Do you get the new Jack & Bobby?

Yes, we do, though I...well, technically, since there's no Alias I could watch it tonight, but I should do some writing instead. I watch it on EasyView on principle, as that is when it is, in fact, easier for me to view it.

The Pistons game preempted GG last night, though. Bastards. It was a pretty good episode, too.

Hec, shut up. I had a peanut butter sandwich. Kind of depressing.

I'm not responsible for your mediocre sandwich choices!

I've been procrastinating digging into my novel all day, but at least most of it has been productive procrastinating--read and took notes on a research book, worked on a critique I promised a writer friend, etc.

Anyway, now I've reached the point where I'm really almost ready to click on the window containing the wip: I've come to Natter to tap the hivemind collective. I've been procrastinating mostly because the scene in question is unusually tough, both in terms of emotional impact and physical logistics. The emotional part I'll manage--I'm here for help with the blocking:

It's a confrontation scene wherein a man on horseback intends to grab a woman on foot by the arm and pull her away, but he doesn't actually intend to hurt her. That is, he wouldn't particularly mind if she had a few bruises or a sore arm, but he's not trying to yank her off her feet and drag her. He's angry, he doesn't think she should be where she is, so he intends to use his superior strength to force her to leave. So picture him riding forward at kind of a fast, determined walk.

Another character, a man on foot, moves to confront the horseman and block him from carrying out his intent. He's angry too (but with righteous, sexy anger, since he's the hero), but relatively levelheaded with it, and has sufficient experience with horses not to do anything stupid to unduly frighten the horse.

So. Is Our Hero going to step directly in front of the horse and grab its bridle, or is he going to go off to the side and take the bridle and/or reins? And how is the horse likely to react? Assume the horse in question is a very ordinary sort of horse, not one of the vicious brutes that only one man can ride so prevalent in fiction, and also a tiny bit on the exhausted and underfed side. Even then the horse wouldn't be totally placid, would it? It'd pick up on its rider's mood to some degree?

Susan, I'd say he'd grab the bridle or reins from the side. Trying it from directly in front of the horse would leave open way too much of a possibility of him getting kicked.

No, but you're a taunter, and a face-rubber-in-. I'd be very annoyed if you didn't get around me by having the Perfect Word so often, Hecubus.

No, but you're a taunter, and a face-rubber-in-.

::sniff:: There's hardly any point in living in San Francisco if you can't taunt people about it on a regular basis.

Susan, I'd say he'd grab the bridle or reins from the side. Trying it from directly in front of the horse would leave open way too much of a possibility of him getting kicked.

That's what I thought. And would it make sense for the horse to snort and plunge a bit, but not make much of a fuss otherwise?

And would it make sense for the horse to snort and plunge a bit, but not make much of a fuss otherwise?

For a relatively low-key horse, I'd say yes, but it's been a few years since I spent much time around horses.

You know, erika, if you lived in Berkeley you'd be at any given moment just a block or so from your choice of twenty restaurants offering chichi gourmet sandwiches that would make Hec weep with envy, all fully wheelchair-accessible.

(The restaurants, I mean, not the sandwiches.)

(Not that the sandwiches aren't accessible, too. They are.)

(But you probably already guessed that.)

t /tempting

t /bogarting all the parentheses

OK. Having got rid of the "I can't write yet because I don't know what the horse would do" excuse, time to get to it.