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Written In The Stars CXLII (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: I think this week’s chapters are the most boring out of all the book, but hang in there it gets better -Danny

Words: 4,940

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Chapter Four: Horace Slughorn.

Mel stumbled onto a bench and inhaled sharply.

"Wizards should just drive!" She panted.

"We drive," Erick said. "I drove you here, didn't I?"

"I was there during your lessons, don't try to show off with me," Mel grumbled.

"Dumbledore and Harry are over there — C'mon..."

"Professor?" She heard Harry asked once they caught up with them.

"Harry?"

"Er — where exactly are we?"

"This, Harry, is the charming village of Budleigh Babberton."

"And what are we doing here?"

"Ah yes, of course, I haven't told you! Well, I have lost count of the number of times I have said this in recent years, but we are, once again, one member of staff short. We are here to persuade an old colleague of mine to come out of retirement and return to Hogwarts. I sent Erick and Mel to look for his whereabouts and they told me he'd be here, let's hope they're right."

"How can I help with that, sir?"

"Oh, I think we'll find a use for the three of you," Dumbledore replied. "Left here."

Mel scoffed and Erick nudged her arm muttering a warning.

"Professor, why couldn't we just Apparate directly into your old colleague's house?"

"Because it would be quite as rude as kicking down the front door. Courtesy dictates that we offer fellow wizards the opportunity of denying us entry. In any case, most Wizarding dwellings are magically protected from unwanted Apparators. At Hogwarts, for instance —"

"— you can't Apparate anywhere inside the buildings or grounds," said Harry. "Hermione Granger told me."

"And she is quite right. We turn left again."

The clock behind them announced midnight, Mel felt a chill ran down her spine and held Erick closer. She was abruptly reminded of the dementors, and she had no wish to see one right now.

"Sir, I saw in the Daily Prophet that Fudge has been sacked..."

"Correct," said Dumbledore, "He has been replaced, as I am sure you also saw, by Rufus Scrimgeour, who used to be Head of the Auror office."

"Is he... Do you think he's good?"

"An interesting question. He is able, certainly. A more decisive and forceful personality than Cornelius."

"Yes, but I meant —"

"I know what you meant. Rufus is a man of action and, having fought Dark wizards for most of his working life, does not underestimate Lord Voldemort."

"And... sir... I saw about Madam Bones."

"Yes... A terrible loss. She was a great witch — Just up here, I think — ouch," Dumbledore looked down to his injured hand with disinterest and lowered it.

"Professor, what happened to your —?"

"I have no time to explain now," said Dumbledore. "It is a thrilling tale, I wish to do it justice."

"Sir — I got a Ministry of Magic leaflet by owl, about security measures we should all take against the Death Eaters..."

"Yes, I received one myself... Did you find it useful?"

"Not really."

"No, I thought not. You have not asked me, for instance, what is my favorite flavor of jam, to check that I am indeed Professor Dumbledore and not an impostor."

"I didn't..." Harry turned to look at her with mild panic, Mel found it amusing.

"Oh well, he came to my house first and I didn't ask him either, but Erick was the one who let him in."

"I'm sorry I put you all in danger," Erick replied playfully.

"For future reference, children, it is raspberry... although of course, if I were a Death Eater, I would have been sure to research my own jam preferences before impersonating myself."

"Er... right," Harry shrugged. "Well, on that leaflet, it said something about Inferi. What exactly are they? The leaflet wasn't very clear."

"They are corpses. Dead bodies that have been bewitched to do a Dark wizard's bidding. Inferi have not been seen for a long time, however, not since Voldemort was last powerful... He killed enough people to make an army of them, of course. This is the place, just here..."

"Like zombies?" Mel said.

"Those things are stupid and slow," Erick replied. "The inferi are nothing like that, trust me."

Once Mel caught sight of the house, she gasped.

"Oh dear. Oh dear, dear, dear." Dumbledore got closer and examined the scene:

Harry followed his gaze up the carefully tended front path and felt his heart sink. The front door was hanging off its hinges.

"Wand out and follow me," He said. "Mr Flint, keep guard on the entrance..."

"Of course," He walked away, Mel wanted to stay and watch over him, but she knew that would hurt Erick's ego, so she held onto her own wand tightly and walked away from him.

"Lumos..."

Everything was wrecked inside the house, but there was something weird about it... it was too peaceful.

"Not pretty, is it?" Dumbledore asked. "Yes, something horrible has happened here."

Mel got closer to the stain on the wall and gawked at the smell. It was really strong and brought back a clear memory of Hagrid holding a chunk of dragon meat to his swollen eye.

"Maybe there was a fight and — and they dragged him off?" Harry said behind her, his voice trembling a little.

"I don't think so..." said Dumbledore. "Mel, what do you think?"

"This isn't human," She said, pointing to the bloodstain, "and the place is empty, if a fight had taken place here the muggles would've come to check on their neighbours, so either this just happened or he's..."

"Still here somewhere?" Dumbledore concluded. "Yes. A very good observation."

Then, without a warning, the old man stabbed the armchair next to him.

"Ouch!" It yelped.

"Good evening, Horace."

"There was no need to stick the wand in that hard," He huffed. "It hurt."

The wandlight sparkled on his shiny pate, his prominent eyes, his enormous, silver, walruslike mustache, and the highly polished buttons on the maroon velvet jacket he was wearing over a pair of lilac silk pajamas. The top of his head barely reached Dumbledore's chin.

"What gave it away?"

"My dear Horace," said Dumbledore, "if the Death Eaters really had come to call, the Dark Mark would have been set over the house! And of course, the non-magic people would've come to see what was happening, as Mel kindly explained a moment ago."

"The Dark Mark," Horace hit his forehead with one hand. "Knew there was something... ah well. Wouldn't have had time anyway, I'd only just put the finishing touches to my upholstery when you entered the room."

"Would you like my assistance clearing up?"

"Please..."

They moved around the room and fixed everything in a matter of seconds as if this was the kind of stuff a wizard would normally do on a Friday.

"What kind of blood was that, incidentally?" asked Dumbledore.

"Dragon's," Mel replied.

They stared at her.

"How did you know?" Her uncle questioned.

"Hagrid used its meat last year to heal his eye," She explained, scrunching up her nose. "It has a very distinctive smell."

"These," said Dumbledore, smiling at her, "are Harry Potter and Mel Dumbledore. Children, this is an old friend and colleague of mine, Horace Slughorn."

"Oho! So that's how you thought you'd persuade me, is it? Well, the answer's no, Albus," Slughorn pushed past them avoiding eye contact. He froze and stared out the window. "Oh dear — Albus, I think you were followed!"

"You mean that young man?" Dumbledore glanced out to the garden. "Mel, could you please bring Erick inside?"

"Sure," She replied.

As soon as Erick heard her, he turned.

"What happened in there? Is he..?"

"Alive," Mel brushed it off. "Apparently this whole act was a security measure — Dumbledore said you could come in but I recommend you to fix yourself first."

"Why?"

"We're bait," She explained while adjusting his coat. "I know why he brought us... Slughorn must be important if he's playing this dirty..."

"What do you mean?"

"Just act as posh as possible," Mel sighed, patting his cheek lovingly. "It should be easy for you."

Erick followed her inside and both sat next to Harry on the couch, the three of them displayed in plain sight so Slughorn had to look at them.

"Hmpf," He studied them before forcing his eyes to look away. "Here —"

He gave the drinks to Dumbledore and then put the tray on Harry's lap rather forcefully. He looked at Erick again.

"I should introduce you," Mel said. "Mr Slughorn, this is Erick Flint, a very good friend of mine. Erick, this is Horace Slughorn, a very dear friend of my uncle's."

"Nice to meet you," Erick stood up and shook the man's hand with a firm grip and a confident tone.

"Hmpf," Slughorn said again.

"Well, how have you been keeping, Horace?" Dumbledore asked.

"Not so well," said Slughorn. "Weak chest. Wheezy. Rheumatism too. Can't move like I used to. Well, that's to be expected. Old age. Fatigue."

"And yet you must have moved fairly quickly to prepare such a welcome for us at such short notice — You can't have had more than three minutes' warning?"

"Two. Didn't hear my Intruder Charm go off, I was taking a bath. Still," He added hastily, "the fact remains that I'm an old man, Albus. A tired old man who's earned the right to a quiet life and a few creature comforts."

"You're not yet as old as I am, Horace," Dumbledore commented.

"Well, maybe you ought to think about retirement yourself," said Slughorn, quickly glancing at Dumbledore's injured hand. "Reactions not what they were, I see."

"You're quite right," said Dumbledore showing a bit more of his hand to them. "I am undoubtedly slower than I was. But on the other hand..."

He shrugged and spread his hands wide, as though to say that age had its compensations, and Harry noticed a ring on his uninjured hand that he had never seen Dumbledore wear before:

It was large, rather clumsily made of what looked like gold, and was set with a heavy black stone that had cracked down the middle. Slughorn's eyes lingered for a moment on the ring too, and Harry saw a tiny frown momentarily crease his wide forehead.

"So, all these precautions against intruders, Horace... are they for the Death Eaters' benefit, or mine?"

"What would the Death Eaters want with a poor broken-down old buffer like me?"

"I imagine that they would want you to turn your considerable talents to coercion, torture, and murder... Are you really telling me that they haven't come recruiting yet?"

Mel felt Erick tensing next to her, she was sure Slughorn wouldn't appreciate knowing that they'd managed to take down two death eaters outside his house a few hours ago, all because Dumbledore had sent them to spy on him.

"I haven't given them the chance. I've been on the move for a year. Never stay in one place more than a week. Move from Muggle house to Muggle house — the owners of this place are on holiday in the Canary Islands — it's been very pleasant, I'll be sorry to leave. It's quite easy once you know how, one simple Freezing Charm on these absurd burglar alarms they use instead of Sneakoscopes and make sure the neighbors don't spot you bringing in the piano."

"Ingenious," said Dumbledore. "But it sounds a rather tiring existence for a broken-down old buffer in search of a quiet life. Now, if you were to return to Hogwarts —"

"If you're going to tell me my life would be more peaceful at that pestilential school, you can save your breath, Albus! I might have been in hiding, but some funny rumors have reached me since Dolores Umbridge left! If that's how you treat teachers these days —"

"Professor Umbridge ran afoul of our centaur herd," said Dumbledore. "I think you, Horace, would have known better than to stride into the forest and call a horde of angry centaurs 'filthy half- breeds.'"

"That's what she did, did she?" Slughorn scoffed. "Idiotic woman. Never liked her."

Harry let out a short laugh and everyone looked at him.

"Sorry," He said. "It's just — I didn't like her either."

"No wonder why," Mel nodded. "She mistreated all of her students — We had to teach ourselves! It's a wonder how I even passed my O.W.L. for that class."

"As if you didn't know you'll get an 'O' in every subject," Erick replied with amusement.

"If I did it wasn't thanks to her," She shrugged.

Dumbledore stood up.

"Are you leaving?" asked Slughorn.

"No, I was wondering whether I might use your bathroom..."

"Oh," Slughorn visibly deflated. "Second on the left down the hall."

After ten seconds of heavy silence, Slughorn got to his feet and turned his back on them, staring into the fireplace.

"Don't think I don't know why he's brought you," He said.

Harry stared at the man silently, Erick remained in place while Mel stood up and looked around the room.

"You look very like your parents," Slughorn told them.

"Yeah, I've been told," Harry replied.

"Except for your eyes. You've got —"

"My mother's eyes, yeah."

"Hmpf. Yes, well. You shouldn't have favourites as a teacher, of course, but she was one of mine. Your mother, Lily Evans. One of the brightest I ever taught. Vivacious, you know. Charming girl. I used to tell her she ought to have been in my House. Very cheeky answers I used to get back too."

"Which was your House?"

"I was Head of Slytherin," Mel turned abruptly in surprise. "Oh, now, don't go holding that against me! You'll be Gryffindor like your folks, I suppose? Yes, it usually goes in families. Not always, though. Ever heard of Sirius Black? You must have done — been in the papers for the last couple of years — died a few weeks ago — Well, anyway, he was a big pal of your fathers at school. The whole Black family had been in my House, but Sirius ended up in Gryffindor! Shame — he was a talented boy. I got his brother, Regulus, when he came along, but I'd have liked the set."

"I wasn't judging you," Mel replied. "Erick's a Slytherin, and he's our friend. He's a Prefect as well, and bound to be the Headboy this year..."

"I see," Slughorn eyed him up. "Eliot Flint's grandson? I met him during my school years... great man he was, I'm sorry to hear about his passing, how are your parents?"

"I wouldn't know, Sir," Erick smiled tensely. "They threw me out of the house after they discovered my correspondence with a muggle."

"He's living with me," Mel added.

Slughorn nodded.

"I remember when your mother made peace with Miss Evans, the two of them were a thing to fear! Your mother was Muggle-born, of course, Harry. Couldn't believe it when I found out. Thought she must have been pure-blood, she was so good."

"One of our best friends is Muggle-born," said Harry. "and she's the best in our year."

"Funny how that sometimes happens, isn't it?"

"Not really," He said coldly.

Slughorn looked at them like he'd just realized his mistake.

"You mustn't think I'm prejudiced! No, no, no! Haven't I just said your mother was one of my all-time favourite students? And there was Dirk Cresswell in the year after her too — now Head of the Goblin Liaison Office, of course — another Muggle-born, a very gifted student, and still gives me excellent inside information on the goings-on at Gringotts!"

He pointed to the bunch of photographs on the dresser.

"All ex-students, all signed. You'll notice Barnabas Cuffe, editor of the Daily Prophet, he's always interested to hear my take on the day's news. And Ambrosius Flume, of Honeydukes — a hamper every birthday, and all because I was able to give him an introduction to Ciceron Harkiss, who gave him his first job! And at the back — you'll see her if you just crane your neck — that's Gwenog Jones, who of course captains the Holyhead Harpies... People are always astonished to hear I'm on first-name terms with the Harpies, and free tickets whenever I want them!"

"And all these people know where to find you, to send you stuff?" asked Harry with curiosity.

Mel knew he wasn't doing it on purpose, but he was poking in all the right places.

"Of course not," He said gloomily. "I have been out of touch with everybody for a year."

"You must miss it," She said carefully, "your life was really active before you had to hide..."

Slughorn stared at her as if he'd just realized she was right, although he was quick to cover it.

"The prudent wizard keeps his head down in such times. All very well for Dumbledore to talk, but taking up a post at Hogwarts just now would be tantamount to declaring my public allegiance to the Order of the Phoenix! And while I'm sure they're very admirable and brave and all the rest of it, I don't personally fancy the mortality rate —"

"I gave up my old life to help the Order," Erick replied. "I don't think I'll ever regret my decision, I do something worthy, I'm valuable to them."

"And you don't have to join the Order to teach at Hogwarts," Harry sounded upset. "Most of the teachers aren't in it, and none of them has ever been killed — well, unless you count Quirrell, and he got what he deserved seeing as he was working with Voldemort. I reckon the staff are safer than most people while Dumbledore's headmaster; he's supposed to be the only one Voldemort ever feared, isn't he?"

Slughorn pondered their arguments.

"Well, yes, it is true that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has never sought a fight with Dumbledore... And I suppose one could argue that as I have not joined the Death Eaters, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named can hardly count me a friend... in which case, I might well be safer a little closer to Albus... I cannot pretend that Amelia Bones's death did not shake me... If she, with all her Ministry contacts and protection..."

"You know, people think that I'll be safe forever thanks to my blood relations," Mel smiled in the same ironic manner her uncle did. "But in the end... a bloodline, a connection... it's not as efficient as watching your own back. I think you should take every precaution."

Dumbledore walked into the room and Slughorn jumped.

"Oh, there you are, Albus — You've been a very long time. Upset stomach?"

"No, I was merely reading the Muggle magazines, I do love knitting patterns. Well, we have trespassed upon Horace's hospitality quite long enough; I think it is time for us to leave."

Erick and Harry jumped to their feet, Mel calmly made her way to where they were standing.

"You're leaving?" asked Slughorn, this time sounding a bit hurt.

"Yes, indeed. I think I know a lost cause when I see one."

"Lost..?" He stared at Harry closing his jacket and Dumbledore putting on his travelling cloak.

Mel picked up her coat and Erick helped her put it on.

"Well, I'm sorry you don't want the job, Horace," said Dumbledore. "Hogwarts would have been glad to see you back again. Our greatly increased security notwithstanding, you will always be welcome to visit, should you wish to."

"You could've been one of my favourite teachers," Mel sighed, trying to look disappointed. "Well, what can we do?"

"Yes... well... very gracious... as I say..."

"Good-bye, then."

"It was a pleasure to meet you," Erick nodded.

"Bye," said Harry simply.

Mel had barely reached six in her silent countdown when Slughorn stopped them.

"All right, all right, I'll do it!"

She smiled down at her shoes, Dumbledore turned to see him.

"You will come out of retirement?"

"Yes, yes. I must be mad, but yes."

"Wonderful," said her uncle brightly. "Then, Horace, we shall see you on the first of September."

"Yes, I daresay you will," Slughorn huffed.

As they reached the garden, Slughorn shouted the last demand.

"I'll want a pay rise, Dumbledore!"

Her uncle chuckled.

"Well done," He told them.

"We didn't do anything," said Harry frowning.

"Oh yes, you did. You three showed Horace exactly how much he stands to gain by returning to Hogwarts. Did you like him?"

"That's why you said we were bait?" Erick smiled at her. "You clever girl..."

"You say that a lot," Mel replied, clearly pleased with his compliment. "It wasn't that hard to guess after hearing him speak for like, ten seconds... he likes flashy stuff and the three of us are quite dashing..."

"Horace likes his comfort," Dumbledore nodded. "He also likes the company of the famous, the successful, and the powerful. He enjoys the feeling that he influences these people. He has never wanted to occupy the throne himself; he prefers the backseat — more room to spread out, you see. He used to handpick favorites at Hogwarts..."

Dumbledore explained all of Slughorn's way to them, Mel was absently hearing his voice while also looking around anxiously, every dark corner seemed to be watching them, she didn't feel safe. The Slytherin noticed her apprehensive attitude and walked closer to her, their hands brushing.

"Smart," Erick admitted after Dumbledore finished his explanation. "Though a bit... opportunist, may I say..."

"I tell you all this not to turn you against Horace — or, as we must now call him, Professor Slughorn — but to put you on your guard. He will undoubtedly try to collect you. You would be the jewel of his collection; 'the Boy Who Lived'... or, as they call you these days, Harry, 'the Chosen One.' And he wouldn't say no to teaching you, Mel, after all the rumours surrounding your upbringing — As for you, Erick, I daresay it only took one conversation for him to realize you're one of a kind."

They continued until they reached the church, where Dumbledore stopped walking.

"This will do. If you will grasp my arm, Harry. Erick, you know what our next stop is?"

Erick nodded, offering his arm to Mel once more.

"I've only seen the burrow in pictures, so you'll have to hope for the best here, " He told her.

"Brilliant," Mel grimaced. "Can't wait."

She crashed against Harry when landing, both of them fell harshly on the ground and were quickly lifted by the people accompanying them.

"If you don't mind," said Dumbledore. "I'd like a few words with Harry and Mel before we part. In private. Perhaps in here?"

Erick stayed out, making sure no one was close to hear what Dumbledore had to say. Harry and Mel followed the Headmaster to the little closet where the Weasleys used to keep their brooms. Dumbledore conjured a light and smiled at them.

"I hope you will forgive me for mentioning it, but I am pleased and a little proud at how well you seem to be coping after everything that happened at the Ministry. Permit me to say that I think Sirius would have been proud."

Mel fixed her gaze on her feet, she wasn't proud of the way she'd acted during the last term. She'd been selfish and arrogant, and now she was trying her best to make up for it. She didn't feel like she was coping well with her loss either, more like ignoring all her thoughts to remain sane.

"It was cruel," Dumbledore continued, "that you and Sirius had such a short time together. A brutal ending to what should have been a long and happy relationship, and a loving family."

The silence lasted for a few seconds, then Harry spoke:

"It's just hard," He said, "to realize he won't write to me again..."

She stared at the poorly lit face of her friend, his eyes were looking up to the ceiling, suddenly she remembered that Harry was, perhaps, lonelier than her. Maybe that was one of the reasons why he wanted to keep their lifeline, it was nice to have something tying them together.

She wanted to tell him they didn't need the connection for that, but if she was honest, she wasn't sure.

"Sirius represented much to you that you had never known before. Naturally, the loss is devastating..."

"But while I was at the Dursleys'..." Harry interrupted in a firmer voice. "I realized I can't shut myself away or — or crack up. Sirius wouldn't have wanted that, would he? And anyway, life's too short... Look at Madam Bones, look at Emmeline Vance... It could be me next, couldn't it? But if it is, I'll make sure I take as many Death Eaters with me as I can, and Voldemort too if I can manage it."

The feeling she'd get whenever Harry would step into his role of the tragic hero fell upon her like a kick in the face — She couldn't blame him for being brave, but she was a tad upset that he wasn't making things easier for her troubled heart.

"You still have a family, though," Mel reached out for his hand shyly and held it. "You have reasons to stay alive."

"Spoken both like your parent's children and Sirius's true godson! I take my hat off to you — or I would, if I were not afraid of showering you in spiders... Now, Harry, on a closely related subject... I gather that you have been taking the Daily Prophet over the last two weeks?"

"Yes."

"Then you will have seen that there have been not so much leaks as floods concerning your adventure in the Hall of Prophecy?"

"Yes. And now everyone knows that I'm the one —"

"No, they do not. There are only three people in the whole world who know the full contents of the prophecy made about you and Lord Voldemort, and they are standing in this smelly, spidery broom shed. It is true, however, that many have guessed, correctly, that Voldemort sent his Death Eaters to steal a prophecy, and that the prophecy concerned you. Now, I think I am correct in saying that you have not told anybody that you know what the prophecy said?"

"No," said Harry.

"Of course not," Mel said with a bit of outrage.

"A wise decision, on the whole. Although I think you ought to relax it in favor of your friends, Mr Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger. Yes, I think they ought to know. You do them a disservice by not confiding something this important to them."

"I didn't want —"

"— to worry or frighten them? Or perhaps, to confess that you yourself are worried and frightened? You need your friends. As you so rightly said, Sirius would not have wanted you to shut yourself away. On a different, though related, subject, it is my wish that you take private lessons with me this year."

"Private — with you?" Harry's eyes widened. "Like Mel?"

"Yes. I think it is time that I took a greater hand in your education. And fortunately, Mel has completed her lessons with me, so that gives me enough time to focus on you."

"What will you be teaching me, sir?"

"Oh, a little of this, a little of that," said Dumbledore.

"If I'm having lessons with you, I won't have to do Occlumency lessons with Snape, will I?"

Mel snorted, but she quickly turned it into a cough.

"Professor Snape, Harry — and no, you will not."

"Good, because they were a —"

Mel stepped on his foot, successfully shutting him up before he could continue.

"I think the word 'fiasco' would be a good one here," Dumbledore sighed.

"Well, that means I won't see much of Professor Snape from now on," He said happily, "because he won't let me carry on Potions unless I get 'Outstanding' in my O.W.L., which I know I haven't."

"Don't count your owls before they are delivered," said Dumbledore. "Which, now I think of it, ought to be some time later today. Now, a few more things before we part. Firstly, I wish you to keep your Invisibility Cloak with you at all times from this moment onward. Even within Hogwarts itself. Just in case, you understand me?"

Harry nodded.

"While you stay here, the Burrow has been given the highest security the Ministry of Magic can provide. These measures have caused a certain amount of inconvenience to Arthur and Molly — all their post, for instance, is being searched at the Ministry before being sent on. They do not mind in the slightest, for their only concern is your safety. However, it would be poor repayment if you risked your neck while staying with them. This goes to you too, Mel, since they agreed to take in Emily and young Regulus for the rest of the year."

"I understand."

"Me too," Mel nodded.

"And lastly," He looked at them carefully. "Have you made a decision on the lifeline?"

"Yes —"

"— No."

Harry and Mel looked at each other again, both exasperated.

"What do you mean 'no'?" The boy frowned.

"I—I," She stammered. "I... need more time."

"But you —"

"We haven't talked," She insisted. "We can't just make the decision without talking first, can we? Otherwise, who knows if the spell might work?"

Harry wanted to argue against it, but he knew she was right.

"Very well, then," Dumbledore opened the shed door. "I see a light in the kitchen. Let us not deprive Molly any longer of the chance to deplore how thin you are, Harry."

Next Chapter —>

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anthropwashere · 4 years

Text

Phic Phight: these lofty thoughts are killing me

Prompt from @ibelieveinahappilyeverafter: Undergrowth Sam AU. Sam’s time as mother of Undergrowth’s garden left it’s scars - and scars can go deep. Sam’s always known she shared a close connection with plants, but now she hears them. She knows what they think and what they feel and can control them. On one hand it’s terrifying, but on the other… The ghosts should be a lot more terrified of her now.

@currentlylurking @phicphight

Word count: 4,604

Sam tries not to think about then.

Maybe it's better to say she tries not to think about the gaping hole in her memory where then ought to be.

She's hardly the only one in that particular boat. The whole of Amity Park suffers from a ghost-induced amnesia spanning over a week. It's all anyone talks about for ages; where they were when the plants attacked, where they were when they finally woke up again. Trying to make sense of senselessness. And even now, months after the fact, there are still traces of that city-wide attack not yet repaired. Cracked concrete, homes and business too ravaged to salvage, miles of withered vines with thorns like carving knives, enormous mummified plants with mammalian fangs in human mouths, swathes of green-limned ice that refuses to melt even now.

(Every time one of the three of them finds another frozen chunk of Amity Park Danny moves ASAP to take care of it, since not even anything his parents have cooked up can do much damage to it. The guilt twisting Danny up is horrible to watch unfold across his weary face; made worse still because for all that he and Tucker insist otherwise, it really was her fault.)

There's no hiding it: Amity Park was shaken to its foundations by Undergrowth. Even more so, perhaps, than by Pariah Dark. The Ghost King had transported the entire city directly into the Ghost Zone and did his utmost to run it to ruin with his army of skeleton ghosts. It had been a terrifying and impossible experience, and everyone can agree they only got out of that one thanks to Phantom. But the thing is, everyone in Amity Park can remember Pariah Dark's attack.

But Undergrowth? Flashes and flickers of almosts and maybes at best for everyone involved, and that is somehow so much more terrifying. What did they do? What were they made to do? How many missing and confirmed dead weren't taken by the towering ghost and all its myriad minions, but by one of them? Are they ever going to remember what happened? Is it better if they don't?

And on, and on, and Sam's right alongside everyone else except in every way she isn't. Yes, she doesn't remember anything. But she knows she's at fault, because Danny told her just so.

Not in so many words, of course. He's too good for that. Too good a person, too good a ghost, too good a hero. He would never lay the blame for anything terrible that happened at anyone's feet but his own. He wasn't good enough, strong enough, fast enough—and on, and on. Never mind that he went and scrounged up and mastered an entirely new subset of powers just to counter Undergrowth—

(and her)

—and never mind the countless lives he did save. People were hurt, and worse, because he thinks he wasn't the hero Amity Park thinks he is. That's just the way he is.

Undergrowth was wrong. Sam knew that. She knew that. He was too extreme, too insane, too insistent on terraforming the entire planet to suit his self-aggrandizing whim to consider the consequences for whatever else lives here. Not just self-centered jerks with their gas-guzzling cars and plastic, one time use lives. There are so many people out there who understand what Sam's trying to do here in Amity, who do so much more to fight the ceaseless grinding up of Earth's finite resources than what one fourteen year old can do on her own. There are good people in the world fighting the evil and corrupt and greedy. There’s good in this world. You can't just—wipe the slate clean and start fresh.

You can't.

Sam remembers—the first attack.

Sam remembers—waking up after it was all over.

She remembers feeling sick and sluggish. Boneless. Dizzy and swooping like she'd downed too much cold medicine. Limbs slow to react, her thoughts even slower. She remembers her surroundings like a badly dubbed old kung fu movie; everyone moving at exaggerated angles, their voices not matching their mouths. She remembers Danny blinking too quickly, like he was trying not to cry he was so glad to see she was okay.

She remembers thinking with a cold and sullen fury, How dare he?

What the fuck? had followed right on the heels of that, thankfully, because she’d had no idea why she'd ever in a million years be so angry with her best friend.

She remembers—knowing time had passed. Too much time. A dangerous and scary amount of time. And she remembers looking around and seeing the city halfway destroyed. And she remembers—

—guilt.

Guilt that made no sense until Danny, hours and hours later, faltered through an obviously edited summary of the week Amity Park forgot. She and Tucker had both blinked at him, and at each other, horrified and dismayed to find that Danny had had to do so much all on his own, that they'd been so vulnerable, so useless—

—but there'd been no guilt in Tucker's expression. No sign of the guilt that tangled up her guts in a cat's cradle until she was certain she'd throw up—

—and then she did have to throw up, staggering off to the bathroom in her basement, barely able to slam the door and fall to her knees before the toilet in time. She hates throwing up, hates the sweating and the shaking, hates the smell and the sound, hates how no matter what something always gets stuck in her nose. She'd screwed her face up tight so she didn't have to watch, rode out the worst of it, then sat there breathing wetly and hating life for a minute.

One of the boys had knocked gently on the bathroom door. "You okay?"

"Guh," she replied, throat hurting terribly at the effort.

Sam remembers—opening her eyes, and the fear, and the confusion, and the certainty that she couldn't tell anyone, ever.

The toilet bowl had been full of flowers.

That hasn't happened since, and—as far as she can tell—there haven't been any health issues that could have sprung up from having an indeterminate amount of flora taking root in her digestive system.

She hasn't gone out much since then. School, patrol, the ghost attacks that invariably spring up outside of when she's penciled in time for a little extra chaos. She's made up excuses whenever Danny and Tucker invite her to hang out. She hasn't gone shopping or to a movie or any other perfectly normal after-school activity.

She's not hiding.

She's not.

It's just... easier, to not be around people any more than the barest necessity. At least until she feels... settled again. Normal again. For her, and for whatever 'normal' is worth in a town regularly terrorized by bigger and toothier and crueler ghosts with every passing month. It's fine. Danny's got Tucker and Jazz for the attacks that she's slow to arrive for, and Danny is—

Danny can handle himself. He's strong. He's amazing. He took Undergrowth—

(and her)

—down all on his own, no power suit or ghostly backup needed. It's fine.

Her parents seem to have miraculously caught on for once that she really does need some space; after the initial handsy-hugsy panicked relief the first couple days after Undergrowth, they gave her space (and anything else she asked for too, for that matter), only prodding her gently to come inside to eat now and then. Which she's grateful for, really, because she's pretty sure she wouldn't remember to eat at all without some prodding.

Something about eating rubs her wrong, now. The resistance of a carrot clenched between her teeth, the juicy flesh of an orange slice bursting under pressure, rice grains squirming like maggots on her tongue. She made a salad two days ago and couldn't stop thinking of the glamorized crime scenes from all those police procedural shows on TV; oversaturated, garish, someone's life torn open in a tasteless arrangement of stiff limbs.

A cabbage is not a person. Cucumbers are not people. Almonds are a good source of protein.

Damn it.

Most of the time she hides—relaxes—in her greenhouse. Tucker had cracked a joke about that, though it had gone in one ear and out the other. Something something, bad taste. Blah blah, she's gone native. Didn't I tell you plants are the enemy?

Danny had laughed. Sam had to fight to keep her hands loose at her sides, to let it roll off like it didn't hurt while she tried to remind herself that it shouldn't hurt. That had earned her another tally in the ‘needing time away from people’ column. Not like, total isolation. School. Patrol. Dinner with her parents and grandma. She still does things with people. But every minute she's not in her greenhouse she feels this—this hand around her heart. This tightness that squeezes just enough that she's never not aware of it, and it's become so, so much easier for her to startle, to flinch from loud noises, to find herself overstimulated by her friends laughing as she is people screaming in the wake of ghosts. The hand squeezes until she can hardly breathe, and she thinks of the flowers she'd thrown up and thinks of roots, and thorns, and the fragility of her lungs, and it gets so hard to breathe—

Nobody's caught her breaking down yet. She hopes she can keep it that way. She hopes she can get over this—this anxiety, or fear, or whatever this is.

But for all that she spends so much time in her greenhouse, the only place she doesn't feel that hand around her heart, she can't really say she's all that relaxed there either.

Another day put between then and now. Life around Amity Park is just about back to normal. If she's feeling generous with her definition of normal, anyway. She's made it through school without any issues and now she's free to hide—relax!—for a few hours in her greenhouse before one of her parents will come tapping at the door.

"Hey guys," she says, lackluster.

The whole greenhouse shivers at the sound of her voice.

Yep. That's totally normal. Nothing weird about that at all!

Ugh.

She goes through her after-school checklist by rote memory, biting her tongue to keep herself from the usual silly commentary she used to say along with it. She's learned better. Undergrowth did—something to her. Something she's lied through her teeth about to Danny and Tucker, assuring them that she's fine, she's normal, there aren't any lingering effects from—whatever it was. Is. She's different now. Not outwardly, not in any of the ways Danny risks being discovered as inhuman every single day. She's not like Danny. She's still human.

She is.

But she can still do inhuman things. Or—not do. Nothing as active as ghost rays or flight or anything fun. But she can—influence. She still has an inhuman influence, and it's all she can do to keep her garden still.

Even with her teeth clenched so tightly her jaw aches and a headache blooms—nngh—at her temples, the slightest graze of her fingers across a leaf makes whatever plant she's touched quiver. When she picks up her pruning shears to clean up the tomato plants she can see them flush bigger and brighter before her very eyes. There's the tiniest, softest—niggling in the back of her mind, an itch on her teeth and goosebumps down her skin.

(mother)

She drops the shears. Before she can move to grab them a tendril of healthy green leaves curls off of the trellis to pluck them up out of the dirt and deposit them neatly in her numb hands again.

"...Thanks," she grits out.

All of the tomatoes swell to the size of tennis balls, their leaves straining to catch up. Two of the nearest ones split their blood red skins open to beam beatifically at her. There are teeth in their dripping grins, or something shaped enough like teeth to curdle her stomach.

"Stop."

The grins shrink, though the seams remain. She resolves to never eat those two. The thought of throwing them out however, is almost as revolting. She leaves without finishing the after-school checklist, opting to hide in the basement bowling alley with her grandma until dinner. It's not half as relaxing as it used to be.

She can't avoid her greenhouse. Not even for a day. Her garden needs daily attention. It needed it—before.

It did.

Now the thought of ignoring it, even for an afternoon, makes her physically ill. So she doesn't know if it's guilt for not finishing her after-school checklist earlier or something—else, something left in her from then—

—she tries, she tries, she tries to remember anything from then, but there's only—

—hunger, and anger, and pride for her—

—her—

—her children.

Nothing concrete. Nothing real. Nothing she can make use of. All she knows is that she's different, and it's most obvious here in her chil—

—garden. Her garden.

They won't hurt her. No matter what she says or does, this she knows for certain. Her garden will never hurt her.

Somehow, that isn't as comforting as it should be. All she can think of are teeth sinking into meat, and the sound of a scream, and splattering—

And she has no idea if Undergrowth made her order the—the—the children to kill someone, or if he goaded her into doing it personally. And she doesn't know which is worse.

It's night now. Late. After patrol. Her cell phone is an intrusive blue glow in her greenhouse, the only light she dare use in case one of her parents is still awake. For all that they've been weirdly accommodating since then, she doesn't want to push her luck. It's a school night, after all. It's hardly any light at all to go by, really. She's tempted to pull up the flashlight app at least, but—

(hello hello)

(mother's back)

(we missed you mother)

—it's maybe safer to do this in the dark. For all that her throat closes up when she hears a loud rustling sweep through her greenhouse. For all that her feet feel like dead weights as she drags them across the dirt floor until she's stood in the center. In the heart of her domain.

She breathes.

"I hear you," she whispers.

The rustling grows louder, and louder still. Tables creak under growing and shifting weights. Shadows move closer into the faint light of her cell phone. A hundred or more whispers settle in some weird space between her sinus cavity and her brain, heard like something from the cusp of a dream. Mother, they all say. We love you, we love you, we're here for you.

Her legs give out, but something cool and dry catches her before she can fall. She clings to it, swallowing a shriek. They won't hurt her.

They won't.

Now she just has to make sure they won't hurt anyone else either.

"That's right. I'm your—ha." She buries her face in her hands, feeling somewhere between playing pretend and outright deranged. "Ha ha! Can—this is—can you call me something else? Please? I'm way too young to be anybody's mom, let alone my own personal—shit, I dunno. All of you. Just—call me Sam."

That earns her a whole bass-boosted chorus of Sam! Sam! Sam! until she lets go of the vine-branch-thing to clap her hands over her ears. "Easy! Jeez! Take it down a notch, okay? I really can't—do this—with all of you shouting at me."

Sam! Sam! Sam! gets a lot quieter. Not manageable, not really, since a bunch of plants are chanting her name like she's a rock star, but at least it feels less like she's laid out in a dentist's chair getting worked on without local anesthetic.

"Okay. Okay. I—" she giggles. This is so stupid. This is so dangerous. "Are you—Undergrowth?"

Shadows chirp no, no, no at her like hulking baby birds.

"Are you still his, though? If he came back, would you listen to him instead of me?"

No, no, no, they chirp. Something coils up one of her legs, catching on her bootlaces and tickling the back of her knee.

"No, you're not his?"

Not his, something whispers right in her fucking ear. She recoils, trips over whatever's feeling up her thigh, and gets caught again by the vine-branch-thing. She's pretty sure it's a branch of her orange tree. It smells citrus-y, at least. Splayed ungainly, she tries to get her heart under control. She feels like she's in the middle of a horror movie. It's way too easy to imagine some know-it-all dipshit yelling at her through a mouthful of popcorn. Get out, you dumb bitch!

Yeah, yeah. She knows. She knows. Messing around with things she doesn't understand is what got Danny zapped in the first place. It's a long chain of events between the accident and tonight, but every step of it's her fault.

"Okay," she says shakily. "Okay. And if he came back...?"

We're yours, her garden croons, humming all at once and all through her in a way that makes it feel like her muscles are coming loose from her bones. We belong to you, our Sam.

She shivers. "L-lucky me."

So this is a thing she's got going on now, apparently, and no obvious way to make it stop. At least, not any way that wouldn't require her to tear her greenhouse apart down to the last garlic bulb, which would be extraordinarily expensive, extraordinarily alarming to anyone who knows her, and extraordinarily too much like a whole lot of murder. Plants aren't people, but these plants sure do like to tell her how much they love her.

So. It's a thing. Talking to plants. Plants that are definitely souped up on whatever ambient juice is leftover from Undergrowth terraforming the whole city. Plants that keep growing mouths full of fangs and strangling vines with thorns longer than her thumb despite her practically begging them to just be carrots, please. It's feeling a little too Little Shop of Horrors for comfort. She keeps emphasizing the strict no meat diet she's got them on, glad that her family's never had any interest in coming in here. You know. Just in case. Thing is though, her concern—so far, anyway—seems pretty unwarranted. Her garden seems happy enough on the perfectly healthy diet of perfectly normal plants. Sunshine, air, water, a good layer of compost.

They just keep thanking her so feverishly for so little. It's—unsettling. A little bit awful. Maybe more than a little bit. Maybe this psychic connection thing goes two ways, and her garden is influencing her into—what? Feeling guilty? For what? They all seem so happy for the slightest bit of her attention. It doesn't seem like it'll occur to them all that they could ever ask her for more.

Maybe it's not healthy that she's thinking of her plants as thinking creatures instead of some kind of echo chamber for whatever Undergrowth did to her. The longer she lets this go on, the more the voices of her garden feel-sound like her own thoughts. And it's been going on for a while. Long enough that Danny and Tucker have noticed the uptick in her behavior, both commenting in their own ways that they're happy she's acting more like her old self again.

Yeah. Right. Nothing supernaturally weird going on with her at all, no sir-ee!

Still, for all that she can't stop her garden from going the plantae equivalent of full werewolf, she has managed to keep them organized. Well. Bit of seesaw on that. The overcrowding got sorted out by some aggressive behavior. Some very aggressive behavior. She's definitely had one nightmare already, reliving the gruesomely wet memory of having to bodily haul the thing that used to be her prized Venus flytrap off of the thing that used to be her kiwi vine.

Point is, she has half the number of plants in her garden than she did two weeks ago, which—fine. It's not like she was planning on eating any of them anymore. She's not really—eating much, lately. She's been able to pass it off as no big deal around Danny and Tucker (never in a million years did she ever think she'd be grateful for the Box Ghost interrupting lunch so often, but here she is!), and she keeps reassuring her family that she's gotten into the habit of taking more of her meals in her greenhouse. The truth is she's been eating a lot of cereal and tripling her vitamin intake. Cereal hasn't betrayed her yet, but in a town like Amity Park that's no guarantee.

She knows it's a stopgap measure. Someone's going to find her out, or her garden's going to get ghostly enough for Danny to sense it, or someone will be stupid enough to walk in here and she might actually end up with some real life Audrey II bullshit.

"If any of you start singing, I won't be held accountable for my actions," she threatens one evening, brandishing a trowel. The garden makes a bunch of querying noises at her, tangling around her ankles like an alien's limited grasp of the concept of a pet cat. She's given up wearing leggings entirely, having thrown the last ruined pair away after her parents had gone to bed. She'd bought three pairs of jeans—black, of course—last Saturday when she braved the mall with Danny and Tucker. At least artfully torn jeans are fashionable enough that nobody but her mom is going to think anything odd about it.

"Never mind," she sighs, and gives in to the urge to scratch one of her plants along its spiny sepals. It purrs happily, and soon a whole group of waist-high plants that look like something right out of Poison Ivy's own evil lair are crooning at her for scritches.

She ends up sneaking off on her own to PetSmart an hour before it closes, bailing on patrol for the sixth time since Undergrowth. There's definitely some line between crazy plant lady and weird dog mom she's pole vaulting over, but—whatever.

She buys a lot of dog toys. Her garden especially loves the tug-of-war ropes, but the bright green squeaky bone turned out to be an A+ impulse buy too.

It takes a while, and a lot of adjusting, and she still hasn't figured out an alternative long-term diet, but overall things settle. She finds a new balance. She basically sleeps well enough, and her grades are fine, and the ghost attacks don't get too left-field. Danny shoulders most of that anyway these days, more comfortable with his powers and the popularity boost saving the city gave Phantom with everybody. Used to be her and Tucker put in the same hours and effort as Danny—if you don't count the superpowers—but lately? They're better for cover stories and clean-up, which is fine with Sam while she sorts all this post-Undergrowth ghost-plant stuff out. Tucker's just happy he finishes out the semester with the same PDA he started it with.

Of course, all good things are temporary. She really ought to have this figured out by now.

It's a ghost attack that unravels it all, naturally. This one's a new face; some kind of unsettling, skitter-y combination hydra-centipede about the length of a limousine. Its six necks accordion though, and it spits acid. Both are nasty surprises Danny wasn't expecting, and he ends up getting tossed through the front pane of a mom-and-pop hardware store. He'll be fine, though she and Tucker both have to tamp down on their standard panicked 'oh shit our best friend would have absolutely just died if he were normal' reaction to go distract the ghost from going after a minivan.

They circle around it, shouting nonsensical insults that it probably doesn't understand to get its attention, helped by a few firm blasts of some small ecto-guns they'd pilfered a while back. Only one shot actually gets a hit on something that isn't its purple exoskeleton; Tucker whoops loudly when it screeches in pain. Sam uses the precious seconds to circle around to the other side of the minivan to yank open the sliding door and start manhandling a group of elementary-aged kids in blue soccer uniforms out and into whatever shop is closest. The mom squawks affront until Sam hisses at her to hurry her ass up if she doesn't want to go the same way as the hatchback—thankfully empty—that had ended up wrapped around a telephone pole. That gets soccer mom moving, and they're both just clear of the van before she hears Tucker scream her name.

She moves on an instinct honed by two years of fighting for her life; she shoves soccer mom hard and whirls around in time to see the roof of the minivan as it comes flipping right at her. "No—!" is all she has time for, throwing up her hands as bolts of neon green strike up in her periphery. The minivan crumples with a horrible shriek of metal and hangs, creakingly, not a foot above her head. She blinks in the sudden shadow, heart hammering in her throat. She expects to hear Danny's voice, either a dry quip or an earnest rush of concern, depending on how hard the hydrapede rattled him.

A nonplussed, "What the fuck," from Tucker is what she gets instead.

She looks around. There's the familiar ghost-green glow, but it's not Danny's burning hands or headlight-bright eyes. Two thorny vines, thick as tree trunks, have punched through the concrete to catch the minivan before it could crush her.

(mother) she hears them yap at her happily.

Well, shit.

The fight wraps up without any other cars or business fronts getting destroyed. Danny makes good use of those ice powers, and in a matter of minutes Tucker's got the thing slurped up in one of the three Thermoses they've gotten in the habit of having on hand, just in case.

Then Danny and Tucker make matched crazy eyes at her and the modern art she accidentally made out of soccer mom's claim to fame.

"Not here," she tells them firmly. If soccer mom figures out there's a chance she could pin her totaled minivan on her—and her incredibly wealthy parents—they'll get stuck here all day. Tucker gets it before Danny does and makes a show of shoulder-checking him pointedly as he jogs off. Danny shuts his mouth and winks out of sight, leaving Sam to jog after Tucker. Which she will, just after she tries something first.

She glares at the two vines—standard curb weeds once upon ten minutes, more than likely—and thinks at them very hard. Thank you, much appreciated, stop calling me mother, go away.

She gets some kind of bizarre-o feedback that feels like chewing on gum with the wrapper still on, and also like skinned knees, but in her brain? Ugh. With a reluctance that shouldn't be so obvious from a couple of plants, the two vines sort of... shrink? Melt? Reverse-grow back into two perfectly normal bits of scruffy green in a totally wrecked stretch of sidewalk.

Good enough! Better than she expected, really!

Soccer mom starts babbling something very loud about her car, which is Sam's cue to run for the hills. She does so, dreading the conversation she's about to have with her best friends, but also... kind of excited for the next ghost attack?

If she has to deal with having creepy psychic monster plant-making powers, she may as well get some mileage out of them. Right?

#danny phantom #my writing #phic phight 2020 #some body horror and sam fumbling around trying to deal with some trauma #i haven't watched Urban Jungle in 5 years

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hubz88 · 3 years

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So I see Aaron and Ben aren’t in the spoilers for next week yet again. I am happy with this as I really don’t want to see them on-screen, but I am so confused about what the plan is here. I understand with COVID there are bubbles and fewer actors on set, but is this not meant to be a story? So far it has been a handful of scenes over a couple of episodes and weeks. The show has been rubbish for ages along with the stories and introduction of new characters, but they seemed to have managed it better with Meena and Mack who have at least interacted with different people and seem to have their own personalities and stories going on. With no on/off going for a drink and round in circles with Aaron, Ben could be interacting with people he works with, making friends etc. He feels like a complete and utter plot device right now with no purpose beyond Aaron, which doesn’t really sound like a developed, long term character. The pacing still massively confuses me, the first week spoilers and scenes seemed like they were going to be dating by the Friday. If the show knew it was going to be a slower thing than that, why not have Ben hate Aaron originally and they are forced to work together or something whilst Ben thaws and they become friends first. It would make more sense and would lead to more screen time. Of course, we don’t know Danny and Simon’s schedules, but after this year with Aaron being on screen so little anyways, (literally must be his lowest screen count since later 2009), I kind of doubt that it is there decision. No-one will read this anyway, but wanted to get my thoughts down. Forever hoping this is a revenge plot or something on Ben’s part to make it make more sense and so I don’t really need to watch a relationship with them. Honestly, if a normal relationship continued as they started it would be the dullest thing ever, so revenge, controlling etc relationship would be more interesting, screen time and award bait.

#Robron #aaron’s new sl #Aaron Dingle #emmerdale #nonron

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virtutiae · 4 years

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“ we shouldn’t be this kind of tired

at our age. “

Alex thought it was a tremendous feat to go to three prisons and two graves and not shed a single tear. He was almost proud of himself but there was one person he had yet to see and he went with pride. It was the Friday before he had to return to Gallagher, saved the best for last in his eyes. The only person he truly wanted to see , the only voice he wanted to hear. He wanted to see for himself that the man he loved and cherished so much was okay. However , as she sat , well stood , in the waiting area he could feel his mouth becoming dry. He licks his lips mistaking it for dehydration and lack of chap stick. Once the guard tells him he could enter , it’s almost as if he’s transported back to three years ago when he had to wear that horrid uniform and shave his precious hair. He didn’t like the feeling it brought , his steps seemed slower , everything seemed to be getting much slower.

Sad smile graces as he sees his father , the other immediately stands , with tears in his eyes. Somehow the man had already gotten acquainted with the guards and even the warden --- because of course he had. Alex almost runs into his father’s arms as the older man kisses the top of his head and that’s when Alex begins to breathe a little heavier. His chest heaves higher than higher as he feels the shaking begin -- the first time it happened he mistook it for a heart attack , they said it was normal. His father doesn’t notice it at first but Alex begins to struggle with his breathing as his arms wrap harder around the man -- much stronger than any other feeling he had ever experienced. The transition had not been easy and he had Danny to help him through and he would always be grateful for him but he just wanted his life to return to normal.

“ Hey , Hey , “ William notices as Alex averts his eyes and falls to the ground. The guards rush toward him but William pushes them back having seen this behavior in his own self when his wife was killed. “ Look at me --- Alex look at me , “ Alex can’t focus on anything but the blurriness in his vision and the lack of air he feels. William’s tears begin to rush out as he cradles his son in his arms. “ I hate it , “ Alex finally lets out in a cry. “ I’m sorry , “ he follows that as he continues to gasp for air as his father continues to shush him. The guards turned around , to give them privacy , to let them have this sacred moment all to themselves. The ache in his chest doesn’t stop and neither does the shaking but William never let the embrace break , instead embracing his only son tighter. “ I hate that stupid school , “ he lets out in a choke as he looks up at his father noticing the tears in the other’s eyes. He hates how he only hurts the people around him , he’s always noticed how it was a common theme. He begins to mimic his father’s breathing , though often getting stuck in between breaths.

After minutes of just attempting to catch his breath , the dizziness continues and he is finally able to sit up on his own. Sad eyes look at his father as the older man asks , “ How long have those been happening to you ? “ Alex shakes his head , “ This is only the second time. “ He’s so tired , he definitely didn’t intend for it to happen , but he hadn’t seen the man in three years , the constant worrying , the loyalty , the anxiety --- it was exhausting. It wasn’t okay for Alex to be this tired and yet , he felt it was necessary to keep those around him safe. William finally took Alex’s hand , “ I put you as my number 2 because i know you could handle it. Don’t you dare think Fynn’s death had anything to do with you. You’re a Mueller --- we’re strong motherfuckers , “ the both chuckle , even if Alex’s falls short due to a lip tremor. The two talk for ten minutes, it's mainly filled with Alex complaining about Gallagher and how it's bullshit while his father laughs and smiles at his son’s antics. The two almost forget their sitting on the cement floor of a prison , but they’ll count their blessings. The guards inform the two that William had to return before anyone got too suspicious. They both rose as they embraced once more , “ Don’t forget about your old man , “ William mutters as he presses a kiss to his son’s forehead. “I could never , “ he says with a shake of his head as the both part ways.

#＆＆．ＭＵＳＩＮＧＳ／／ alexander mueller.#death mention tw #panic attack tw #prison tw #important for development bc he's going to be a changed man the new year and not for the better

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kevintor · 4 years

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I Watch a Movie I Should Have Seen: Hocus Pocus

I miss doing these entries. Mostly I miss adding movies to my watched list. Obviously, I’ve never seen Hocus Pocus. That’s why we’re here.

What did I know about Hocus Pocus? I knew there were witches and I knew Bette Midler had fun teeth. And she certainly did!

My thoughts:

We open on Salem in the 1600s following the shadow of a flying witch. The music was straight out of the Danny Elfman playbook but I guess they couldn’t get him so they found an equivalent Ray Parker, Jr. to Elfman’s Huey Lewis. (If you don’t know)

Pink smoke comes out of the chimney of the witch house which means someone’s gender reveal party resulted in a girl! Unfortunately they had to sacrifice a different little girl to find out.

The old-timey boy we meet is wearing a shirt that can only be described as billowy. He should take off like a kite when he runs. Yet somehow when he violently tumbles down a forest hill, none of that very excessive fabric gets caught on anything. Is the fabric even there or are we imagining it?

The witches (Sanderson Sisters) use a book made of human skin and a functioning eyeball. I shall call this book “Columbo.”

It’s very nice of them to put a mill wheel next to the witch house for the boy to climb.

Okay, so Bette Midler has lightning fingers like Emperor Palpatine.

I honestly thought the witches were going to be misunderstood and everyone would win at the end but killing a little girl for her youth and turning the boy into an immortal cat really puts a big wrench in the redemption arc chances.

The townspeople stage a hanging. The witches curse the town that they will return much like Pennywise only scarier.

We fast forward to find out that the opening is a story that is told in a Salem high school class where the kids apparently range in age from 14-28.

A new-to-town California boy (Max) doesn’t buy into all the witch lore. No mention on why his first day of school is Halloween. Parents did not plan that move well.

Max is into Allison, the pretty girl in school that leads with her teeth in every conversation. Did Rami Malek pull some his Freddy Mercury from her?

Max rides his bike home from school at super speed. He is either an exceptional mountain biking improviser or he practiced it the day before to be really ready for school. Probably the latter.

On his shortcut through the cemetery, he runs into two kids, Jay and Ice. Jay seems to be all the bad parts of Bill and Ted combined and Ice seems to be 40.

Jay and Ice take Max’s sneakers because that’s what bullies in the early 90s did. It makes pedaling home slower which may be for the best. He rode his bike too quickly.

Max does not like being here in Salem anymore. We learn this as he angrily takes off his hat, backpack, and jacket.

Max comforts himself by awkwardly hugging and cooing to his pillow pretending it’s Allison. His little sister, Dani, catches the awkwardness, gets on the bed, and simulates being Allison which is normal.

The house appears to have an unlimited number of stairs to climb up to get away in frustration.

Max reluctantly takes his sister trick-or-treating. He has the appropriate level of older brother standoffishness.

Jay and Ice stop the sister asking for her candy. Max gives the candy to the bullies and she tells him he should have been a man and fought them. Again one of them is like 40.

Max makes up with her using a pouty face. Like! A! Man!

They find a rich house that they assume will make them bob for apples. This is a bad idea even in non-pandemic times. Never bob for apples at a stranger’s house. No matter how rich they are. That’s how rich people fatten you up to make you easier to hunt.

Max and Dani let themselves inside and start robbing the place of their Raisinets and O Henry bars. Rich people give out terrible candy.

Turns out the rich house belongs to Allison. They are having a party and everyone there is authentically dressed like royals. They did not get any of these costumes at Spirit Halloween.

Dani tells Allison that she can’t wear Allison’s royal dress because she doesn’t have yabbos and proceeds to tell her that Max loves her yabbos. This girl is outrageous. Or rude. It was a fine line in 1993.

Max asks Allison to take them to the Sanderson Sisters’ house. She tells him she’s going to quickly change out of a dress that must have taken her 45 minutes to get into.

The house is no different than it used to be. The spell book is still there. How have Jay and Ice not stolen anything from it?

Immortal Cat attacks Max when he wants to light the “virgin candle” that will bring back the Sanderson sisters. It’s a great sequence where he says the name of the movie (always important), then pulls a Zippo out of his pocket (which all kids who don’t smoke have), and lights the candle.

It starts things. Hair blows a lot. This is why they had Max be a surfer boy from California. For this hair effect.

This movie cares a lot about someone being a virgin. Even Dani knows what a virgin is. Are they covering this in her second grade class? Do the parents know? What does the PTA think?

The candle makes the Sisters return and they try to keep Dani. Bette Midler uses more of her Star Wars lightning fingers but Allison saves the day.

The cat can talk and the chances of me liking this movie just took a huge hit.

Max steals Columbo, the spell book.

The writers of the movie do the right thing by having the Sisters be scared of everything modern like roads and fire trucks. Nice touch.

The Sisters only have tonight, which adds the right amount of stakes, to get the spell book back. I don’t think I could make it if they had a week or so.

The Sisters raise the dead causing a very reluctant zombie (RZ) to chase after the kids. Most zombies love what they do so this is a fun choice.

Immortal Cat gets run over by a bus but lives because he’s immortal. We needed proof because the 300 years of being a cat was not enough.

Garry Marshall plays a guy dressed as the devil which they play for fun as the Sisters worship him but we can’t gloss over that fact that Fake Devil’s wife is played by his real-life sister, Penny Marshall. It’s not disturbing. They’re acting!

Children steal the Sisters’ brooms which probably won’t matter later.

They find a Halloween party that Max’s parents went to. When Max’s dad meets Allison, he kisses her hand. I am going to do the same to whoever my kid brings home one day. “It’s from Hocus Pocus. That movie’s fun. It’s not weird.”

Bette Midler gets to sing a song. That should satisfy the requirements from her contract. The song puts a spell on the partygoers forcing them to dance until they die. Somehow the kids are immune to it. Can they shut off their ears? Are they also magical?

The kids lure the Sisters into the school incinerator and burn them alive. It’s a strong play. The kids celebrate as if there is not 30 minutes left in the movie.

Immortal Cat, in a time of reflection, brings up his sister and Max says “You really miss her, huh?” He has been trapped as a cat after failing to save his sister’s life 300 years earlier. He misses her. Why not “Hey, do you ever wonder what might have happened if you saved her life?”

Without any explanation, the Sisters are fine. They run into Jay and Ice who insult them. The Sisters cage Jay and Ice and make them hang from the witch house ceiling. The bullies are crying. Maybe they aren’t so tough after all. <High Fives No One>

Allison decides to find a spell to uncat Immortal Cat. She opens Columbo causing it to glow. The glow lures Bette Midler and the Sisters to her. Allison fails to notice the glow but learns that salt can keep them safe.

The Sisters steal the book and Dani when Allison only uses the salt to protect herself. She really took care of number one here.

Now Sarah Jessica Parker gets to sing a real creepy song that summons all the children from the town. It really shows you the power of song. Again, Max and Allison must have turned off their hearing for this.

Max and Allison trick the Sisters into thinking sun is coming early by using a car headlight. It works but I don’t understand why. They had the sun 300 years ago. They know what it looks like. “Is that a person in a brown sweat suit and green hat or a tree?”

While the Sisters are scared of the car headlight, Max steals back his sneakers but doesn’t save the bullies. How does he know he won’t need the bullies to be on his side in the future? Has he not seen every other high school movie?

They drive away and Bette Midler brooms after them. We know how fast Max likes to go so it is impressive Bette Midler can keep up.

Reluctant Zombie shows up and Max pulls a knife on him. So Max has a knife and a zippo. He might be a problem.

They take the final showdown to a cemetery which is an odd choice. Why not a miniature golf course or a TCBY. Were they still around in 1993?

Max brings a bat to a magic fight. Allison still has her salt. “Bats and salt: Working together to inconvenience witches since 1881!”

Max sacrifices himself to save Dani. The sun comes up as Bette Midler is sucking the life out of Max. Just when you think it might be a better sun-impersonating headlight, Bette Midler turns into a statue and explodes. Definitely the sun.

Immortal Cat dies so he can be with his sister. Billowy shirt ghost appears to say thanks with a kiss on Dani’s cheek (so normal) before he runs off with his ghost sister for eternity.

They did it! They saved Salem! Quite a first day for Max..

The movie was fine. I hate talking animals unless they are cartoons so that didn’t help. And why did they care so much about virgins? A friend told me that “virgin” meant “pure of heart.” Well then they should have said “pure of heart.” And if I can suggest, between Max’s predilection for weapons and Allison’s selfishness with the salt, I don’t think they should stop being “pure of heart” with each other. They aren’t a good couple. Going through a traumatic thing like killing summoned witches from the Pilgrim days causes feelings that can’t last.

#i watch a movie i should have seen #hocus pocus #bette midler #scary #halloween #movies #90s movies #sarah jessica parker #kathy najimy #sanderson sisters #funny #comedy #Movie Reviews

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[SIZE=1] [b]Name:[/b] Jess. [b]Age:[/b] 21. [b]How did you find us?:[/b] I blame Danni AND Joe.

[b]Name:[/b] Victoria Eden Moreau. [b]Nicknames & Aliases:[/b][LIST]Eden Morrison; Fake ID, obviously. Tori Babe. Vicky. Toria. Psychotic Hell-Bitch. [/LIST][b]Age:[/b] 35 [b]Date of Birth:[/b] August 7th, 1977. [b]Gender:[/b] Female. [b]Sexual Orientation:[/b] Heterosexual. [b]Occupation:[/b] High school PE teacher, former supernatural and occult hunter.

[b]Species:[/b] Lion. [b]Description:[/b] [IMG]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ERJonp0xx1s/Tnqd6kffXjI/AAAAAAAAArE/NWtjP-3SVXo/s640/002-LIONESS-RESTING%2540body.jpg[/IMG][LIST]If it looks like a lion, smells like a lion and growls like a lion, it’s obviously a domestic house cat ready to bite your face off. Victoria’s animal form is pretty average, there’s nothing remotely distinctive about her. She may look a bit ragged at time, but the large tawny gold cat is hardly going to blend in with the UK scenery no matter what. In her feline form, she weighs in at 400lbs of muscle and tamed aggression and stands at 3’6 at the shoulders. From her nose to the tip of her tail, Vic’s a pretty average 8’3. [/LIST][b]Do you have a hybrid/alpha form?:[/b] [URL=http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/136/b/b/__Lioness_Line_art___by_sirius_spirit.jpg]Indeed she does.[/URL][LIST]Her hybrid form is more for show than anything else, just something to give her a little extra kick when her full feline form doesn’t provide her with it. She doesn’t turn into some raging half beast, half woman form either. Standing a little taller than her human form at 5’11, and weighing in at 280lbs, she’s covered from head to toe in golden fur and looks like the perfect mix of feline and human. She has claws in this form, never forget that, and fangs, and oh! She can talk even though it’s a lot more growly than her human voice is. [/LIST][b]Rank:[/b] Adwar. [b]How long has your character been a lycanthrope?:[/b] 24 years (infected at age 9). [b]Mind-Set:[/b] Dominant. [b]Power level:[/b] Alpha. [b]Abilities:[/b] [LIST] [*] [b]Speed:[/b] Like all lycanthropes, she’s fast on her feet and can move faster than the human eye can see if she uses her alpha speed. [*] [b]Strength:[/b] She’s stronger than your normal human. She’s not the strongest lycanthrope out there due to her size, but she can go head to head with a vampire and with a bit of luck, over power them. [*] [b]Durability:[/b] Victoria can heal almost any wound like most shifters can, bar decapitation and wounds caused by fire and silver. Wounds caused by more dominant lycanthropes and vampires heal slower. Almost human slow. [*] [b]Senses:[/b] Vic has extremely acute senses like most shifters. She can sometimes tell when someone’s lying to her face by the change in the other persons scent. [*] [b]Partial Shifting:[/b] She can shift hands and teeth into those of her animal or focus on shifting into a full blown hybrid form instead of a full shift from human to lion. [*] [b]Block A Vampires Call:[/b] It takes a bit of energy on her side but she can block out the call of a vampire up to 900 years old and extend that shielding to weaker werelions. Anything over 900 hurts her too much to block. [*] [b]Shield her Beast:[/b] She can lock her animal aura away and pull off the human vibe to most lycanthropes except from stronger alphas, and in some cases, stronger Master vampires since from her experience, they can force her lion to show itself. She does this on a day to day basis when it comes to her job. [/LIST][b]Face Claim:[/b] Charlize Theron. [b]Description:[/b] [IMG]http://www.topnews.in/light/files/Charlize-Theron5.jpg[/IMG][LIST]Victoria isn’t that outstanding to tell you the truth. She’s almost you’re typical blonde – though she’s got a thing for dying her hair other colours at times. She’s got the curves and the legs but the eyes, they’re not human. As a result of staying in her animal form when she as younger for longer than she should, her eyes are those of her lion’s. Of course, she hides them behind hazel green contacts that she never takes out unless she has to do so, she knows better. She’s pretty slim; and only 5’9, and a half inches tall, weighing in at 140lbs of toned muscle, that it’s pretty easy to work out that she’s fond of working out and keeping fit.

She’s not one for style; Vic just doesn’t understand the appeal of having the latest fashion accessories. Of course that doesn’t mean she doesn’t splash out on things like makeup now and then, but that’s purely for work interviews, she finds it works a hell of a lot better being ‘appealing’ then being herself. Whatever works huh? She’s more comfortable in reliable jeans and t-shirts; a nice pair of boots doesn’t go amiss or a leather jacket. Since she’s hung up her hunting gear though, there are fewer holsters for weapons. When she’s at work, its sports gear. Tracksuits for when it’s cold out, shorts and polo-shirts when it’s warmer.

Identifying marks are a little easier to describe. She has her fair share of scars, though most are long since faded. The most notable ones are what look to be claw marks curving down over her right hip. They’re just three jagged lines really, and she doesn’t talk about them ever. Her second most notable scar was given to her by a hunter that thought he was being clever and had all the time in the world, he put a silver hunting knife through her shoulder and left it there so it burnt her after he’d incapacitated her. Now, she’s not a fan of big tattoos but she does have two small ones of her own. A koi fish above her right ankle, and a small flower on the top of her right foot. The flower was gotten on a whim, but the koi is supposed to represent strength, determination, and persistence in the face of adversity. The only other thing that comes to mind is that her ears are pierced twice on both sides. [/LIST][b]Weapons of Choice:[/b][LIST] [*] Fangs, claws, full blown lion form. It’s fun to get messy! [*] She rarely hunts these days, so she’s hung up her holsters. [*] She does have a butterfly knife she carries regularly. [*] Has a necklace with a small vial of holy water attached. Just in case. [*] A white gold charm bracelet with holy items from different faiths. [/LIST][b]Special Skills:[/b][LIST] [*] She used to – and still does if a hunt crops up that tickles her fancy – ingests holy water to stop vampires from taking a bite out of her. Since she hasn’t hunted anything since late 2008, it’s not going to bother any vampires unless she starts up again. [*] She knows how to fight, mostly brawling and that’s what she relies on. However she’s dabbled in Krav Maga (grade: G1), and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (grade: Purple belt) over the last 10 years. It always surprises people when they learn this. [*] She can speak French and Italian, not fluently but enough to get by, she’s also learning German and in the future, hopefully Spanish unless she forgets. [*] Gets and knows the basics when using guns. She’s more a blade kind of girl anyway. [*] Not a half bad thief, - when she needs the money - if she does say so herself. [*] Did a three year “general” sports course followed by her PGCE and QTS. She’s pretty proud of that, so don’t knock it! [/LIST][b]Personality:[/b] [LIST]Victoria isn’t actually that loud of a person in most respects, she’s the type of person that would rather sit and wait and have something to say rather than open her mouth and spew a bunch of pointless words just to hear the sound of her own voice. Then again, she was an ‘attack dog’ for a long time, and when you’re beat as a kid to learn how to hold your tongue, things sort of stick to you. When she speaks, she doesn’t raise her voice in anger unless it’s to get a point across – and when she does need to get a point across it’s normally accompanied by a blunt object of some sort if need be -, but she does get listened to. It just another part of whom she is, people just think she doesn’t have something to say when in actual fact; she’s just watching and waiting for a chance to pounce. She knows that she’s not the most relaxed of people, that’s for sure. However when you get past the creepy silence, she does brighten up a bit. She’s a loyal lass and keeps her word, even though she has her trust issues, but she doesn’t always think things through fully. She’s used to bulldozing her way through issues in her life, and then dealing with the fallout afterwards. Protective of what’s hers. Practical and strong willed she’s not likely to be cowed by someone playing mind games; in fact the last time someone tried that, she broke their arm without blinking.

She even smiles, though it’ll often be accompanied with a wiseass remark or comment. It is almost like she’s care free and forgets about all the crap she’s gone through to get where she is today. She’s loving and caring, hell she even cares though it doesn’t normally come off as most would expect it from a she-cat that could snap at a moment’s notice and become a big cat. While it may look like she has no control over her animal side, she’s got it, people have assumed that she has next to none and that has been their downfall. Oh yeah, she’s more than a little mental! If you push her, she’ll push back, only most people seem to forget she’s more on the animal side then most shapeshifters are and she loves that. She’s not afraid of her animal instincts and embraces them to the point that sometimes she doesn’t want to be human anymore but then she sees what she has and pushes to be normal.

Her views on vampires are slightly [i]skewed[/i] however. Having been used by a lion calling master for years, she has a distaste for anything over a hundred years old, sure she can curb her tongue and be civil to the creatures but present her with a lion caller – even Mikhail got snapped at – and she’ll do everything in her power to make it clear that she won’t become another and she won’t allow anyone in the Pride to be one either. This can be displayed in sarcasticness, threats and violence and promises of death. She just doesn’t like the creatures that can bend her like a crazy straw if it suited them. It’s driven by fear, something she’s not exactly sure how to react to and falls back on her more comforting animal nature to deal with it. As far as the rest of the supernatural world, well, as long as they don’t try and harass the Pride or start something they can’t finish with the people she cares about then she won’t bother them. [/LIST][b]Likes:[/b][LIST] [*] Swimming. [*] A good strong drink after a hunt. [*] Taking to the country roads on her bike and just driving until she can't. [*] Making known bullies fear her. Doesn't matter if they're kids or adults or anything else. [*] Spending time in her lion form, she doesn't do it as much as she used to do so. [*] When she can surprise someone by doing something. [*] Reading when she can get five minutes peace, normally during first break at work. [*] Not being dragged into supernatural turf wars, she joined the pride to stop that. [*] Protecting the Jackford pride. Bradon Mackenzie gave her a home. [*] Chinese food. Don’t ask her why, she just does. [/LIST][b]Dislikes:[/b][LIST] [*] Getting a ticket because she’s left her bike in the wrong place. [*] People that don't pull their own weight. You either sink or swim. [*] Being touched in lion form by people she doesn't know. She tends to bite [*] Having to clean her apartment. If it doesn't bother her, she doesn't bother it! [*] Parent/Teacher night. She'd take a feral shifter over that. [*] Doctors and medical types. Being poked and prodded? No thanks. [*] Being cornered. Have you ever seen an angry lion cornered? It's not nice. [*] Vampires that force themselves on others. It's not so bad when it’s voluntary. [*] Poor weapons maintenance. What is wrong with some people? [*] Being told she's over emotional just because she's female. [/LIST] [b]Strengths:[/b] [LIST] [*] Very familiar with her feline form, she shifts quicker because of this. [*] Doesn’t care if she gets hurt. In fact, she’d put herself in the firing line to save people she cares for. [*] Good tracking skills, urban or otherwise. [*] Isn’t easily backed down with threats and tends to laugh when they’re given. [*] Trusts her gut instinct rather than follow others unless she trusts them. [*] Loyal to people she trusts. Sometimes, even to those that just put up enough money. [*] She can hold her tongue and temper in check if she wants. [*] Knows a bit about witchcraft and the herbs used in most healing balms. [*] Very fast and agile, good for when she’s working with heights in the gym. [*] Still has a fair few contacts from her days as a hunter that she calls up when needed. [/LIST][b]Weaknesses:[/b] [LIST] [*] She has a bit of a one track mind at times. [*] Doesn’t always notice when she’s treading on thin ice. [*] Silver. She may’ve been a lion for a long time, but that stuff still hurts. [*] Comes off antisocial at times. [*] Her anger issues tend to put a crimp in certain things. [*] She doesn't have a good grasp on that 'relationship' thing. It's been [*] Practical in a way, she won’t blink twice at putting someone down if it means protecting others. Even if she's seen as a monster afterwards. [*] Doesn't trust many people at her back. There’s like four people out of billions. [*] Tends to spend a lot of time in her lion form, pushing the limits. [*] Can rarely tame that persistent stubborn streak. [/LIST][b]History:[/b] [LIST]Thomas and Natalie Moreau never took another hunt once they found out that they were due to have a baby together. They were hunters by blood, marriage and by trade; they did everything to stop the supernatural from infecting their ‘world’ and to keep people safe, but they would not endanger their soon to be daughter and in the august of 1977, their baby girl Victoria was brought into the world kicking and screaming like any normal babe and her parents officially hung up their weapons holsters and retired as hunters. Thomas took on a new job as a property developer that worked in and around Lancaster where they lived, and Natalie worked full time as a house wife. Together they doted on their child as Victoria grew up, giving her anything and everything that she wanted. Like any princess, she even had a pony at one point.

The happy little family however was torn apart just before Victoria’s ninth birthday, as the small farm house that the family owned was torn apart by rogue werelions and wolves, headed by a particularly vicious vampire who seemed to know all about her parents who were shocked by his apparent survival. The scariest thing of all for Victoria wasn’t that lions were everywhere or big werewolves; it was the Asian vampire Khan. The right side of his face was thick with holy water scars, the eye socket a gaping hole and mouth a jagged gash. Khan was one of the very few vampires that had ever escaped her parents, and he delighted on tearing through her mother’s mind and body as a werelion held her father back. When Khan was done with Natalie, he turned his attention to Victoria and forced a rather nasty looking lionman to tear into her young body before simply snapping her father’s neck. She should’ve died, would’ve died except werewolf alpha Jacques Rousseau had other ideas.

The wolf didn't take pity on her, far from it. When Victoria regained full consciousness now and again, she was told that she was Khan's new 'pet'. What better way to scare off hunters than by using the spawn of two fairly vicious hunters against them, it was put to her, before she was told that she had only survived because she'd contracted lycanthropy. Being a young lass, she didn't believe it. She screamed and raged and howled for her parents thinking it was a bad dream. It was only really brought home when Jacques, sick of the whelps screaming brought in a lion to teach her a lesson. Miranda was only slightly less cold than the werewolf, but under orders, she tore the beast from Victoria's body. Over and over, and over. Eventually, Victoria started to submit and forget about being who she really was and it was exactly what Khan wanted. Oh he had his pride and pack of bumbling misfits that had been thrown from their various clans for treasonous acts or for having broken the law, be he didn't have one animal at his command that would do simply as he asked, no if's buts or maybes.

By age 14, Victoria was a feral but suitably tamed little lion. She would sit pretty for Khan when he wanted to make a point in a business deal and she’d attack when given the order. Her first real kill wasn’t a goat or even a chicken; it was a frail old woman that owed Khan housing rent for staying in a housing complex he owned. Victoria snapped her neck and left her body where it dropped much to Khan’s displeasure and as a punishment she was put in the fight rings that one of his acquaintances ran. She tried her best, she really did. She’d gone from a pampered princess as a human, to a killer. Her fall from grace was bloody and violent and was brought to a sudden stop when she was put face to face with a full grown adult and alpha lion in the ring. She survived, but was sold on for being a failure to Master Khan and everything that she had been trained to hold dear.

After being past from vampire to vampire, and even the occasional knowledgeable human that knew of the supernatural and dabbled, Victoria ended up on a black market of sorts, nothing but a lost cause. She was stuck in a small cage for days, surrounded by other troubled souls such as herself, left to starve and in filth. Supernatural species of all shapes and sizes came and went sold off to the highest bidder as slaves that worked, fucked and various other things or prey for something else altogether. She even had a plan; she was going to attack the first handler she could get her hands on and hopefully have one of them kill her. Except, instead of a handler that came through the backstage area, it was something else entirely. He was young enough if a little older than herself, he was scared going by his scent, and he was…attractive for a human stumbling around in the dark. He changed her life the moment she had his scent. He left her alone in a loading bay however, such a hero for being forced into a nightmare of a fairy tale.

Free of the life she knew, Victoria did something that went against everything that had been beaten into her. She ran. For over two years she lived wild and on the move, most of her time in lion form and when she had to return to human form, she stole what she needed to survive on her own. Clothes from washing lines, food from market stalls if a hunt failed and the like, she even went as far for a while as to steal and fence property for money even though she never really needed it. However it worked out for her, though when she noticed that her eyes had stuck as those of her lions, she made it a personal mission to stay in human form more and more to get used to that form again. She even tried to talk to people; mostly farmers or hikers that crossed into her ‘territory’ at the time.

Once she was happy that she could return to being around people, Victoria ended up in Cardiff where she befriended a young couple that had lost their children to supposed gang violence and were so down on their luck that she couldn’t not help them even though she was barely considered an adult herself at the time. What the couple didn’t know was that it was supernaturally related violence that lost them their kids, so Victoria being the stereotypical cat riddled with curiosity looked into for them while she helped fight off bailiffs and other idiots that wanted to break her friends down more. She followed her gut instincts and tracked down the people that had been known as suspects in the community. It was teens mostly, desperate to rebel against the rules that their parents had set down but then she hit a lucky break, a werefox informant came forward to talk to her. Well, it was more warn her away from snooping because things would get ‘unpleasant’. She threw that fox out of a second story window… and then went back to searching.

It took her a year and she was roughly eighteen when she found the person that had ordered her ‘friends’ children be removed – her cat had claimed them as Pride even though she hadn’t known them long at all – and was marginally surprised to find out that it was a werelion male. The dominance battle was brutal; she was only a young woman and not used to the fighting the male easily won and inserted his dominance over her, claimed her as his ‘mate’ even though she’d clawed on of his eyes out with her own fingers. It was a huge leap and all that was really expected of her was to open her legs, be a submissive little waif of a woman that cowered behind the big bad lion. Well, she did as what was expected of her and after he was finished removed his head from his shoulders using the element of surprise. She disbanded the males operation – yes, in some cases she used violence – and the money that had been going towards other things, she sent to her friends before vanishing.

Bouncing around the UK for the next four years, Victoria picked up odd hunts here and there. A fey running a coven of witches and assuming Godhood over a town was dealt with, a Naga in Devon was told to move on because he’d started a turf war with the local snake clan. It was silly stuff really but the payment was ok. She managed to grab a job on an international freighter headed for America, and by the time she was 22 she landed her rear in Flordia. No papers, no money that she could spend easily, she was effectively back to when she was released from that cage by the scardy cat of a boy. It didn’t last long, America was so different and there was a lot of supernatural activity as well as human crime. She made her way as a supernatural bounty hunter of sorts, and not the legal kind most of the time. She was a monster hunting monsters, ironic huh?

Twenty three years old, she was still roaming the USA like she had done in the UK. Only this time she was more well off; and while she wanted to settle down somewhere she couldn’t unless she contacted the Pride that controlled that area. From what she’d seen since she’d actually come to the States, was that most of the USA Lions were a mite traditional, meaning that it was the woman’s job to do all the work. Since she had no interest of being a Pride gofer, she just spent her time on the road, staying in motels for a week or so or squatting in old properties. That’s when she got an interesting hunt, and came across someone she’d never thought to see again. Jothial Chapman. The little boy that had freed her had filled out, he was a man now and if she hadn’t got up close and personal to catch his scent, she wouldn’t have really known that it was him.

Stubborn male pressed her buttons though, and rather than outright kill him, she threw him through a wall and opened herself up to attack from the beast that she was hunting. She almost lost her life that night, and would’ve done so if her lycanthropic healing hadn’t worked its wonders on her battered body. She watched as Jo blasted the creature to nothing but ash and cinders before she even hinted that she knew him. Of course, it came out that she was a werelion and a hunter, and he was a bit iffy about the fact in her mind. Victoria expected him to kill her for being evil, instead they teamed up together and took on the evil that thought it could get past the Witch and the Lion.

They were together a year, hunting monsters that broke the laws of various things, putting themselves in the line of danger. What she failed to act on was the feelings that had stirred in her by being in close quarters to Jo. She never acted on them because she didn’t know how even though they were pretty intimate. She gave him and his creepy familiar the space and time they needed and Jo gave her the same thing. Honestly, Victoria would’ve said something sooner if she hadn’t made herself visible to a vampire that could control lions in the area. The last time she saw Jo was he was drooling into his motel pillow and that marked the end of that. She vanished without a trace using every means necessary to avoid detection. She hadn’t left him out of anger or anything; she’d left him because she was scared that the vampire would use her against him.

She ran from one vampire and lions and into another vampire, and ironically it was another lion caller a year or so later. This one was different though, he was older than anything she’d come across and Mikhail seemed just as surprised that she was a lion working as a bounty hunter. Victoria found herself drawn to this one, he didn’t abuse his people and he claimed New York as his city. Rather than run off again or try and kill him, Victoria struck up a bargain with the vampire master. She’d work for him as security and a hunter if she was needed as long as he didn’t try to call her and bend her to his will. Mikhail agreed and they went their separate ways for awhile. While in New York City, Victoria settled down in her first real apartment. She didn’t want to run anymore, but she had no idea what to do. Making that apartment as her base of operations, she spent the next few years learning how to be normal. She got a job, went to night school, made a few friends that weren’t anything that she was used to. They were simply normal. She did get called in to do some hunts for Mikhail every now and then, but they were neither here nor there.

Then in 2005, she returned to the UK after saying goodbye to Mikhail and the lions that she’d grown used to more confident in herself and happy enough. There was an ulterior motive for her return though; Mikhail wanted her to pass through a place called Jackford every now and again to make sure one of his fledglings in the local Kiss was doing ok and rather than argue or brush him off with a smile and a nod, Victoria agreed on the understanding that she wouldn’t tie herself to one place for so long unless he helped her out finding a reason to stay. By the end of July ’05 she was studying to become a Physical Education teacher after a brief course as a teaching assistant at primary school in York - which wasn't that far from Jackford so it suited her - but maybe she should’ve been clearer in what she wanted huh? She didn't stay there for long and by the end of 2010 she was a full-fledged teacher working at Jackford’s comprehensive high school teaching children about sports and how to stay healthy three days a week and spending the rest of the week bouncing between Pride duty and her own time, which she used as time to search for the odd hunt to keep her claws sharp and she's stayed there ever since ducking and dodging the crazy that was worse than her. [/LIST][/SIZE]

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wobc-fm · 5 years

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SleepWalker 2019 Freshman List

words by Amari Newman, Maxx McGee, & Brennan Ryan

We are SleepWalker Radio, broadcasting on Tuesday nights at midnight on WOBC. In our show, we listen to a lot of rap and watch a lot of rap music videos. Right now XXL is the only relevant hip hop outlet that puts out a “Freshman List,” which is a list of the best artists relatively new to the rap game who have gained a lot of attention in the most recent year. Unfortunately, every list that XXL has put out seems to be more and more out of touch with what actual fans of rap in our age range actually listen to. They also only highlight rappers in their list, even though so much more goes into the overall content put out by these artists including the beats they rap over and the music videos they put out.

So we’re going to put out our own list of rappers, producers and videographers in the rap game that’s more in touch with what people are listening to and want to experience. This post will cover rappers, but stay posted for more posts on the WOBC blog from SleepWalker Radio!

Splurge

@ssgsplurge1

Splurge, from Arlington, Texas, is quickly blowing up. One the youngest (he’s 17) and rawest people in the rap game, Splurge gets his beats almost exclusively from Beat by Jeff and Beat by Six7. His songs normally consist of him just going bar after bar over some hard ass drums and 808 patterns. Splurge doesn’t do hooks or choruses. He gets in the booth and spits strictly trap and street s**t, resulting in some of hardest content put out in 2k18. Listening to his music really just make you feel invincible. Like if you commit any crime while listening to Splurge you’re almost never gonna get caught because it just gives you the energy to get away with anything.

This past year, Splurge began to blow up in the underground and mainstream community, as evidenced by rappers like Lil Uzi Vert to Chance The Rapper doing the #woah dance to his songs. He only has one feature on his released projects -- from Q da Fool -- but Splurge’s intense flow can be heard on tracks with YungManny and S3nsi Molly. He’s like if Lud Foe was from Texas and started rapping with a Hoodrich flow over slower, but harder beats. Splurge is steadily getting more and more recognition in the rap community and is gonna be on some big moves this summer.

Songs by Splurge to listen to: “Free Granny,” “No Deal,” “Tear it apart,” “UK Talk”

MIKE

@t6mikee

MIKE, from Brooklyn, New York, is operating on a whole different wave than the vast majority of people in the rap game, and the world. Choosing from a extremely diverse array of production ranging from old soul samples, piano riffs, and strange samples in odd time signatures, MIKE can rap over anything and everything. All of his music just sounds so different, in the best way possible. When you listen to him, you can hear the feelings and passion he puts into every verse, and feel exactly how he's feeling when he’s in the booth.

MIKE’s been dropping music since 2015, and has a pretty extensive discography with each project having its own unique vibe, but still finding a way to fit perfectly within his overall body of work. Founder of the [sLUms] collective, MIKE has collaborated with a large group of artist in New York, and the general rap community with people on similar wavelengths as his, including acts like King Carter, Wiki, Mehdane, Pink Siifu, Sporting Life, Navy Blue and 6press. At the moment, MIKE is one of the most recognizable people in his scene, and has become, in a sense, the face of a movement in rap’s underground that is steering the community towards more soulful and experience driven music.

Songs by MIKE to listen to: “Rottweiler,” “God’s with me,” “Nothin to Me,” “God save the Queen”

BbyMutha

@bbymutha

Bbymutha, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, is just raw as hell. She be saying the most wildest, realest and rawest s**t in a way that makes you be like damnnn whenever you hear one of her verses. She’s really one of the best in the game at talking her s**t. You can feel her confidence and knowledge in every word she says. Her ear for good music has lead to her rapping over any and every type of instrumental, but she's still got unlimited songs of her f*****g up some hi-hats and 808s.

She’s been putting out music from as far back as 2012, but started getting a lot of attention over the past year. BbyMutha has worked with artists like Rico Nasty, LSDXOXO and La Chat. She’s currently on tour with Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, and Black Noise, which hopefully means future collabs. BbyMutha has one of the rawest energies in the whole game, and it seems like the rap community is quickly realizing this, if they didn’t already.

Songs by BbyMutha to listen to: “Heaven's Little Bastard,” “Dragon,” “D.I.Y.,” “Playtime”

YungManny

@ItsYungManny

YungManny from Hilmeade, Maryland, is another one of the rawest and youngest (he’s 15!) people in the game. He uses the rapid “Maryland flow” delivering a plethora of stand-alone bars over dark piano samples with hard ass drums behind it. YungManny honestly might have the best punchlines coming out of the “DMV flow” scene. The “DMV (D.C, Maryland, Virginia area) flow” is a style of rapping pioneered and popularized by rappers, almost all from Maryland, who design their verses to be filled with stand alone bars that follow one another rapidly, often cutting the tail end of each one off. When’s it's done right it can really get to crankin.

Anyways, YungManny makes references to all types of off the wall s**t ranging from Roots, viral memes, WWE, and like every Disney movie/show you can think of from the 2000s. It's hard to listen to any of his songs and not die laughing at something he says in it. It’s like every song is just him joanin on someone over a hard ass beat, and it just happens to rhyme. He can sing too.

Over the last year YungManny has released 6 tapes and a plethora of singles and features. Most of the projects Manny releases have very few features, but he is a frequent collaborator of Xanman (Free Xan) who has also become a punchline heavy weight in the DMV area. He’s also worked with upcoming rappers MoneyMarr and Splurge. It seems like the more music YungManny releases the more popular he becomes, so if you haven't heard of him already you probably will soon.

Songs by YungManny to listen to: “W.O.F.”, “Bonfire pt. 2,” “All my guys are ballers,” “I’m Yungmanny”

ANKHLEJOHN

@ANKHLEJOHN

ANKHLEJOHN, from Southeast, Washington D.C., has established his own very distinct sound. Normally talking his shit over production filled with dark samples that sounds like an evil Madlib produced them, ANKHLEJOHN has developed a grimey flow that sounds like he’s on the verge of slapping the s**t out of someone. When you listen to his music you feel like you’re with him on the block hitting a jack as he describes his surroundings to you and the wild ass adventures he casually goes on daily.

ANKH has released at least 11 projects in the last 2 years and most of them have one or no features, only really collaborating with other D.C. artists including Raheim Supreme and The Khan. He’s already garnered respect in the DMV area and it’s spread up the East Coast to New York too, so expect to start hearing about ANKHLEJOHN soon.

Songs by ANKHLEJOHN to listen to: “God S**t,” “Round 2,” “First Class,” “UUV.”

Lil Xelly

@lilxelly

Lil Xelly, from Rockville, Maryland, has recently flooded the rap game with an avalanche of content. He’s like 2017 Chxpo from Maryland. This past year Xelly has put out over 30 projects and 260 songs, working with some of the hottest producers in the underground including Maaly Raw, DP Beats, Sparkheem, Noir Brent, Danny Wolf, nedarb, Chinatown, StoopidXool, Grimm Doza and Levitatingman. He’s got that “Maryland flow” with quick deliveries of a bunch of stand alone bars that follow one another rapidly. He spits every verse like he’s the last fool in a cypher whose been eagerly waiting his turn. His intense delivery over his extremely wide and diverse selection of beats is just a great combination, like he really be spitting over literally anything and it cranks.

This last year, Xelly has worked with budding underground artists like Warhol.ss, Chxpo and The Khan, along with underground legends like P2TheGoldMask and Sickboyrari (Black Kray). Xelly’s got so much released content out there that people can't help but come across it. His following is steadily increasing and I can see him really blowing up soon.

Songs by Lil Xelly to listen to: “Vengence,” “Tony,” “Morgue,” “Stamina,” “V6”

Tisakorean

@cudyman

Tisakorean, from Houston, Texas, is probably the weirdest and most interesting person in the rap game right now. He makes some of the most ignorant dumb s**t out here that just gets to crankin for no reason. Honestly, if you listen to his music and don't immediately love it then it's just not for you because it's really that dumb ignorant ass s**t that might just go too hard for you, and that's very understandable. His diverse, unconventional and unusual delivery is kinda weird, but goes for some reason. Also his use of layered ad lib tracks of him screaming “ayeee” and “workkkk” with his whole heart and soul accompanies his wild ass bars perfectly. He reminds me of like a toned down Dankgod.

This past year, Tisa has established a solid following, at first due to a dance he started called the “Dip” that was pretty big in Texas, and his weird but lit instagram. He took down most of his posts, but there was a period where Tisa’s instagram was full of videos of him dancing in a random area with no music and freestyling, while dressed in strictly Aeropostale. After a few of his videos went viral, Tisa started to get noticed for his musical style with Lil Uzi Vert remixing his “Dip” song. Since then, he’s dropped songs with 10.K Caash and Kenny Beats, and has previewed content he’s worked on with A$AP Ferg, A$AP Rocky and Chance The Rapper on his instagram. Tisa makes all his beats, not only showcasing his versatility, but also assuring that you really get his full vision when you hear his music. You definitely need to check this guy out because he’s got a good team behind him and he's probably gonna blow soon.

Songs by Tisakorean to listen to: “But Not Wheat,” “Brush my teeth,” “Pat yo weave,” “Justice League,” “Bagel Chips”

#wobc blog #wobc #college radio #sleepwalker radio #Splurge #MIKE #bbymutha #YungManny #ANKHLEJOHN #Lil Xelly #Tisakorean

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dailyjcink · 4 years

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Daniel Fenton/Danny Phantom | 35 | Half-Ghost

Canon Lore History

First off, you are more than welcome to meddle around with Danny's history! This is quite inevitable to have him adapted and what things have already been established already do so.

Appearance: Just like Vlad, Danny is meant to hold two forms. Normally, he has a pale complexion, blue eyes, and black hair. He is likely on the taller end. The only abnormality, which I have established through Vlad, is that he should be aging slowly. While Danny is thirty, he probably appears to be in his twenties still. It is entirely up to whoever takes up Danny whether he is aging slower or faster than Vlad.

His ghostly form looks similar to him, as his hair is white, his skin a bit darker, and his are bright green.

Personality: Danny's personality is open to whoever takes him. I imagine that there are changes since he has obviously not only grown older but I have also based his life on the alternate timeline (aka most people he knows are deado and he was raised by Vlad). He is meant to have grown closer to Vlad despite their history of conflict, the bond, much like the show, spawning from mutual loneliness.

History: Most of what is needed can be found in either Vlad's application or the above link. However, to briefly summarize, Danny's life is meant to be similar to the alternate timeline (meaning things in the later seasons did not happen). As such, his friends, family, and English teacher die despite an attempt to help. I do not state WHO was behind this, so it could have been someone other than Dan. Either way, Danny is meant to believe it to be a murder but is likely not open about this since Vlad still thinks it is a tragedy.

Things that largely deviate is that I imply that things like ghost portals might not exist (whether the ghost zone does is up in the air but if it does it might be a bit different), I do not make it clear whether Dan exists, and the alternate timeline obviously went a bit differently since Vlad clearly never gave into any grief ridden requests from Danny. Outside of that, I have softened Vlad's characterization somewhat (not to say he's good but I got rid of his more insane actions).

Play-By: Lucky Blue Smith is suggested.

Valeria Gray | 34 | Human

Valerie is someone who learned the hard way that the magical world is not always a wonderful, but can often be the sort of place that barges into the lives of humans without caring about the damage it wrecks. When she was fourteen, an unusual incident- in the show, it was due to a ghost dog- that was rooted in magic cost her father his job. As a result, her world was quickly upturned as her family lost their wealth, struggling to make ends meet. For Valerie, she quickly learned that many of those around her were shallow and had only been her friends for what she had.

Later, a grudge is born towards ghosts when she becomes affected by the problem while Danny is trying to fix the source of the problem. While, unlike many like her, she becomes willing to work with some when it is required, this grudge appears to never properly heal.

Personality: Once a selfish and cruel person, Valerie has become a kinder individual due to the harsh hand life has given her. She is stubborn and persistent, more than willing to fight her own battles not matter how difficult they appear to be and only willing to accept help when it is either forced upon her or it is beneficial enough that she struggles to say no.

At the same time, she is easily the type of person that many individuals might consider to be a villain. Having become disillusioned with at least a small part of the magical world, she definitely believes in it. Unfortunately, Valerie is clearly an ignorant individual who lacks much information about the very beings she claims to hate, considering them mindless and out only to harm others when they are actually little different from herself. She's a hunter, but as far as she's concerned she is the hero and is protecting people.

Appearance: Valerie is African-American and a year younger than Danny. She has long, wavy hair and green eyes. She's meant to be thing, but has a bit of curve to her.

History: Canon Lore History

Valerie's character is heavily tied to Danny and Vlad. In the past, she hunted Danny, not only because she believed him to be a ghost but because she blamed him for the misfortune in her life. This hatred is something that Vlad took advantage of. Anonymously, he provided her with high-tech gear so that she could hunt. It was only later that he revealed himself to her. While she was wary of him, the two formed an unholy alliance, Valerie clearly viewing Vlad far more useful despite whatever she thought of him as he was able to upgrade what she already had.

Valerie never actually learns that Danny Phantom and Danny Fenton are one and the same. She's not meant to know Vlad Masters and Vlad Plasmius are one and the same either [while the cloning incident happened, I didn't write Vlad ever turning to Valerie during it].

Exactly what she is doing now is open, but chances are that she is still in contact with Vlad.

Play-By: Valerie's play-by is open, but she MUST be POC. The image shown is of Tamera Mowry.

Dani Phantom | 21 | Unstable Clone

Dani is a clone of Danny that was created by Vlad when he began to succumb to his loneliness and give up on ever persuading Danny to become part of his life. He does not currently know she exists.

Appearance: Overall, Dani looks similar to Danny. When she was created, she looked about two years younger than him. Whether this is still true is entirely open as chances are that her biology works differently than both Danny and Vlad despite appearing to have similar powers as Danny. Overall, she can be best described as looking like his little sister.

Personality: Dani is meant to be a bit similar to Danny, but what separated them is their experience and age. She is clearly more cheerful, childish, and naive when compared to him, something that doesn't seem to change too much even with her bad experiences. Exactly how much she may have changed over the years is open, but I do imagine that these specific traits may have not entirely left her.

History: Dani's history can be found in Vlad's application.

When Vlad was 45, he found himself in a state where he had begun to give up on ever finding happiness and, more specifically, Danny. As a result, he turned to science. While it might have seemed impossible, he was not one to give up. He tried many times to clone Danny, figuring that if he could not convince the boy to become his son then he would merely create a clone and raise it as if it were his own.

This is how Dani came to be. She was the most successful of the clones and the most stable. Unfortunately, Vlad viewed her as a mistake. He was aiming to create a perfect clone of Daniel and Dani was not that. Moreover, he was quite convinced that she would eventually decompose as the rest of his clones had. However, even Vlad had lines and killing a child who was convinced that he was her father definitely would be crossing them. As such, he sent her on a hopeless mission, telling her that Daniel had the solution to her problem and she only had to get it from him.

This eventually worked against him, as Dani and Daniel form a close bond. As a result, when she eventually brings Danny to him, she realizes that the "perfect clone" he wants to make is not her but a new male clone. Danny and Dani put a stop to this and Vlad never sees Dani again.

Something that should be noted is that some of the darker aspects of this plot line were taken out (such as the implications of how poorly Vlad treated the failed clones).

It is preferred that she still be an unstable clone.

Original Want Ad

#jcink #jcink ad #jcink site #jcink rp #wanted-ad #fantasy #supernatural #1 year #submission

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tardisgirlepic · 7 years

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Ch. 1: “The Empress of Mars” Analysis Doctor Who S10.9: Fastballs, Mars-Not-Mars, Rassilon References, Etc.

Apologies for getting these 3 chapters for “The Empress of Mars” out after the airing of “The Eaters of Light.” I post first on Archive Of Our Own, which I did before the 10th episode. With photos, it takes more time to post here.

NOTE: TPEW = “The Pyramid at the End of the World” TRODM = “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” THORS = “The Husbands of River Song” CAL = Charlotte Abigail Lux, the little girl from the Library TOS = The Original Series of Star Trek TNG = Star Trek: The Next Generation

Wow, So Much to Say and So Little Time!

It’s going to be impossible to cover all the main points of “The Empress of Mars” because of the huge data dump of subtext. DW has run out of time to tell the story in a slower manner. Even though the subtext has been coming at a fast pace all season, this episode crams more subtext into it than probably any I’ve ever seen. It must have taken Mark Gatiss awhile to figure out how to get all the references into the episode.

These week-to-week analyses are just the start, too, of how I read subtext. The one thing they lack is to place them in the broader context after several weeks and months, seeing how they fit in the subsequent story. For the most part, I don’t have that luxury of doing that here in a weekly format. That’s something for a post mortem, so to speak, after Season 10 is over.

Due to lack of time, I’m going to show only necessary photos.

The previous analysis was really long. My apologies. This analysis will be in multiple chapters.

Big Classic Who Connection

“The Empress of Mars” has a very Classic Who feel to it. It’s clear to me that Mark Gatiss is a fan of the Ice Warriors since this is the second story he’s written with them. His first one was “Cold War,” an 11th Doctor story.

However, the really big Classic Who connection comes at the end with the Alpha Centauri character, shown below. Alpha Centauri is an ambassador, or was, at least, in Classic Who.

The woman, Ysanne Churchman, who voices this character in “The Empress of Mars” is the same person who voiced the original Alpha Centauri in the 3rd Doctor story “The Curse of Peladon.” I had never heard of this character before. But now I’m geeking out with the Classic Who connection of getting the original actress.

Ysanne Churchman was born May 14, 1925, and according to the TARDIS Wikia, she has “voiced Alpha Centauri in the Doctor Who stories The Curse of Peladon, The Monster of Peladon and Empress of Mars, and an Eight Legs in the Doctor Who story Planet of the Spiders.”

Usurpation of a Different Type, Cowardice & Leadership

This story has a lot of themes. And one of them is usurpation. It’s not possession as we’ve seen but the situation where young Captain Catchlove in the British army is blackmailing older Colonel Godsacre with the colonel’s secret. Godsacre is a figurehead of sorts, and at any moment of the captain’s choosing, the captain can take command, and he does.

Interestingly, this theme is connected to another, which is people grappling with cowardice in the face of leadership. The colonel had a crisis of leadership sometime back, which led to his desertion. However, Catchlove fairs no better once he usurps control.

In fact, he is even more of a coward than Godsacre. Even though we see Godsacre run again from leadership once he, the Doctor, and Bill escape the brig, it’s Catchlove who throws Vincey in front of Ice Warror fire to save himself. And a little later, Catchlove takes Queen Iraxxa hostage to save himself again. In fact, he’s planning to desert his men and strand everyone on Mars.

In the end, Godsacre finds redemption when he pledges his life to die bravely in battle.

GODSACRE: God save the Queen. SOLDIERS: God save the Queen! IRAXXA: You will die with honour, with bravery, and in the service of those you swore to protect. GODSACRE: Thank you. You don't know what that means. Thank you. IRAXXA: But not today. In battle, soldier. To die in battle is the way of the warrior. Pledge your allegiance to me and my world, and I will ensure you have the opportunity. GODSACRE: My life and my service are yours. (kneels) To the end. IRAXXA: To the death, my friend. To the death.

It’s a good day to die, a warrior’s hope to die well in battle. While this phrase does come up in TNG with Klingons, like Worf, who is living on the Enterprise, among humans, I first heard this phrase as a child. It comes up in the movie Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman, a white man who was raised among a group of Cheyenne in the Old West after his parents were killed by another tribe.

I mention this because redemption and dying well have become themes for the 12th Doctor. Dying well is implicit in the whole idea of Norse culture and Ragnarök. And we’ll examine this more in the next chapter.

Anyway, Godsacre and Catchlove aren’t the only ones grappling with leadership in the episode. Iraxxa admonishes Friday, telling him his duty, as an Ice Warrior, is to command.

DOCTOR: His cryogenic cell was damaged. They saved him.

IRAXXA: And made him their pet!

FRIDAY: It was necessary to dissemble, Majesty. I thought only of your resurrection. It was a tactical decision.

IRAXXA: An Ice Warrior's duty is to command!

She doesn’t accept his excuse.

Cowardice & Leadership in a Broader Sense

Cowardice has long been a theme. The Doctor has been running all his life, according to the 10th Doctor in “The Sound of Drums,” ever since he looked into the Untempered Schism at the age of eight. In “Heaven Sent” and “Hell Bent,” we find out he’s been running from himself. He’s scared of the prophecy that he is the Hybrid, who will destroy the universe for love.

GENERAL: All Matrix prophecies concur that this creature will one day stand in the ruins of Gallifrey. It will unravel the Web of Time and destroy a billion billion hearts to heal its own.

Cowardly in Love

As a result, the Doctor knows he is not supposed to fall in love with anyone. Love is a curse, which comes back to the 7th Doctor story “The Curse of Fenric.” He then becomes cowardly in love, too, not telling people how he feels. We saw those results, for example, in River’s outpouring of anguish in THORS.

Cowardice in the Face of Leadership

In “Dark Water,” Danny Pink dies. Later, he has a chance to delete his emotions in the Nethersphere, but he can’t bring himself to do it. In “Death in Heaven,” the 2nd part of the finale to Season 8, Danny becomes a Cyberman with emotions.

He wants Clara to turn off his emotions because he can’t bring himself to do it. He’s a coward here. Yet Danny admonishes the Doctor for the Doctor’s cowardice of not wanting to turn off Danny’s emotions, either, and allowing Clara to do it. Danny is being hypocritical, but then Danny is a mirror of the Doctor.

DOCTOR: Danny, Danny, I need you to tell me. What are the clouds going to do? What is the plan? CYBER-DANNY: How would I know? DOCTOR: You're part of a hive mind now. Presumably that's how you found Clara. Just look. CYBER-DANNY: I can't see much. DOCTOR: Look harder. CYBER-DANNY: Clara, watch this. This is who the Doctor is. Watch the blood-soaked old general in action. I can't see properly, sir, because this needs activating. If you want to know what's coming, you have to switch it on. And didn't all of those beautiful speeches just disappear in the face of a tactical advantage? Sir. DOCTOR: (sighs) I need to know. I need to know. CYBER-DANNY: (sotto) Yes. (normal) Yes, you do. CLARA: Give me the screwdriver. DOCTOR: No. CLARA: Just do it, Doctor. Do as you are told. (The Doctor meets Cyber-Danny's gaze then gives Clara the sonic screwdriver.) CYBER-DANNY: Typical officer. Got to keep those hands clean.

In the end, it’s the women who step up. Clara turns off Danny’s emotions, and Bill, to help stop a slaughter, confronts Iraxxa in an irreverent way that even the Doctor wouldn’t or couldn’t consider.

Fear & Usurpation

Has the Doctor been usurped because of his fear when he was blind?

Interestingly, the Master talks about his own fear in the 10th Doctor episode “The Sound of Drums.”

MASTER: The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a

[Underpass]

MASTER [OC]: Time War. I was there when the

[Cabinet room]

MASTER: Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was so scared.

Turning human is a form of usurpation of a sort, where the human part takes full control of the Doctor’s body. In “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood,” we saw how different the Doctor was when he was human. He did things he would never do as a Time Lord, like having children beaten or sending them into battle.

Both the Master and Doctor turned themselves human out of fear. Is this how all the problems started? There is subtext in “The Empress of Mars” that suggests, not for the first time, that events are all the Doctor’s fault. We’ll look at this in the next chapter.

Imperialism: Another Type of Exploitation

Exploitation of beings is one of the main themes in Season 10 within different types of governments, economic systems, and government actions. We’ve seen it in a totalitarian government in “The Lie of the Land.” Before that, we’ve seen capitalism gone amok in multiple episodes. And now imperialism rears its ugly head in “The Empress of Mars.”

According to Wikipedia:

Imperialism is an action that involves a country (usually an empire or kingdom) extending its power by the acquisition of territories. It may also include the exploitation of these territories, an action that is linked to colonialism. Colonialism is generally regarded as an expression of imperialism.

It is different from New Imperialism, as the term imperialism is usually applied to the colonization of the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries, as opposed to the expansion of Western Powers (and Japan) during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, both are examples of imperialism.

Since exploitation of groups of people, racism, and species-ism are heavily referenced, especially this season, I expect this has to be at the heart of the story with the Doctor. It comes back to the question: why is Caecilius a slave in Pompeii to begin with? Is it because he is a Janus of sorts but turned himself human? The Janus could also possibly relate to Missy and the Master, where Missy represents the future and the Master the past.

Imperialism, Robinson Crusoe, Friday & Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoe, a 1719 novel by Englishman Daniel Defoe, is important to look at since Friday, the Ice Warrior, is specifically mentioned as being named for the character in the book.

In the novel, Robinson Crusoe is an Englishman whose father wants him to study law. Initially, Crusoe is committed to obeying, but he eventually capitulates to the temptation of the sea and embarks on a ship with a friend. They nearly die in a storm. On his second voyage, Moorish pirates seize the ship, and Crusoe gets enslaved. Later, he and a slave boy break free, and Crusoe sells the slave boy.

Years later, he gets involved in the slave trade when he joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he gets shipwrecked in a storm, along with 3 animals. He reads the Bible and becomes religious, so here is another religious conversion event, similar to the Doctor going through the Great Work.

Wikipedia says

More years pass and Crusoe discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not knowingly commit a crime. He dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared. Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity.

Friday, too, wants to eat the people they kill, but Crusoe forbids it. Crusoe spends 28 years marooned, the last 4 with his servant, Friday, according to Wikipedia, “on a remote tropical desert island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers, before ultimately being rescued. The story has since been thought to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on a Pacific island called "Más a Tierra", now part of Chile, which was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966, but various literary sources have also been suggested.”

The expression "Man Friday," comes from the novel and describes a male personal assistant or servant, especially one who is particularly competent or loyal. "Girl Friday" is the female equivalent. (Nardole is, at times, playing the Doctor’s Man Friday.)

It’s the interpretations of the novel that I find very important because they symbolize themes, especially in Season 10. It’s James Joyce’s that I find particularly interesting. According to Wikipedia:

Novelist James Joyce noted that the true symbol of the British Empire is Robinson Crusoe, to whom he ascribed stereotypical and somewhat hostile English racial characteristics: "He is the true prototype of the British colonist. ... The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity." In a sense Crusoe attempts to replicate his society on the island. This is achieved through the use of European technology, agriculture and even a rudimentary political hierarchy. Several times in the novel Crusoe refers to himself as the "king" of the island, whilst the captain describes him as the "governor" to the mutineers. At the very end of the novel the island is explicitly referred to as a "colony". The idealised master-servant relationship Defoe depicts between Crusoe and Friday can also be seen in terms of cultural imperialism. Crusoe represents the "enlightened" European whilst Friday is the "savage" who can only be redeemed from his barbarous way of life through assimilation into Crusoe's culture. Nonetheless Defoe also takes the opportunity to criticise the historic Spanish conquest of South America.

According to Wikipedia, Defoe’s “most successful poem, The True-Born Englishman (1701), defended the [King of England William III, who was Dutch-born] against the perceived xenophobia of his enemies, satirising the English claim to racial purity.”

Interestingly, racism was not overt in “The Empress of Mars,” and at least from what we saw, there was tolerance of both Vincey and Bill, at least race-wise. We did see sexism, which added realism for the time period. On top of that, Vincey had a picture of Alice, the white woman he wanted to marry. So I found the message of human toleration hopeful from the start, except for Godsacre’s initial reaction to the Doctor. Most likely, there’s more going on here with the Doctor than what it appears.

Instead of racism, species-ism is a problem with both the humans and the Ice Warriors. The humans have made Friday a servant, just like Robinson Crusoe did, and they want to claim another planet as their own. On the other hand, Iraxxa calls humans pink things and worms.

I see this episode as hopeful in the end, where the 2 sides show tolerance and cooperation, overcoming whatever prejudices they have to live, work, and die together.

While the themes are sound, we can’t trust the setting.

They’re in the Library Matrix

From the start, the Matrix makes its presence known. Things aren’t happening the way they appear.

NASA

At the beginning of the episode, the shot of NASA looks very digitized, so we know right away this is in the Matrix. Also, there’s a reflection line (red arrow) to tell us this isn’t real.

Inside NASA, there’s another reflection line (red arrow). Also, there are at least 3 types of computers (yellow arrows) in the mission control room. While I’m not an expert on working at NASA, I’ve been in a similar environment. The computers would most likely all be the same in this type of environment. Maintaining multiple types of computers (one is a laptop) costs more money and can create potential problems.

Doctor Fades into the Clockwork

Interestingly, right at the end of the NASA scene, the Doctor smiles at the “God Save the Queen” message, which seems odd once again. Then, a mist of sorts starts to superimpose itself over the Doctor, and the color mutes before he starts to fade into the clockwork, as shown in the image below. He becomes part of the machinery.

Mars Is Not Mars

We know the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole can’t be on Mars for multiple reasons. The Doctor while on Mars said, “Mind you, there's a lot here that doesn't make sense.” So true! These are just a few of the problems:

Martian Gravity

Since Mars has a lot less mass than Earth, the surface gravity on Mars, according to NASA, is only 37.5% of the surface gravity on Earth. Therefore, if you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh only 37.5 pounds on Mars. The moon’s mass is about 1/6 of Earth, so 100 pounds on Earth weighs only 16.7 pounds on the moon.

While people on Mars wouldn’t be bouncing as much as on the moon when they walked, there would still be a noticeable difference in how people moved.

Martian Oxygen

To prove there was oxygen on the Mars-not-Mars, there was a fire. That didn’t preclude any harmful elements or compounds, though. Nardole, the Doctor, and Bill could still have died when they took off their helmets.

On Earth, our atmosphere is mostly made of nitrogen, 78%, while oxygen accounts for about 21% Argon, carbon dioxide, and smaller amounts of other gases make up the rest.

On Mars, according to the Universe Today, the atmosphere is composed of 96% carbon dioxide, 1.93% argon and 1.89% nitrogen along with traces of oxygen and water. The atmosphere is not breathable without a spacesuit or an artificial environment. Even if the Ice Warriors had created an artificial environment, that doesn’t account for the gravity issues, unless this is a spaceship with artificial gravity.

There’s also less atmospheric pressure on Mars.

It’s interesting that oxygen is once again a subject and that there would be a lack thereof. I’m betting “Oxygen” will be referenced again in at least one subsequent episode.

Spacesuits Are Fake

The helmets wouldn’t have helped anyway because the spacesuits are the 2-piece variety. Therefore, they can’t be airtight the way they should be. There’s no way the steam punk spacesuits of the Victorians are airtight. I do love the ear horns. Nice touch. Why does Catchlove’s helmet have all those viewing holes? How many eyes does he have?

Helmet Lights

Most of the time, we can see 4 lights in the helmets, a sign they are in the Library. A few times, we can see 5, which is a weapon of mass destruction. This episode is very much foreshadowing the Doctor’s fate, which we’ll examine in the subtext references.

Martian Ice Cap Obscuring “God Save the Queen”

There’s no way the Martian ice cap wasn’t there in Victorian times. Therefore, the whole “God Save the Queen” message couldn’t possibly be written the way it appears.

Pitching Fastballs: Astounding Number of Internal & External References

Wow, there are an astounding number of internal and external references in the subtext! On the whole, “The Empress of Mars” possibly has more internal and external references to movies, TV shows, books, short stories, songs, British terminology, mythology, and other DW episodes than any other episode so far that I’ve seen in DW. Also, I believe Season 10 has more of these internal and external references than any other season of DW.

“The Empress of Mars” is a great example of fastballs: the copious subtext references that we have to deal with in one week before the next episode airs. Because I had to look up most of the references, it’s taken time just to understand all of this before I get to write anything, which cut into my writing time. There are several references to Classic Who episodes, but I only had seen a few of them before this episode.

On top of this, some of the external references are actually indirect allusions to other DW episodes. So there is a big bowl of spaghetti to look at.

“The Empress of Mars,” The Princess of Mars & Star Wars

Right from the start, the title of the episode, “The Empress of Mars,” is an external reference to a classic science fantasy novel A Princess of Mars by American author Edgar Rice Burroughs. It’s the first book of his Barsoom series.

The Princess of Mars and the Barsoom series is what Star Wars is based on. In 2012, Disney put out the John Carter movie but horribly marketed it. Many people didn’t realize this John Carter story started it all. The original story really is remarkable given Burroughs wrote it in 1912.

The Doctor even made a reference, too, to Star Wars, when he said, “I have a bad feeling about this.” That quote is said in every Star Wars movie at least once.

Here’s what StarWars.com has to say about Burroughs’ story The Princess of Mars and subsequent books and the John Carter film.

John Carter is a film directed by Pixar alum Andrew Stanton that follows Civil War veteran John Carter on his astounding trip to the planet Barsoom, which we know as Mars. There he meets a princess leading a rebellion, fights against an evil empire, and meets a variety of strange aliens on a desert wasteland of a planet, gets powers far beyond the abilities of normal men, and encounters a strange religion. There are times where he’s captured, thrown into an arena to fight bizarre monsters, and other times where he’s forced to rescue a princess.

It sounds like I could be talking about Star Wars just as easily as John Carter. And since John Carter came out in 2012, you might be thinking, “No! You’ve got it the other way around! John Carter was influenced by Star Wars.”

But you’d be surprised.

Here’s a quote from George Lucas in a 1977 issue of Science Fiction Review: “Originally, I wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie, with all the trimmings, but I couldn’t obtain all the rights. So I began researching and found where [Flash Gordon creator] Alex Raymond got his idea: The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, especially his John Carter series of books.”

We examined many chapters ago how the Doctor was going to be involved in a rebellion. We’ve seen the evil empire in “The Lie of the Land.” Also, we’ve even seen much of the rest of it, including a strange religion – the Church of the Papal Mainframe, the Silence, and the Monks.

Mars Has Significant Ties to Previous Episodes

When I think of Mars references in DW, I think of “The Waters of Mars,” which “The Pilot” alluded to with all the water coming off of Heather. However, there are other episodes that are very important, too. BTW, this isn’t an exhaustive list:

“The Pyramids of Mars”

In “The Pyramids of Mars,” a 4th Doctor story, Sutekh, according to the TARDIS Wikia, is a powerful extraterrestrial, also known as Sutekh the Destroyer. He was an Osiran who planned to destroy all life in the universe. Afraid of all forms of life which might one day challenge his hegemony, he became the destroyer of all living things. The Osiran inspired Egyptian mythology.

At one point, he usurped the Doctor’s body.

“The Ambassadors of Death”

“The Ambassadors of Death” is an early 3rd Doctor story with Liz Shaw as his companion. I had never seen this story before. It can possibly explain a bit about what is happening in Season 10.

The Doctor joins UNIT's investigation of the mystery surrounding Mars Probe 7. The Recovery 7, on a rescue mission, runs into problems once it comes back to Earth. The 3 astronauts are kidnapped. It turns out these astronauts are a triad of radiation-dependent alien ambassadors, who swapped places with the 3 human astronauts.

According to the TARDIS Wikia, the Doctor finds that Mars Probe 7 is still orbiting in space. Intercepted by a huge, alien spaceship and taken aboard, the Doctor finds the real astronauts unharmed, but mind controlled. The aliens' captain threatens to destroy the Earth unless the 3 ambassadors are released.

The Doctor returns to Earth and discovers that the kidnapping of the ambassadors is part of a plot devised by xenophobic ex-astronaut General Carrington to frame the aliens. The general has a machine built to mind control them, forcing them to kill humans, so he can convince the world's authorities to wage war against the extraterrestrials.

The 3 ambassadors act like robots, very similar to the zombies in “Oxygen.” In fact, like the zombies, the aliens can kill with their touch. Once the aliens aren’t being mind controlled, they want to know why they have been made to kill when they came in peace. The Doctor and UNIT thwart the general’s plans and arrange an exchange of the ambassadors for the astronauts.

Interestingly, right at the end, there is a big structure overhead made of hexagons, symbolic of imprisonment. The Doctor walks out, representing his freedom as one of the astronauts.

In the 10th Doctor episode “Smith and Jones,” the Doctor talked about roentgen radiation after using an X-ray machine to kill a Slab, a slave drone, who was trying to kill them.

MARTHA: What did you do? DOCTOR: Increased the radiation by five thousand per cent. Killed him dead. MARTHA: But isn't that going to kill you? DOCTOR: Nah, it's only roentgen radiation. We used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery. It's safe for you to come out. I've absorbed it all. All I need to do is expel it.

Why would the Doctor or any Time Lord be playing with roentgen bricks in a nursery?

Interestingly, in the very 1st Dalek story called “The Daleks,” the Daleks talk about needing radiation:

DALEK 2: We need radiation to survive. So we must increase our supply of radiation.

DALEK 1: But there is only one way to do that.

DALEK 2: Exactly. We may have to explode another neutron bomb.

There’s a possible theme here of needing radiation to survive in 2 of 3 episodes.

Tip: When reading subtext, always look for patterns (at least 3 occurrences). Or what could be the beginning of a pattern (2 occurrences). Themes that keep coming up are foreshadowing the coming canon. Patience is typically required because it’s rare for foreshadowing to become canon in the next episode. Usually, things take years to become canon. However, Season 10 and the 12th Doctor are different.

There are several key points here, making patterns that we’ve encountered.

1. There is a triad involved.

2. There is usurpation, not of possessing a body, but of mind controlling the aliens to kill, something they normally wouldn’t do; they came in peace.

3. Their touch kills, like the zombies in “Oxygen.” (This isn’t a pattern with 3 occurrences that I know of, but with everything else matching it becomes part of the pattern.)

4. We know the subtext shows in “Deep Breath” that the Doctor is a cyborg. Is he really a cyborg? Is it that he is just mind controlled to look that way, or is he really that way? If so, how did he get that way?

5. The aliens are being framed, which is something we examined as a possibility in my analysis of “The Lie of the Land,” relating back to how the Valeyard, the Master, and the Time Lords were working to frame the 6th Doctor.

Therefore, “The Ambassadors of Death” does help substantiate my hypothesis that the Doctor is being framed and being used to kill against his will. And this also goes along with the image we keep taking a look at, shown below, from “Human Nature” that has said all along the 24th Doctor (the Roman Doctor) is in the Library metaphor being framed and used against his will. And it’s because he’s unbalanced by love. For the extensive examination, take a look at Chapter 10 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who.

There’s a similar photo of the 12th Doctor that we looked at from TRODM in Lucy’s kitchen in the pre-airing analysis of the episode in Chapter 9 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who.

A cyborg assassin and time travel are themes of The Terminator, which Bill mentioned in “The Empress of Mars.” The Terminator goes back in time to kill someone to prevent a revolt. Not only does this have similarities to using the ambassadors as cyborg-type killing machines, but also the movie’s concept of an assassin relates to the 4th Doctor story, “The Deadly Assassin,” which we examined in my analysis of “Extremis.” In it, the Master frames the Doctor.

“The Christmas Invasion”

While the first 10th Doctor story “The Christmas Invasion” has just a small reference to Mars, it is very significant. Britain sends the Guinevere One space probe on a mission to the red planet and loses touch with it, which is a call back to “The Ambassadors of Death.” While, the signal loss is only for a short time, unlike the Classic Who episode, we see a triad of assassin Santas. Also, Mickey and the others talk of the Santas being pilot fish, a reference to the 12th Doctor. Santa, for that matter, is also a reference to the Doctor. Therefore, there is quite a bit of similarities to “The Ambassadors of Death.”

Guinevere is also a character in the King Arthur legend.

“The Waters of Mars,” “The Five Doctors,” the Ice Queen’s & Rassilon’s Tombs

Back in Chapter 19 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who, I posed a question. “Did the 10th Doctor bring a curse upon himself when he announced he was Time Lord Victorious” in “The Waters of Mars”?

Here’s what I said

I believe he is either a version of Rassilon or a slave of Rassilon, since this most likely comes with a curse of immortality, just like with the Ring of Rassilon.

Rassilon, in the past, has slept eternally in his tomb while his mind lived on in the Matrix. Putting on the ring grants the wearer immortality. However, it imprisons the wearer in the stone of Rassilon, watching over him forever. In “The Five Doctors,” a Time Lord puts on the ring and gets petrified as a relief on the side of Rassilon’s sarcophagus. The ring comes with the warning:

To lose is to win And he who wins shall lose

So Time Lord Victorious loses.

Weeping Angels are probably involved in this.

We’ve actually looked at “The Five Doctors” multiple times in recent chapters because Rassilon’s insignia keeps coming up in Season 10. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the Ice Queen’s tomb in “The Empress of Mars” looks similar to Rassilon’s tomb, shown below, in “The Five Doctors.”

Rassilon is sleeping eternally (red arrow). However, we see his projection from the Matrix (yellow arrow) of his head. The Time Lord on the right will end up in the blank area (white arrow) as a stone relief because he puts on Rassilon’s ring and gets immortality at a price of being a sentinel to Rassilon. This relief is one reason why I believe the Weeping Angels may have something to do with all of this.

In comparison, here’s the Ice Queen’s tomb, shown below. Like Rassilon’s tomb, the items underneath the body, in this case gems, have an effect on the body above.

In fact, both Rassilon and Iraxxa claim themselves as resurrected.

In “Hell Bent,” after Rassilon tries to have the Doctor executed, gunships show up

RASSILON: Excellent, General. You sent for reinforcements. DOCTOR: No, he didn't. (He puts on his sonic sunglasses.) DOCTOR: I did.

(The final troopers join the Doctor as the gunships train their weapons on Rassilon.)

RASSILON: What? I am Rassilon the redeemer! Rassilon, the resurrected! Gallifrey is mine!

In “The Empress of Mars,” Iraxxa talks to Friday, who is here sentinel:

IRAXXA: My Sentinel. You have fulfilled your pledge. I am resurrected!

Mars, the Roman God of War, and the Janus Connection

Mars is significant for multiple reasons. Not only is it the setting of multiple Martian episodes that have a bearing on what is happening, but also Mars was the Roman god of war. According to Wikipedia, he was also “an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army.”

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, “Mars was a part of the Archaic Triad along with Jupiter and Quirinus, the latter of whom as a guardian of the Roman people had no Greek equivalent.” And Quirinus: “In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an epithet of Janus, as Janus Quirinus.”

Regarding Janus: In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past.

This is significant because not only is there a triad, which we’ve examined in my analysis in “Extremis,” although not in the same context, but also we’ve examined the Janus connection, which shows up in “Face the Raven,” where Clara is killed. We also saw it in “The Pilot,” where Heather is shown as a Janus in a puddle. Since I never got to finish “The Pilot” analysis, I ended up talking about the Janus concept and mistaken identity in my analysis of “Oxygen.”

The Doctor is a mirror of the 2 Janus in “Face the Raven” as well as Heather. Interestingly, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. We know the Doctor is connected to time, and we’ve examined the Door/Doughnut metaphor (which would also cover passages and gateways) in Chapter 17 of Fairytales and Romance in Doctor Who, along with the Doctor’s struggle with duality in my analysis of “Oxygen.”

Therefore, it’s fitting that “The Empress of Mars” takes place on Mars-not-Mars for multiple reasons.

I’ve arrived at the symbology of duality and the Door/Doughnut metaphor (which includes gates, doorways, and passages) independently from the symbolism of Janus. Because everything connects, it verifies we are on the right track of reading the subtext.

Tip: When reading subtext in DW, just about all subtext will have multiple connections, so it should link up from various, independent directions. Once it does, you know these things are important and will become part of the canon in some form.

Alpha Centauri & Ice Warrior References

As we saw above, Alpha Centauri shows up in 2 stories, neither of which I had seen.

“The Curse of Peladon” & TOS: “Journey to Babel”

“The Curse of Peladon,” a 3rd Doctor episode, is very interesting, especially because DW obviously based this episode on parts of TOS: “Journey to Babel” and Spock’s background. Now, I understand better why Spock’s name comes up 5 times in “The Empty Child.”

Anyway, in “The Curse of Peladon,” according to the TARDIS Wikia:

The Doctor and Jo make a test flight in the TARDIS and arrive on the planet Peladon. Seeking shelter, they enter the citadel of the soon-to-be-crowned King Peladon, where the Doctor is mistaken for a human dignitary summoned to act as chairman of a committee assessing an application by the planet to join the Galactic Federation.

Here’s a case of mistaken identity. Only men of rank and women of royal blood are allowed in the royal throne room of Peladon. The Doctor and Jo become imposter Federation delegates – Jo impersonating a princess.

Every time the term “Federation” came up, I kept thinking of Star Trek. At first, I didn’t think anything of the soon-to-be king’s pedigree that he was half-human on his mother’s side. However, when characters started talking about the delegates voting on Peladon’s application to join the Federation and mining rights were involved, along with a strange murder, I suddenly realized this was based on parts of the TOS episode “Journey to Babel.” And the soon-to-be king was a mirror of Spock, who is the Doctor in DW, as “The Empty Child” makes clear.

According to Memory Alpha regarding “Journey to Babel”:

The delegates will be attending a conference on the neutral planetoid named Babel to decide the admission of the planet Coridan to the Federation, which is rich in dilithium but is poorly defended.

As the Enterprise comes under attack on the way to a diplomatic conference on Babel, one of the alien dignitaries is murdered, and Spock's estranged father Sarek is the prime suspect – but he is also deathly ill, and only Spock can save him.

In this Star Trek episode, we find out Spock broke tradition against the wishes of his father and joined Starfleet, an instrument of the Federation. In comparison, one of King Peladon’s trusted advisors is accused by another trusted advisor of abandoning “the ancient ways of our people.” And he says that this will bring the curse of Aggedor upon everyone. To avoid the curse, the advisor kills the other. The king wants to join the Federation, which would abandon the ancient ways.

The Doctor, as Spock, is a mirror of soon-to-be King Peladon. The prince wants to marry Jo, the Doctor’s companion.

In comparison to the Doctor-as-a-prince mirror in “The Curse of Peledon,” in “The Lie of the Land” the 12th Doctor is associated with Prince Charles (red arrow), shown behind the Doctor, and Lady Diana in her wedding dress (on the other side of his head). This happens inside the pyramid just before he touches the seated Monk’s head.

Then, in “The Curse of Peladon” both Alpha Centauri and Ice Warriors show up. The Ice Warriors are not the villains. In fact, one of the Ice Warriors saves the Doctor’s life.

Even more interesting is that there are emblems of Aggedor, the beast, shown below, whom people are afraid of. It looks like a pig or boar, which is reminiscent of the sheriff’s boar emblem in the 12th Doctor episode also penned by Mark Gatiss, “The Robot of Sherwood.”

“The Robot of Sherwood”

Here’s the Sheriff’s shield and emblem in “Robot of Sherwood.” This shield also shows up in THORS.

Surprisingly, Ice Warriors and Mars are also mentioned in “The Robot of Sherwood” in a conversation between the Doctor and Clara.

CLARA: Yeah, you. You stop bad things happening every minute of every day. That sounds pretty heroic to me.

(The Doctor licks something from a large metal spoon. Custard?)

DOCTOR: Just passing the time. Hey, what about Mars?

CLARA: What?!

DOCTOR: The Ice Warrior Hives.

CLARA: You said it was my choice.

The sheriff (a cyborg) was supposed to lose his head in the episode. However, it was to air just after journalists were decapitated, so the BBC, thinking better than to show a decapitation, edited it out.

“The Monster of Peladon” & TOS: “The Cloud Minders”

“The Monster of Peladon” is a sequel to “The Curse of Peladon.” However, it’s not that good. Both Alpha Centauri and Ice Warriors show up again, but this time the Ice Warriors are villains. This episode is based on the same premise as the TOS episode “The Cloud Minders.” In both the DW and TOS episodes, miners are at odds with the leadership on the planets.

The main thing I came away with from this sequel is that 50 years later, King Peladon was dead, and his daughter is now queen.

Another Master Reference

One of the internal references in “The Empress of Mars,” has the Doctor mirroring the Master again. At NASA, Knibbs starts counting down to the reception of the probe’s signal.

KNIBBS: I got everything crossed. Okay, people. Transmission arriving in ten, nine, eight, seven, six. (The big screen is now counting down to Download Commences with them.) DOCTOR: Five, four, three, two, one! Sorry, I could never resist a countdown.

In “Last of the Time Lords,” the Master says

MASTER: Three minutes to align the black hole converters. Counting down. I never could resist a ticking clock. My children, are you ready?

Additionally, the Doctor’s smile at “God Save the Queen” before the opening credits just seems really odd and out of character.

In the Next Chapters

There are so many references left to look at, so I’m planning on 2 more chapters to show you the meaning of at least part of them. For example, Friday is a lot more important than he might appear, so we’ll examine him in connection to more than just Robinson Crusoe. In another example, ravens show up in the subtext in multiple ways, which comes back to Clara. We’ll begin to look at some of the raven references in the next chapter. Then, there’s more to the Victorians than it appears, and I’ll show you examples of what I call collective symbology vs. individual symbology in relation to the troops. Additionally, we’ll look at how the subtext is coming together for Ragnarök and more.

Go to next chapter => Ch. 2: Friday, Odin & the Doctor; Missy’s 2 Faces; Etc.

#doctor who #twelfth doctor #bill potts #nardole #clara oswald #river song #eleventh doctor #amy pond #rory williams #tenth doctor #the empress of mars #meta #analysis

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A "special attacking talent": 10 Things with NYCFC's Ismael Tajouri-Shradi

USA Today Sports

August 16, 20184:52PM EDT

ORANGEBURG, N.Y. — He wasn’t the biggest name in the offseason, but its hard to argue few have made a bigger impact in their first season in Major League Soccer than Ismael Tajouri-Shradi.

The Libyan-born winger who arrived at New York City FC on a transfer from Austria Wien, leads his team with 10 goals after striking for a brace in a 3-2 win over Toronto FC Sunday at BMO Field.

Those 10 goals, including four game-winners, have remarkably come on just 29 shots, which highlights a stunning efficiency.

Find out more about Tajouri-Shradi’s journey, both on and off the field.

Growing to love New York City

Before arriving at NYCFC, Tajouri-Shradi had never come to New York City before. His only idea of the Big Apple came from the movies.

And coming from Vienna, a much smaller city with a slower vibe, it took some getting used to.

“Of course, it’s not crazy like in the movies, but it’s 90 percent the same,” Tajouri-Shradi told MLSsoccer.com. “It’s a big city, a little stressed city, so many people. Vienna is not like here because there’s many people in the city. When I go into the city for the first time I go a little crazy because of so many people, but now I am happy about that.”

In a multi-cultural city with cuisines from all corners of the earth, Tajouri-Shradi, though, is still in search of a good Libyan restaurant.

“I don’t find any Libyan food,” he said. “But I’m sure there’s some Libyan food somewhere because there’s every food is what you want, every shop is what you want. I will find where is the Libyan food.”

“Football crazy” family

The 24-year-old is the third youngest of seven siblings. His father, a diplomat who worked in the Libyan embassy, played when he was younger in Libya and his older brother was also in the Austria Wien academy before eventually hanging up his cleats to become a pilot.

The family is more spread out now, with his father moving to Belgrade in Serbia to work in the embassy there and other siblings living in Egypt and Libya. But soccer unites them all.

“I love football, but all of my family loves football,” Tajouri-Shradi said. “My brother played also, but he was not a professional so he broke from football and concentrated on other things. He’s now a pilot so he went another way, which is also nice. My father played also in Libya. I think all of the family is football crazy.”

The family evaluation

After each game, Tajouri-Shradi said it is the same. He speaks with his father, among others in his family, to get their breakdown of his latest performance.

He said despite the time difference, his family are dedicated NYCFC viewers.

“They watch every game. We speak after every game.,” he said. “I call my father, my mother, my brother and they tell me what was good, what was not so good. It’s normal. If I score, if I don’t score, it’s the same things.”

And what was the reaction after the win over Toronto FC?

“[My father] liked the goal and liked that we took the three points,” Tajouri-Shradi said. “He was very happy. I think he was much happier than me. Of course, I was very happy, but all of the family was very happy. I get so many messages from all of my family. I am happy that I have a family like that.”

Favorite NYCFC goal?

Tajouri-Shradi secured all three road points against Toronto FC with a sensational left-footed screamer from outside the box two minutes from full time. It didn’t win the AT&T Goal of the Week for Week 24, but where does it rank among the goals he’s scored to this point in MLS?

“I have no favorite,” he said, sounding like a proud parent. “If I can say against Toronto that goal for me was amazing, one of my favorite goals of course.”

He also singled out his first MLS goal, which came in his first start to cap a 2-0 win over Orlando City FC at Yankee Stadium on March 17. Tajouri-Shradi intercepted a poor Joe Bendik clearance attempt, took two touches to set up a shot on his right foot and scored a low shot to break the stalemate.

Favorite all-time goal?

Tajouri-Shradi was less diplomatic when discussing his favorite all-time goals. He chose two, both for different reasons. The first came when he was playing for SCR Altach while on loan from Austria Wien — an Olimpico against Austria Wien. His other favorite was a shot from “30-35 yards” against Sturm Graz.

[embedded content]

‘Pelezinho’ was his idol

Growing up in Bern, Switzerland and in Vienna, Tajouri-Shradi fell in love with soccer at a young age. And like so many young players, he had a favorite player. Perhaps not surprising, it was another player with an attacking flair.

That player was Robinho, especially when he came up through the ranks at Santos in Brazil and during his time at Real Madrid, when he wore the No. 10 jersey and was the club’s third-highest scorer behind Raul and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

“I liked how he played, what he did with the ball was amazing,” Tajouri-Shradi said. “He’s my No. 1 favorite player.”

Proud Libyan

Tajouri-Shradi is well traveled because of his father’s job in the Libyan embassy. But while he was born in Switzerland and lived most of his life in Austria — he has an Austrian passport — he identifies as Libyan.

“My blood is Libyan,” Tajouri-Shradi said. “Of course I don’t live so long in Libya, but my family comes from Libya. I can say I am from Libya.”

To this point, he’s made just one appearance for Libya, on the U-20 level in a friendly against Morocco in 2012.

In fact, after scoring in his first start, Tajouri-Shradi raced down to the visitors’ locker room at Yankee Stadium to exchange jerseys with Mohamed El-Munir, the Lions Libyan-born defender. El-Munir signed with Orlando one week before Tajouri-Shradi joined NYCFC.

“I know him before,” Tajouri-Shradi said after the game. “We exchange the jersey, we take a little picture. It’s great that two new Libyan guys are playing in MLS.”

Advice from a rival

When Tajouri-Shradi was about to make the move to a new league and a new city, he sought out advice from someone in the know — a former player at Austria Wien and now adversary with the New York Red Bulls.

“Before I come here, I know Danny Royer because he played on the same team as me and I asked him about New York, I asked him also about MLS. He gave me some good information. It was good from him. I think it was a good choice.”

Impressing one boss to the next

Tajouri-Shradi enjoyed a meteoric start to his NYCFC career, scoring four goals in his first four starts after coming off the bench late in the club’s first two games.

It was the perfect first impression for then-NYCFC boss Patrick Vieira.

“He’s making a name for himself because he’s working hard,” Vieira said. “Every time he has a chance, he’s really composed and he’s really calm in front of the goal. With the left foot, when he hits the target, nine times out of 10 he will score the goal.”

And what does current NYCFC coach Dome Torrent think of Tajouri-Shradi?

“He plays really well the last three or four games, not just against Toronto,” Torrent said. “In Toronto, he was able to score two goals, much better for our team and for him. I’m very happy especially with him because he improved the last three games a lot. For me, he’s a player for us, he can play left side, right side … He plays very well on both sides. That is the reason I’m very happy with him right now.”

He does his talking on the field

Tajouri-Shradi is soft-spoken and it took him awhile to find his place in the NYCFC locker room. Even now, as an established player, he is quiet and humble, often deflecting personal praise for the betterment of the team.

But with the ball at his feet, whether in a game or on the training ground, Tajouri-Shradi speaks brashly with his magical left foot and unabated work ethic.

“He’s a special player, and I’ve said it since Day One, he’s a special attacking talent,” NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson said. “It’s not often you come across a player not only with his talent, but his mentality is just relentless. It’s just go, go, go and nothing fazes him. I’m glad he’s on our side.”

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A “special attacking talent”: 10 Things with NYCFC's Ismael Tajouri-Shradi was originally published on 365 Football

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spryfilm · 6 years

Text

“Cobra Kai Season One” (2018)

Television

10 Episodes

Produced by: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald

Featuring: Ralph Macchio and William Zabka

Amanda: “What is going on?”

Anthony: “Dad is about to fight this guy.”

Daniel: “Amanda, just please go inside. This is between me and Sensei Lawrence.”

Amanda: “Yeah, you two seem to have this pretty well in hand. Just a normal Saturday afternoon, a couple of grown men about to kick each other into a pool? You know, as much as I would love to watch you and your childhood karate rival duke it out, I kind of don’t want to get any blood on the patio. So what do you say we try to resolve this over some breakfast instead?”

Daniel: “You want to go inside?”

Johnny: “I could eat.”

There is no way that this spiritual sequel to the ‘Karate Kid’ franchise, “Cobra Kai” (2018) should have worked, it was a new entry into a dead. ultimately futile series (especially after the last two entries) being streamed on YouTubeRed (a new service) with original as well as nearing sixty-year-old leads that have both been defined by their roles in the original “Karate Kid” (1984). But what the creators, producers and writers have done, wisely, is to create a story that seems as natural as the original, taking what was so great about the first one, transplanting it to a new time but in the same location with updated references as well as the use of some cunning flashbacks to the original movie, not hiding the ages of the players as well as being able to see the supporting characters of that original, including Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, Elisabeth Shueand Martin Kove. There definitely is a reliance on the original movie, the creators have taken for granted that the audience viewing this will have at least a passing familiarity with the movie, in particular the relationship between Danny and Johnny as well the pivotal role that the now deceased Mr. Miyagi played in both of their lives. In many other cases this sort of storytelling may have been a weakness but this is such a beloved movie that it does not hinder the narrative one iota, or the way in which the audience is informed in regard to characters motivations throughout the ten episodes.

“Cobra Kai” takes place 34 years after the original film and follows a “down-and-out Johnny Lawrence, who seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo, reigniting his rivalry with a now successful Daniel LaRusso, who has been struggling to maintain balance in his life without the guidance of his mentor, Mr. Miyagi. The show is about two men addressing past demons and present frustrations the only way they know how: through karate.”

Running parallel to the conflict are the story arcs of Lawrence and LaRusso’s students. For instance, there are the students of Cobra Kai: a group of picked-on underdog teenagers who find a camaraderie and self-confidence under Johnny’s tutelage, only to take their mentor’s aggressive philosophy too far as they begin to degenerate into the notorious thuggery of former Sensei Kreese’s era. In contrast, Johnny’s estranged son, Robby Keene, comes under the wing of Daniel, who proves a positive influence to the boy as he begins to seek redemption while learning the philosophies of Mr. Miyagi. Meanwhile, Daniel’s daughter, Samantha, is caught in the middle of these conflicts as she learns who her true friends are and a better path to follow.

Of course when dealing with a reimagining or a sequel of something that was created over thirty years ago the one word that screams louder than any other is nostalgia. In many cases the word nostalgia can mean to evoke feelings from the past, while in and of itself nostalgia is not negative it can be when linking it to movies and television shows. This is because many reboots and sequels are unimaginative, looking for a quick easy way to make audiences happy, taking shortcuts as well as relying on goodwill from the past. However, in the case of “Cobra Kai” what the creators have done is keep the story and action rooted in the present but with a clear foot in the past. This works extremely well as it reminds us what we loved about “The Karate Kid” but takes the characters moving them forward into the modern day, not relying per se on actions in the past as well see new rivalries from as well as some kind of understanding of past actions.

It is vital for this show to exude nostalgia, something I am not a fan of as life by its very nature is all about change, everything and everyone changes so as a society we should always be looking to the next hill, embracing newness as well as embracing the change that will be inevitable for us all. One of the key reasons that nostalgia works in “Cobra Kai” is while we are re-introduced to the characters as well as being forced to confront their old age as well as their new situations the flashbacks are reassuring in that we know these people, as well as their motivations, with their new lives in the present we accept them more readily than meeting them cold. The other reason that this new show works is that it reminds us of a time where life was a little slower as well as more recognisable, as opposed to the world we find ourselves in now with upheaval in almost every walk of life – particularly politically, can it be a coincidence that the original was made under a Reagan Republican government?. It is no surprise that the flashbacks are juxtaposed with scenes from the present, as well as diminishing as the new story takes hold, we start to enjoy not only the older characters new journey but also the new characters that in turn have their own arcs – linked to the previous narrative.

Unlike the original that revolved around the character of Danny this new show mainly takes the point of view of Johnny, his issues, his past and where he is trying to be with the life that he desperately wants, as well as the correcting of the mistakes of his life since the conclusion of “The Karate Kid”. This is one of the strengths of the new show as we see where he came from as a child as well as his non-apologetic character that seems to steam through life despite his attitude or his disdain for so much that would normally be the opposite to the perceived norm. What is interesting is the way in which Johnny’s attitude changes in small ways but enough to make him a sympathetic character, sometimes more so than Danny, which is saying something, especially after the way the original movie ended. As with Johnny we see Danny as a more complicated person than anyone could have imagined, he makes many mistakes with his relationships, more so than he would like but like Johnny he keeps moving ahead no matter what. What is interesting as well is something Johnny does not have, the way in which Danny’s wife makes comments about decisions or situations that he finds himself in, she is an anchor who actually keeps Danny’s worlds stable. Sure Johnny has his star pupil but both of them lack perspective or experience so they seem to continually move through life without any idea of consequences.

Returning to their iconic 1980s characters are stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka as Danny and Johnny respectively who both bring very different traits to their characters. Zabka is the one that is the revelation as a multi leveled character who shines in this second go at Johnny, as the lead he knows when to play the comedy as well as the drama, he also has chemistry with everyone he shares a scene with. What is great is to see him playing comedy to the extent he does, he has some of the best lines in the show as well as all the great scenes. Macchio was of course one of the great young actors of the 1980s but in the 1990s and 2000s became more known for playing himself particularly on television. What is great is to see him not in an ironic way as Danny, not only that but as an adult with issues of his own away from Karate – he really has to make some decisions that impact not only himself but his family – Macchio knows this character so well that it is easy to forget that he is a talented actor.

I loved this show it had everything going for it in terms of drama as well as comedy. It also is not afraid to comment on the current political climate as well as improving on stereotypes that existed in the 1980s when the source material was produced. It also is not afraid to look back while maintaining its narrative firmly in the present, as well as being as original as anything else on television at the moment.

Episodes:

Ace Degenerate– Thirty four years after losing to Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 All Valley Under-18 Karate Championship, Johnny Lawrence struggles to make a living as a handyman while Daniel runs a successful car dealership chain in the San Fernando Valley.

Strike First– Miguel begins his karate training with Johnny bullying him for his asthma and low self-esteem. Johnny is informed by the health department that the dojo needs a lot of work before he can officially teach students. Meanwhile, Daniel and his wife get into an argument after discovering that Samantha has invited her friends over to their home for a pool party in their absence. While reconciling with his daughter, Daniel finds out that Samantha is romantically interested in a boy called Kyler and offers to invite him to a family dinner.

Esqueleto– Johnny tries to recruit more students to the dojo and Daniel decides to chaperone the school Halloween dance. Miguel’s karate training is stepped up as Johnny urges him to use the Cobra Kai creed of “Strike hard. Strike first. No mercy” in his everyday life and urges him to attend the Halloween dance.

Cobra Kai Never Dies– Robby learns of the new dojo and is embarrassed by his father’s recruitment methods. Meanwhile, a LaRusso Auto billboard is vandalized and evidence leads Daniel to suspect Johnny as the culprit.

Counterbalance– Miguel shows improvement in both his karate skills and his general health. Daniel tries to make a shady deal that could shut down Cobra Kai, but hurts innocent business owners in the process. Samantha’s heavy-set classmate Aisha Robinson joins Cobra Kai despite Johnny’s initial misgivings about training girls.

Quiver– Daniel tries unsuccessfully to persuade Samantha to go back to karate. The footage of Miguel’s fight at school goes viral and brings many new students to the Cobra Kai dojo but Johnny cannot suppress his old ways and bullies them, embarrassing Eli in front of the entire class

All Valley– Johnny uses painful methods to train his new students. Miguel asks Johnny for advice on girls and Johnny manages to give him a boost of confidence which leads to Miguel asking Samantha out on a successful date.

Molting– Despite Daniel’s strong objections, the All Valley Sports Karate Board decides that Cobra Kai is allowed to compete in the All Valley Karate Tournament, so Johnny ups his game with additional training and unconventional methods steals one of the motorcycles, and rides off to confront Daniel.

Different but Same– After Johnny’s car is burned by Daniel’s cousin and his thugs, Johnny confronts Daniel at his home. However, before they come to blows, Amanda quickly defuses the looming fight with an invitation to peacefully discuss the matter over breakfast and they reach an agreement: in addition to Louie being fired, Johnny would receive a trade-in car from their business in compensation.

Mercy– Cobra Kai returns to the annual All Valley Under-18 Karate tournament with a full team led by Miguel. Robby too participates as a fighter unaffiliated with any dojo.

Streaming review: “Cobra Kai Season One” (2018) “Cobra Kai Season One” (2018) Television 10 Episodes Produced by: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald…

#cobra kai #cobra kai review #Cobra Kai Season One #cobra kai streaming #cobra kai youtube #john spry streaming #karate kid #Ralph Macchio #reboot #spry film streaming #streaming #William Zabka #youtube #youtube series

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fountainpenguin · 7 years

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Since Danny and Vlad are halfas, is it okay for them to know about the existence of fairies?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: There isn’t a chance of either Vlad or Danny having a godparent/godkid relationship with Fairies, but they could possibly have a political one were either of them to seize control of the Ghost Zone or otherwise implement and maintain some system of functioning government.

From a Fairy standpoint, it’s “not okay” for them to know about Fairies if they’re just random common Ghosts. But if one was Ghost King / Ghost President / if there’s a Ghost Council, then Fairies would consider interacting with them. However, because Fairies rarely take any interest in the Ghost Zone since it’s sort of another dimension and they can’t get in there easily, it’s more likely the Ghost figureheads would approach Fairies rather than Fairies approaching them.

Longest answer: Fairies aren’t actually picky about who leads a race. Vlad as Ghost King wouldn’t be much different to them than Danny being Ghost King (or any other title they might use). Fairies don’t determine a good leader based on their moral standards. They determine a good leader based on how organized their government system is and whether rules are obeyed by the people and breaking the rules is endorsed by the law. Think Yugopotamians and Boudacians. Both are war-loving races, but that’s their culture. Fairies don’t mind if they attack other planets and enslave other races. That’s just what they do. What’s important to them is if the Yugopotamian king and queen are good, strong rulers who endorse rules and punish deviations from them.

See, Fairies love Da Rules. They love rules in general. So they think everyone should obey the rules of their society and they love seeing rulebreakers punished- regardless of what rule was broken. This is one of their major problems with the Anti-Fairies. Anti-Fairies operate on the line of thinking that, “It’s okay to break rules for the greater good” whereas Fairies think, “The rules exist for a reason and they were put in place by someone who knew better than us; of course they still apply in this day and age and you’re insulting their memory and endangering the structure of society by breaking them”.

Once upon a time, Fairies were wild folk who tormented travelers. Rules brought structure to their society. It was chaos. What I’m trying to say here is, Fairies like rules because they like order. They don’t like to go places they aren’t safe, so they like seeing rules that say things like, "It’s illegal for someone of the _ race to kill a Fairy.” They have to be able to trust that members of the _ race will adhere to that rule. If members of the _ race are known for breaking rules, then why should Fairies believe that they’ll also follow the “Don’t kill Fairies” rule? It’s much safer to stay far away and not let any member of the _ race get too close. They might break the rule.

Fairies value honesty and trust. They’re generally a suspicious people until you win their trust. Once they see you as a trustworthy person, they lose all reason to doubt you and don’t really process the possibility that you were being nice to lead them into a trap. That’s basically how you catch Fairies. Be nice, make them trust you, and then betray them. They never see it coming.

Fairies like working with innocent children. They trust children. They’re more wary of adults. Adults tend to pull this trick on them a lot.

So, whether Vlad, Danny, or someone else were acting as political head of the Ghosts wouldn’t matter much to Fairies so long as the leader were overseeing the adherence of the Ghost Laws or whatever they’re called. Yes, Vlad has history, but a lot of leaders do. If he’s maintaining order in society, then he must be a good leader. Order, structure, and rules are crucial.

Let’s say that post-“Phantom Planet”, Danny hears rumors about the Fairies, as well as rumors about an approaching enemy. He’s not exactly Ghost King like Pariah was- my personal headcanon is that Danny isn’t interested in even looking into those kinds of politics and figuring out if he even qualifies to become king, so he continues acting more like a ghost catching superhero much the way he has been. Ghosts generally respect him (Sometimes out of admiration, sometimes out of fear), but there’s no political structure or solid government, and he’s not a king. Pariah fell centuries ago. Ghost society hasn’t rebuilt itself since. Why would it all of a sudden snap back into place just because Danny’s around? These things take time, and Danny is still a young teenager whose priorities lie elsewhere.

So, let’s say that shortly after “Phantom Planet”, Danny (who is not a king but is sort of high rank as far as Ghosts are concerned) were to hear rumors about some huge magical or alien enemy. Even if he approached Fairy World and requested they dip their hand into Ghostly business somehow (Alliances, war, etc.), he’d be fighting an uphill battle at that time since the Ghost Zone lacks structure. Fairies are usually private, suspicious critters and they’re not just going to open their gates to a race they consider wild. They don’t even see the Ghost Zone as “orderly yet evil” as they do with the Anti-Fairies. Just. Wild. Fairies like their rules and they can’t see themselves meeting wild Ghosts halfway.

I imagine a Danny-approach scene would go down with Jorgen and other big-shots like the Council Robes surrounding him and eyeing him up as he explains why he sought them out and what he’s requesting of them. Fairies aren’t purely altruistic; the reason they invest so much time and energy into godparenting is because of what they get out of it (Syncing with other creatures in a godparent/godkid relationship gives them boosted magic and therefore boosted immune systems, healing capabilities, and a slower aging process being the main one).

So, Danny would explain what he wants from Jorgen / the Fairy Council, who would demand favors and things in return. I like to think that these favors would be open-ended “to be claimed at a later date” in the way of old folklore, and kind of freak him out.

That’s how Fairies see Ghosts. Wild and chaotic. They don’t really trust them. That’s why even though both races have existed for millennia, they stay out of each other’s business.

Might also be worth pointing out my headcanon that Ghosts can’t get into Fairy World unless they are invited, and Fairies can’t get into the Ghost Zone without being invited either. It’s not like Fairies can just poof into the Ghost Zone and out again. I’m not sure their magic even works. And I’ll bet Ghosts in Fairy World would function like Ghosts in the Ghost Zone: They can’t pass through solid objects and stuff. Why bother going to Fairy World if it’s like the Ghost Zone? Ghosts would much rather stay on Earth where they can actually do ghostly things like not eat, not sleep, and walk through walls.

But to approach the Fairies, Danny would have to learn about them first. The head(s) of the Ghost government would almost certainly be aware of Fairies, but it’s not information Ghost commoners have access to.

So on the Ghost side of things, it’s not really an option for people to know. If Pariah was still reigning, then yes, there would be some Ghosts who communicated on a somewhat-regular basis with Fairies. But he’s not. The Ghostly government system is still picking itself back up after his fall, and since it’s so disorganized and turf wars are constantly being fought, the Fairies view the Ghosts as a chaotic society and normally try to stay out of their way.

TL;DR - The Fairies don’t want to get anywhere near the Ghosts until Ghosts have some sort of Ghost Laws book like Da Rules and there is someone of authority preventing or punishing rulebreaks. Danny and Vlad being half-human doesn’t mean anything to them. They’re still considered Ghosts, and Fairies don’t have any interest in random single Ghosts. Only figureheads speaking for the Ghost Zone as a whole.

But once the Ghosts create some laws and obtain a public figurehead who doesn’t seem to be a Fairy-killer and seems to have things under control, the Pixies would be the ones to approach and touch base. Figure out all the legalities there about alliances, trade rights, passports, and stuff like that. Try to help Ghosts get back on their feet and bring a little more structure to the Ghost Zone. Fairy tourists wouldn’t be allowed in at this time, but once the Pixies give the okay, then there’s a possibility for slightly more open travel.

…

Technically the Pixies don’t get there first when the Ghosts are interested in allying with their cloudland brethren, but that’s a fanfic for another day.

#asks #Anon #ridwriting #Going Ghost!#Unfortunately there aren't many halfas so I can't strip them of political rights #That's what makes me mad I want halfa OCs for that specific reason but I caaan't #FAIRIES!#We're Pixies!#Main Phantom trio #The Vlad tag #Devil's Backbone

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