bakerstreet | how does it start?

THE OPENING LINE MEME

1. Top level with your character and include a few of the opening lines from books below as inspiration in your comment or -
2. Let others comment to your top level with one or more opening lines that they want you to use as inspiration.
3. Write them a starter, be it action or texting or dialogue or whatever suits you best, and take it from there!
4. Everyone tags into infinity.

1. “Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity.” - The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion

2. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” - I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

3. “With everyone, I think, memories of early childhood consist of a series of visual impressions, many very clear but lacking any sense of chronology.” - The Siren and Selected Writings, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

4. “If this typewriter can’t do it, then f*** it, it can’t be done.” - Still Life With Woodpecker, Tom Robbins

5. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.” - A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

6. “All stories are love stories.” - Eureka Street, Robert McLiam Wilson

7. "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." - Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

8. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

9. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

10. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.” - The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

11. “You better not never tell nobody but God." - The Color Purple, Alice Walker

12. “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” - Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

13. "You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings." - Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

14. “It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.” - Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garzia Marquez

15. "The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn." - The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

16. "'What’s it going to be then, eh?'" - A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

17. “This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.” - The Princess Bride, William Goldman

18. “All children, except one, grow up.” - Peter Pan, JM Barrie

19. "This time there would be no witnesses." - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams

20. "A screaming comes across the sky." - Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon

21. "Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living." - 2001 - A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke

22. "Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space." - Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood

23. "For a long time, I went to bed early." - Swann's Way, Marcel Proust

24. “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” - Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

25. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." - The Bible

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ ooc; permissions and info in journal. pick one of the opening lines below or bring your own! anachronistic texting preferred if we go the texting route, otherwise a historical setting is the pref, can be anywhere between 1700 to the 1920's. ]

“All stories are love stories.” - Eureka Street, Robert McLiam Wilson

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

Open to all of the above, but after picking 3 random books from my shelves-

'On reflection,' Crake said to Frey, as they huddled behind an upturned table, 'this wasn't one of your better plans.' - The Iron Jackal, Chris Wooding

Through the shredded black clouds a fire moved like a dying star, falling back to Earth but unlike any star had ever done before, it sometimes managed to steer its fall, sometimes rising, but inevitably heading down. - Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett

Down from the hills of San Pietro comes the shattered human harvest... staining the earth with their blood! Our Army at War no. 281, Bob Kanigher

Habit accustoms us to anything, including misery and pain. -The Thing Itself, Adam Roberts.

Perhaps, though, it is easier to hide your fear when you’re afraid all the time. -City of Thieves, David Benioff.

Only humans enjoy the fear of others. -Near the Bone, Christina Henry.

( voicetesting. can do stuff from his time as red guardian in the 1980s to living undercover in ohio to post-black widow. just let me know. )

1 | in the beginning, there was canned corned beef. - on grief and reason by joseph brodsky.

2 | "so now get up." - wolf hall by hilary mantel.

3 | "this time there would be no witnesses." - dirk gently's holistic detective agency by douglas adams.

4 | reveille was sounded, as always, at 5 a.m. — a hammer pounding on a rail outside camp hq. - one day in the life of ivan denisovich by aleksandr solzhenitsyn.

5 | or bring your own.

Edited 2023-02-23 01:13 (UTC)

1. “Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. The question of self-pity.” - The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion

2. "The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn." - The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

3. "Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living." - 2001 - A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke

( please note if you'd like me to avoid persona 5 royal spoilers! )

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. The Picture of Dorian Gray || Oscar Wilde {{Naturally!}}

[Info & Permissions. Open to everything here.]

1. "It was a pleasure to burn." - Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

2. "Shadow had done three years in prison." - American Gods, Neil Gaiman

1.) King Lewd: Call all servants of the castle, so that they rush, rush according to my wish, to help me out in my miserable condition. - King Lewd and the Maidservant Devotia, Jornâs Schmied, desperate scholar

2.) I cannot claim to have attended many parties in my life. Neither have I ever loved like normal people do. And concerning women, well I... do not know what it means to share a bed with them. Soft, mellow kisses and tenderness play no part in my destiny. The harsh wind of the tides which slowly carry me off, the surging waves of the salty sea, harsh mountaintops and the shadow of old trees, a sparkling starry sky above my head, these are what make me feel at home. - Tales of the Wanderer: The Well-traveled One

3.) Meat is life. - lmao no

[Yes, I'm using in-game books for openers. Can't stop won't stop me. Also info, permissions, and all that fun stuff for Jade specifically are here in her journal.]

Edited 2023-02-23 10:22 (UTC)

[ota gen, m/m for ship/romance]

how does it start?

manon lescaut | l'histoire de manon | ota

Kishin Asura ΦΦΦ Soul Eater

daryl dixon | twd | ota.

natalie scatorccio | yellowjackets | ota.

joan dority | oc | ota.

alexei shostakov | mcu

kasumi yoshizawa | p5r | ota, m/f for shipping

Basil Hallward || The Picture of Dorian Gray

Morgan Jay Finnigan | OC | OTA

Jade "the Prophetess" | Enderal: Forgotten Stories.

Hal | The King