ADMIN: Time challenge

[china_shop]

thefourthvine suggested a Time challenge:

Time stamp stories! Timetravel! Time passing at a crawl as Fraser sits in a hospital waiting room! Five Things Ray Has Never Done at 4:03 in the Morning!

So, let's do it! Bend the spacetime continuum to your will! Take liberties! Set your stopwatches, aaaaand... GO!

It's June 8, CDT -- stories are due by midnight, June 22, CDT.

Comments

[eledhwenlin]

June 22, dear. June. ;)

The challenge sounds great. :D

[china_shop]

*is total dork* I clearly shouldn't be allowed to post admin notices after midnight.

Thanks! :-)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Central Daylight Time, as well. :-) But, anh.

[china_shop]

*is comically dismayed* God, I just lose at dates and timezones tonight, huh? *g* Fixed now. Thanks!

[delurker.livejournal.com]

Crunch time! Time for action! The time has come! The thyme is ripe! (What? ::innocent::)

[eledhwenlin]

Heh. But that's what you got us for - we'll jump on any inconsistencies and tell you at once. ;)

I'm already making myself really popular at the reviews page I started participating with a couple of weeks ago by spotting all kinds of mistakes in the reviews. ;)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

The thyme is ripe!

*head tilt*

This almost sounds like you've read The Time Garden by Edward Eager, which was a favorite book of mine when I was little. (Thyme makes you travel through time, basically. Yes, I was interested in time travel when I was 5. I settled on my preferred subject matter early.)

[china_shop]

Oh! *waves* I read that! (Though I'd forgotten it was by Eager -- I thought it was a E. Nesbit.) It included a Little Women crossover, iirc. ♥

[china_shop]

Hee! Yes! :-D

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Maybe you thought it was by Nesbit because Eager talks about Nesbit so much in all of his books. (Referring readers back to his inspiration, basically - and at least with me, it worked; I read Nesbit because Eager mentioned her.)

And, yes, OMG! A total crossover, and I hadn't thought of it that way! And he crosses over with his own different book series, too. And, in another book, he does about four successive AUs.

Oh, children's lit, how are you so awesome? <3, indeed.

[china_shop]

A total crossover, and I hadn't thought of it that way!

Me neither, until I started writing that comment and I was thinking, "What do I remember from The Thyme Garden? Oh, Jo and Marmee et al. Hey, wait a minute!" *g*

*dares you to write a chapter of The Thyme Garden in which the kids travel forward in time and meet Fraser and Dief* ;-)

[delurker.livejournal.com]

I, hmmm. I'm not sure, because I can only vaguely remember the book I'm referencing - it had an old house? And the garden was surrounded by a hedge? I think there was a scene in which stuff happened in the hedge, but I'm not sure. There was a whole bunch of travelling because of the garden, I do remember. (The mists of time, they have shrouded my memory. Woe.)
So that could be the book I was thinking of, or it might not be. Either way, though, I'm totally going to try and get my hands on a copy of that book, because it sounds awesome, so even if it's not the one I was thinking of, I want to read it.

Thyme makes you travel through time, basically.
You do realise that this is totally made for due South. Because, okay. It would totally go like this:

Thyme Travel
They were in the consulate kitchen, because Fraser'd saved some little old lady's cat from being stuck up a tree a few days ago and she'd insisted on thanking them by giving them an bunch of herbs from her garden, parsley and thyme and some rosemary, and Fraser had got all excited about using them while they were still fresh to make some kind of lamb stew thing with a French name Ray can't remember, and so Ray's over in the Consulate watching Fraser fish a now rather bedraggled leek with a piece of string tied round it out of the pot before sticking the pot back on the stove.

Hold up. "What's, uh, what's up with the leek, Fraser? 'Coz I think you forgot to take the string off before you stuck it in before."

"Actually, Ray, it's what's known as a bouquet garni - parsley stems, celery leaves, thyme and rosemary, wrapped in the green of a leek and tied up. It's cooked with the meat to add flavour, but removed before serving."

"Huh. So we don't eat it?"

"No, Ray. I don't believe it would be particularly appetising, although-" Fraser eyed the leek bundle appraisingly "-I have never actually eaten one."

"Well, let's not start eating it now. If the French won't eat it, I vote we don't either."

"As you wish, Ray. I would point out, however, that while the bouquet garni is customarily removed, it is still perfectly edible." Fraser picked up the bundle and pulled it open. "It does seem rather wasteful to just dispose of it."

Ray squinted at it. "What else could you possibly do with a bunch of sodden herbs stuck in a leek?"

"Herbs have fulfilled a variety of uses throughout the ages. Thyme, for example-" Fraser pulled a stem out of the bundle "-has been used medicinally for treating respiratory infections."

"That may be so, Fraser, but one, I don't have a chest cold, and two, I think this thyme has had its time." Ray pulled the thyme out of Fraser's hand, ran it through his fingers to get the water off, and sniffed at it. "Yep, it's done. Can't smell anything."

Fraser lent over and sniffed at the sprig. "Actually, Ray, I think you'll find-"

Whatever Fraser had to say was lost as the whirl of time paused for a moment, and then shifted around them.

"Uh, Fraser? Where did the consulate go?"

---

In conclusion: due South + thyme travel = meant for each other. Plus, imagine them dressed in period clothing. Mmm.

[china_shop]

*koff* This is totally a flashfic! What's it doing here, buried in the comments of an admin announcement? Post eeet! :-)

[delurker.livejournal.com]

It's hidden here because it's only half a flashfic! I've got an end for it, but no middle. In short, it is severely lacking a wacky time-travel section. *pouts*
Still, I've got two weeks...

[china_shop]

*eggs you on*