume, wrote me letters asking me to come,” he replies. His Japanese is flawless, and to top it off, he is very polite.
“Ah,” I say, realization beginning to creep in. “I did not know that Ume had friends in America. Welcome… ”
He looks a little embarrassed. “Actually, I had not heard of Miss Yamato before she sent her letters.”
I’m confused. “I don’t understand,” I tell him.
“Is this your mother?” he asks in an apparent non-sequitur.
“Yes,” I say. I’m beginning to get a little annoyed; Mother’s annoyance is already showing.
The man in front of me bows. “I am afraid I owe both of you a deep apology,” he says.
*****
Reminder:Please, don't forget quiz #8
here
