also oliver mansfield

sideblog for random 007 things that dont fit on main

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

MI6 Cafe Creators Tag Game

(Thanks for the tag, @emiliasilverova, this is my very untimely response lol)

We’d love for people to keep getting to know each other after this year’s 007 Fest, so we’re starting this tag game!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 3 new people to complete this. Also, tag the person who tagged you and @mi6-cafe so we can reblog your response.

Note that when we say ‘fanwork’ in the questions below, that could mean a fanfic, gif, fanart, headcanon, cosplay, crocheted work---any kind of fancreation counts!

1. What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it? 

Everything I create, especially writing, challenges me in some way.

My part of Juggling Act, the 007 Fest Round Robin, was one of the most challenging pieces of writing I've ever had to write. I'm a slow writer, so having only 24 hours to come up with a coherent follow-up to what came before me was difficult, but very rewarding.

2. What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character?   

@jellymish-art's whole body of work, but especially pieces like this one, 100% sold me on the trans!Bond headcanon. I feel like trans!Q is a lot more common so I'm sharing some love for 007.

3. Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet?

Many, but for the two that I think will eventually happen:

a 00Leiter fic during Quantum of Solace, based on their exchange at the bar

a collection of 00Leiter vignettes through the different incarnations of Leiter and 007, told from Leiter's POV

4. What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how?

No Longer My Concern, an alternate universe fic where M is a medium, set during Skyfall. I'd never remixed somebody else's fic before, but deadicateddeath's AU was so intriguing it almost wrote itself.

5. What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks?

Angst, loss, and bittersweet tenderness. My partner described my style as "consistently smart and understated" and I strive for every piece to be worthy of that compliment.

6. What other fandoms do you create for, if any?

None at the moment. Other than Bond, I mainly write original fiction.

7. Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you?

I'm not married to a specific artist, or collection of artists, but I often find myself coming back to Rammstein. Lots of angsty pieces were drawn or written listening to them.

8. Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it.

This edit of CR, QoS and Skyfall set to Somebody to Die For by Hurts. I've watched it dozens of times and it never fails to make me cry. Beautiful edit set to a beautiful song.

9. Finally, share where you post your works!

ao3: lowkeynostalgic

tumblr: lowkeynostalgic

side blog: alsolowkeynostalgic

and I sometimes contribute to Licence to Queer

Tagging: no one because at this point everyone should have done it already 🤭

[verdigrissoup]

It’s the @teamofvillains art round robin!! Silva, Scaramanga, and Alec finally have their own album cover, inspired by the cover of A-ha’s Memorial Beach.

Sketch by @oldestcharm

Lineart by @lowkeynostalgic

Color by @verdigrissoup

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

last addition to the 10-min post-it note drawings: Q in his Skyfall outfit.

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

10-min Bond sketches on post-it notes! Clockwise from top left: Sheriff JW Pepper, Paloma, Raoul Silva, Stamper, Nomi, Camille Montes, Tracy di Vicenzo and Jaws.

Best boy Stamper for @emiliasilverova ❤️

[patrice-bergerons]

for the cuddle prompts ~ James x Felix for reunion cuddles if you’d like! those two deserve so much more love than they get 💕

it's taken me a while but this prompt has been percolating in the back of my head. i offer some grade a post-skyfall h/c

~*~

“James!”

The exclamation cuts through the smooth jazz bleeding into the patrons’ chatter bleeding into the headache already whispering in his skull like a knife.  It makes James want to laugh; to laugh and laugh until there is no breath left in his lungs.  He would know that voice anywhere and any other time welcome it with a grin.

Not tonight.  

He stares dead ahead at the bar as if, if he avoids any sudden movements, Felix might just decide he has made a mistake and move on.  

“James.”  

Much softer this time.  

A hand squeezes his shoulder and James turns around ready for a fight.  

Felix doesn’t deserve it; it doesn’t matter.  Sure, it’s an ‘asshole move’ as he would call it to fake your death and not send a postcard; to be back for a week and not call.  And sure, it says something about James that his prickly boss, who got him shot by the way, has lodged herself between his ribs like a bullet.  

She glowers at him from the passenger seat of the Aston Martin, says “go on then, eject me, see if I care,” her head held high.  She stands next to him at the roof of their old building, the one that is now a ruin, gazing onto the night skyline, because there are few things she hates in this life more than the annual MI6 Christmas do.  She tells him that Vesper loved him.  She weighs nothing at all in his arms, as if she has already become a ghost, a thing of the past.

And James needs tonight to drink and to wallow so that he may wake up tomorrow and put it behind him.  Like he always does.  So yes, Felix is right, James is an ass, James should have called, and fuck him for coming here demanding an apology in the first place.  

So he hops onto his feet looking for a fight and.  Finds Felix grinning.  

From ear to ear.

“You mad bastard, you are alive!” Felix says, pulling him into a bear hug that is so unexpected James stumbles with the force of it.  

He stands frozen for a second trying to process what exactly just happened.  There is no recrimination in Felix’s voice, only unfiltered joy.  That makes no sense.  But God, he is strong and warm and James can smell his cologne mixed with a whiff of his aftershave.  James’ arms close around him of their own accord.  His head falls into the crook of Felix’s neck even as a voice whispers in the back of his head that he is making an absolute fool of himself.

“And drunk,” Felix says, who must have smelled him back, although he sounds more amused than anything else.

“Sorry.”

He is—for all of it.  For being drunk and for the way his voice trembles, for not calling.  He is sorry for clinging onto Felix far past the expected time limit of a public hug when he has no right to ask and he is sorry for her death.

But Felix only cradles the back of his head with his hand, whispers “it’s alright.”  

Holds him there in the bar of a generically pleasant hotel that has become James’ home as if the fate of the free world depends on it.

(And, James thinks drunkenly, selfishly, perhaps it does.)

[teamofvillains]

IT’S VILLAIN DAY! 🎉🎉🎉

Dearest fellow 007 Fest-ers of @teamdoubleoh, @teamqbranch, and @teamcivilian, today it’s the most evil (and, of course, undeniably the best) day of the whole of 007 Fest. And as we’re all villains with great plans for the rest of you, we’ve gone and kidnapped someone from every other team - @emiliasilverova from teamdoubleoh, @ato-the-bean from teamqbranch, and @thestalwartheart from teamcivilian.

While you all gather around in your hidey holes and try your best to wrack your brains for a suitably daring (or clever, depending on which team you’re in) plan for a rescue, we’ll be in our very secret lair with your friends and share a laugh at your feeble attempts.

But fear not, your teammates will remain (mostly) unharmed while in our care—after all, we’re not that kind of villains.

So, to rescue your kidnapped team member, you must complete the ransom demand for your team and make a post with links to the things you create, tagging @teamofvillains in the post so we can see it. Your kidnapped team member CANNOT contribute to their ransom payment.

Teamwork is highly encouraged to get through these trying times, but how you go about finishing your team’s tasks is up to you, unless otherwise specified.

You have two days to finish your assignments; that is to say, from Sunday the 24th until the end of Monday the 25th. Should you fail, your team member will be tossed to Darla, our favourite piranha. She's been feeling kind of lonely lately… 👀

Ransom demands can be found under the cut.

OUR RANSOM DEMANDS:

Team Q-Branch

Solve the following coded message and respond to it.

ZM YSUFRO KRMM KSOVZHZXSZ ZTZRYS

Create a recruitment poster for our wonderful team, Team Villains. ✨ Remember that we’re only human, just like you, and that our computer skills can even rival yours.

Collaborate on a team Round Robin. At least 4 people must take part in the Round Robin. It must be complete, but it can take the form of any of the following: a fic (with minimum of 500 words), a series of related poems (anything from limericks to haikus, and minimum of 6 pieces), or art (something with at least somewhat detailed background). Or it can even be a mix of the above.

Find at least 5 fics written by the members of Team Villains that contain an interesting villain or a neat gadget and comment on them. Then link them in your ransom post and write a few words about why you chose them. (Note that one comment from one person is enough for one fic.)

Team 00

Solve the following coded message and respond to it.

RH TMRLNSZRIV ZM WZ GSZLYS R

Create a recruitment poster for our wonderful team, Team Villains. The shinier it is the better. After all, everyone—yes, even and especially you—wants to join us! ✨

Collaborate on a team Round Robin. At least 4 people must take part in the Round Robin. It must be complete, but it can take the form of any of the following: a fic (with minimum of 500 words), a series of related poems (anything from limericks to haikus, and minimum of 6 pieces), or art (something with at least somewhat detailed background). Or it can even be a mix of the above.

Find at least 5 fics written by the members of Team Villains that contain an interesting mission or a nice OC double-oh agent and comment on them. Then link them in your ransom post and write a few words about why you chose them. (Note that one comment from one person is enough for one fic.)

Team Civilian

Solve the following coded message and respond to it.

XZ YSUFRO MZ YIRLHXZR

Create a recruitment poster for our wonderful team, Team Villains. ✨ Now’s your chance to show the world why sometimes, villains are just misunderstood civilians.

Collaborate on a team Round Robin. At least 4 people must take part in the Round Robin. It must be complete, but it can take the form of any of the following: a fic (with minimum of 500 words), a series of related poems (anything from limericks to haikus, and minimum of 6 pieces), or art (something with at least somewhat detailed background). Or it can even be a mix of the above.

Find at least 5 fics written by the members of Team Villains that focus on someone that isn’t Bond or Q and comment on them. Then link them in your ransom post and write a few words about why you chose them. (Note that one comment from one person is enough for one fic.)

Remember, you only have two days, and Daria is getting hungrier by the hour... Good luck teams — you'll need it!

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

Scavenger Hunt #23 - Play the Bond theme on any instrument

I apologize in advance to Monty Norman's family and anyone who happens to stumble on this dodgy piano rendition - this was the only piece I played as a kid but it seems that the muscle memory from that time is all but gone. 😬

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

Scavenger Hunt #82: Engineer a functional projectile weapon

... out of whatever materials are available to you, and take out a print-out Bond villain or agent with it.

Now coming at you live from my living room: the chopstick-double hatchet crossbow.

(yes this is my DVD of Never Say Never, and yes the disc was still in there - alas, it survived)

This took about 15 takes because the chopstick was bent and kept flying off into the door. (also because neither my partner nor myself can aim) The whole rig is literally two HEMA tomahawks taped together with a rubber band at the front. The axe bit serves as sights, which are utterly useless when used with bent chopsticks.

[patrice-bergerons]

The tragedy of it all with Vesper kills me. 

By the time James asks him to ‘float around the world together until one of [them] has to find an honest job’ (see here) Vesper must know that the die is cast, that she traded her future for his life and that he would never understand her sacrifice even if he knew.  That it would be kinder to turn him down.  And knowing that, still she says yes, chooses to be selfish, chooses that sliver of hope that maybe she will get to keep this sun-kissed future with this flawed wonderful impossible man she never meant to fall in love with.  That she will get to keep this miracle knowing that she can’t.  It’s so tragically beautiful and a good part of the reason why I love her so much.

And then James, fuck-  This is 2006, before the betrayals and the deaths and the suffering the following movies cast on him.  And still he says ‘you do what I do for long enough and there won’t be any soul left to salvage.  I am leaving with what little I have left.’  But it’s true, isn’t it–he may have had his licence to kill for only a couple of months at this point but even his life before then has had such little kindness and warmth in it.

And to cast aside the one thing that gives you a reason to live–to cast aside your whole life–for a plunge into the unknown, for a chance at something better- it takes so much courage, and especially for a man like him who does not trade in feelings.  And it blows up in his hands.

It’s also so interesting to contrast what he tells Vesper–both at the beach and at the hospital (here)–to Madeleine later on, where even as he is once again willing to walk away from it all, you don’t get this level of open vulnerability and both-feet-in kind of commitment.  I don’t think he physically can at that point (like he said, you do what he does for long enough and-)  

This is also why it’s a huge fucking deal to me that he tells Madeleine about Vesper, though, that despite everything he is willing to face that ghost for their future together, only to be undone by its very trauma.

The emotional continuity of the Craig era Bond films are off the charts, but man, at what fucking cost?

[mobilis69-deactivated20231231]

After that …. 

   Commission for @going-history

[sams-fluffadise]

This is a great work of art and I love that it is slightly ambiguous (at least from my perspective).

It could very well be Bond bringing Q some tea on a stressful day or to soften the blow before telling him didn’t bring back a single part of his kit.

It’s late and Q-Branch is mostly empty except for the poor people stuck working the night shift and their very own Quartermaster, whose shift should have ended over four hours ago.

Should have being the key words.

Q had just grabbed his bag and checked in with R for one last time, when suddenly an alarm flared up from the main server. The sound was dull and loud, informing them one of the 00s missions had just gone sideways.

Faster than anyone working at that station could react, their Overlord had jumped into action, awing most of them how fast he could switch from chatting with R about weekend plans to guiding 003 through the streets of Volgograd, trying to shake her pursuers.

Their moment of awe was short-lived, of course, when Q barked out the first set of orders.

Four hours later, 003 had finally reached a secure location, leaving her to get some rest and tend to her wounds.

Yet, rest was still had to wait for Q, at least until he erased any traces he or his minions left when hacking into countless surveillance systems, traffic cameras or enemy databases.

When Bond approached his desk, a cup filled with steaming Earl Grey in his hand, Q was buried deeply enough in his screen, that he didn’t notice the agent until he was standing directly in front of him.

“Heard you were having a long day.”

Q flinched at the sudden sound and looked up at Bond. He pushed his glasses back up his nose where they had slid down and nodded.

“Yes, 003 got herself into a bit of a tight spot.”

James smiled and placed the cup on Q’s desk.

“So I’d heard. Thought you could use some refueling.”

“Oh, that’s-”, Q stuttered, not very used to Bond being quite this thoughtful. “Thank you.”

It didn’t take long until- “Wait! Which one of my prototypes did you break this time?!”

“Can’t I just be nice to my lovely Quartermaster?”, James gave Q one of his I am charming you will forgive me everything-looks.

“No. Nononono. You aren’t nice… You didn’t break the new motion sensor rifle, did you?!”

—

But it could also absolutely be Bond, unable to suppress his genetic predisposition for being the cheekiest ass around, and drinking from the one mug that no one else would even dare touch.

“Bond, what are you doing?! Put that back!”, Moneypenny hissed while looking around them to make sure their dear Quartermaster wasn’t around to see what the agent had attempted to do.

James, with Q’s scrabble mug in hand, smirked and picked up the coffee pot.

“Relax, Eve, it’s just a mug.”

“It was a gift from Boothroyd himself. You know it’s more than just a mug!”

“You are overreacting.”

Bond filled the mug up to the brim with coffee, taking a sip and letting out an overpronounced pleased sigh.

Eve only shook her head in disbelief, swiftly filled her own drink and left before the inevitable disaster struck.

It seemed like Bond was aiming for just that when he strode into Q’s office, mug in hand and satisfied grin on his face.

The Quartermaster was, as always, busy behind his computer and only briefly raised his head to greet Bond.

It took him a few seconds before the realisation hit and his head whipped back up.

“Bond.” Only Q had the skill to make his name sound like a deadly threat.

“Yes, darling?”

Q ignored the pet name and came out from behind his work bench, stopping right in front of James with his arms crossed. The two were almost on eye level, less than an inch of height difference between them.

“What do you think you are doing?”

“Enjoying some coffee.” Bond took a sip and smiled.

“You put coffee into MY mug?!,” Q threw his hands up in frustration, “I am not gonna get the taste out for months!”

“Don’t be dramatic. Just use a different mug.”

Q pressed his lips together, his eyes shining with, what Bond could only describe as, lust for revenge. Revenge against him.

“Bond?”

“Yes, Q?”

“Run.”

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

[verdigrissoup]

Scavenger Hunt #17: The Six Squad are on tumblr, what post would they blaze to 10,000 people? (You may fill this for up to three different characters)

After Bond "dies" in Skyfall, M has her doubts and decides to start crowdsourcing. She is very tired of everyone's bullshit and decides to send it out herself on Tumblr.

[verdigrissoup]

I had a few spare minutes, so have some James Bond memes :)

[emiliasilverova]

007 Fest 2022, Scavenger Hunt item no. 32: “Take a photo of your IRL James Bond merch---DVD collections, posters, doujins, or whatever you like.”

Well, had to leave the less interesting stuff out, but there you go. Lots of GoldenEye (as can be expected with me), and I feel there are some pieces here you had no idea existed 😁In any case, always a pleasure to make this collection grow and grow, hehe.

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

thank you Emilia, i feel a lot less alone in my merch hoarding 😂 absolutely love the LTK poster and all the car/vehicle replicas ❤️❤️

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

Scavenger Hunt #32: Show off your Bond merch

damn, that's ... a lot. if you want to play where's waldo, here's a full list:

all the Bond DVDs including the cursed one

a DVD of Casino Royale signed by Daniel Craig

all the Fleming novels (two French integrals from the 80s + a few battered 1960s original French editions + a early 2000s reprint of Casino Royale), Carte Blanche, Forever And A Day and With A Mind To Kill (signed by Horowitz)

Intelligent Fitness by Simon Waterson (Craig's PT for the Bond films)

2 making-of books for No Time To Die

11 soundtracks

7 comic books

a numbered print of a 007 x Greg Williams photograph from the set of Casino Royale

9 promotional metal plaques, printed in the 1990s

2 photo prints (Dr No and The Living Daylights)

2 cinema-sized posters (TWINE and NTTD) and a smaller poster (NTTD)

3 t-shirts: YOLT, Octopussy, Moonraker

tickets to Skyfall and to the world premiere of NTTD at the Royal Albert Hall

a Sunspel navy polo shirt (as worn by Craig in Casino Royale)

an Aston Martin DB5 keyring

a replica of Vesper's love knot necklace from Casino Royale

a (fake) 007 Omega with the Spectre and NTTD nato straps

this took about two hours to organize!

not pictured: my NTTD screen-accurate Jed North bodybuilding shorts, tickets to the Spectre world premiere in Paris and a massive pile of posters (Casino, Spectre and Skyfall mostly)

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

Scavenger Hunt #61: Punny Bond Book Cover

No Time To Dine, a book by Dr Valdo Obruchev - couldn't decide which one i liked more so i'm posting both!

photo credits: Karolina Grabowska (top) / Heather Ford (bottom)

[alsolowkeynostalgic]

Scavenger Hunt Item #35: Write a Bond-themed haiku on a leaf

3 haikus for the price of one! all from Q's perspective, inspired by quantum of silliness. original links: skyfall, spectre, no time to die

full text under the cut

top:

Silva has hacked us

surprised I still have a job

omg Bond’s hot

middle:

Bond nicked new Aston,

off to Austria to help

who will feed my cats?

bottom:

M messed up big time,

got on a plane to help James

and now he is gone.