Meme

[calliopes_pen]

Taken from lost_spook:

Comment to this post with a fic title (a word, phrase or quotation), a fandom and, if desired, a character or pairing. I'll reply with a summary of the fic I won't write for that title, in this way generating plot-bunnies, gaiety of nations and perhaps even actual fic by other people.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

The Man in the Antique Shop, Dracula 1968.

[calliopes_pen]

It's the origin story of Van Helsing's little antique thing (I still don't know what it was called) that he uses to mesmerise Jonathan. Van Helsing picks out the most unique item that will both fascinate and confuse Seward, so that he can test out his newfound skills on him first. It was also a haunted antique, and his research into how to cleanse it of that little issue led to his interest in more matters than just mesmerism.

[thisbluespirit]

Ooh, very nice! It could even fit with some of my bingo squares... (Although then I would have to find out what that thing is. It looks kind of familiar, like I didn't even think about it being unusual, but I don't know what it actually is, either. A mysterious thingumy, obviously. I must ask my flist sometime; they know nearly everything between them)

[calliopes_pen]

To me, it was almost like someone took a piece of a pocket watch chain, and possibly a coin and glued them together (and maybe with something else thrown in, I've never been sure).

Yeah, I just dubbed it The Fabulous Doohickey of Mesmerism.

(And something I thought about at one point: It might have been helpful if Jonathan had stolen it and run off with it, while he hid the thing under a convenient shrub for the sake of his Master. There might have been more than a glance at the thing then.)

[thisbluespirit]

I have a screencap! It's not the clearest, but I've posted it and asked the flist. It is a bit weird, although I still feel like it's something I've seen before. But not in any helpful way that tells us what it might be! (If nobody knows, it's just a really mysterious artefact, which is fair enough. But I suspect it is a thing; the costumes and props in that one seem quite carefully thought out.)

[calliopes_pen]

I know. It just looks weirdly familiar to me, too. Like I've seen it on another show.

(I just know that Jonathan's getting some mesmerism done to him at the end of the fanfic I'm doing, and if nobody can figure it out, mysterious artifact on a chain sounds as good as anything else.

Edit: Oh! It looks a little like a large coin with a hole in the middle that I've seen before, with a watch chain put on it, doesn't it? I don't know what particular origin that sort of coin would be.

Edit 2: These look very close They’re from around 1820-1850, Chinese, from (according to the link) “the reign of the Dao Guang emperor,” so Van Helsing would be likely to have picked up one in his travels if that’s what it is.

[thisbluespirit]

My cap of it isn't very good, but I'm pretty certain it doesn't have a hole in it and that the pattern is different to that kind of thing. I think John's suggestion of a seal ring that's been put onto a watch chain is a much closer match than that, but I don't know if that's it, either.

[thisbluespirit]

I'm pretty sure my flist has it: it's some kind of seal fobwatch ornament - none of these examples look exactly like it (or each other), but you can see a couple have exactly that kind of arch, and if you also Google image seal rings, that looks like the sort of moulding or engraving on the 'coin', too. And it fits with the watch chain & why it seems kind of normal. (Probably other people have had some kind of fobwatch ornament included in a costume - it just wouldn't usually be pulled out and used.)

ETA: And if you put in "spinner watch fob", these are all a pretty good match (if, again, all very individual) here. So it's definitely an ornamental watch fob, probably using a coin or seal, and I think the most correct term is just "watch fob" or "ornamental watch fob" or "spinner watch fob". (I said my flist knows everything! Heh. :-D)

[calliopes_pen]

That does look like it. Thank you!

(I said my flist knows everything! Heh. :-D)

I was pretty sure they would know in this instance, too, yes.