#i'm jumping to different fandoms like it's a sport
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Happy Birthday, Claude.
#i'm jumping to different fandoms like it's a sport#fe3h#fire emblem three houses#claude von riegan#claude von riegen#claude fe3h#golden deer#fire emblem#fanart#fire emblem fanart#my art#spiteful art
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playboyy: no fags, no femmes
okay, so. playboyy meta. thanks to @lugarn, @chaos0pikachu, and @cryptidafter for talking all this out with me <3
i originally started this post with "not to be that guy," but honestly, i do want to be that guy. because so much of the critique and analysis of playboyy i'm seeing is a) grounded in a lack of knowledge about queer history and aesthetics and b) veers unintentionally but wildly into unexamined homophobia.
so, given i'm going to reference susan sontag's notes on camp several times, i've decided i might as well go full queer studies major about it and copy the list style she uses. (i would highly recommend reading notes on camp. it is academic and somewhat dense, but it's a tame 13 pages)
1. so many people are confidently asserting that playboyy is not camp, regardless of what the creatives behind the show think. to which i have to ask: how are you defining camp? what things are campy to y'all?
2. the personal definition of camp that i arrived at after writing a bunch of papers about it is two-fold: camp is exaggeration, treating things that are serious casually and treating things that are casual seriously. camp is about an aesthetic of inhabiting a role, where something is a little bit off or being something that it's not meant to be.
and to be clear, this is a wildly incomplete and simplified definition, because one of the points of camp is that it's a vibe, not something concrete. It’s also something that shifts over time the relationship between queerness and society changes.
2a. camp often intersects and overlaps with surrealism, like in rocky horror picture show. very often media that is campy exits the mundane world and enters a heightened world of exaggeration and stylization.
3. so, is playboyy campy? i sure as hell think it is. i think lugarn and chaos0pikachu both made really good points about the campiness of playboyy and it being specifically sexwork camp. (both replies are at that link.)
4. a brief list of things that specifically resonated as campy to me: first throwing american dollars in the pool for soong to catch, zouey's fantasy of feeling up teena in art class, every single element of nant's room (especially the projected images), captain's sports plot that involved zero doing the sport and 100% fucking and fantasy, the softly romantic framing of nuth and phob's sex scenes, jump's pleather tank top & coverall combination, prom wearing assless chaps to a rooftop party at 2:30 in the afternoon, the entire concept of investigating a disappearance via a themed party... i could go on and on, but i said this was brief.
5. i think the actual problem a lot of people have with playboyy is that it doesn't care about straight people.
6. what i mean by that is that playboyy is not a universal story. you could not plug different characters with different sexualities into the plot and preserve the essence of the story. the gayness of the characters is integral to the plot. the sex work is integral to the plot. this is not a world where homophobia doesn't exist and being gay is just like being straight.
7. additionally, these characters are all performing gender in a specifically queer way. they are femmes and fags, they are obvious, they are clockable, they're visible. when nice gays talk about the people who are giving gays a bad reputation and making it harder for everyone (to assimilate into heteropatriarchy) they're talking about playboyy gays.
8. comparing playboyy to only friends is low hanging fruit at this point, but i would argue that the reason boston stood out in that cast and was so viciously punished by the ending is because he was a fag stuck in a nice gays narrative.
9. and this is where the fandom homophobia comes in. so, so many people describe these characters and chaotic and messy, watchable as incoherent and vaguely amusing from a distance, but without real substance. the resulting narrative is often that no one could take their characters or their stories seriously or resonate with them.
10. again, why? why was ray and sand's high and low, blow up fights, calling each other whores relatable but soong and first's miscommunications about what they mean to each other unbelievable chaos? why is white taking black's place an acceptable plot point, but nont pretending to be nant is absurd?
11. most bls do not deal with flamboyance except in limited capacities by comedic side characters. flamboyance is a baseline trait for most of the playboyy characters. so if they feel too much, too loud, too out there, consider asking yourself why they do.
12. to a large extent, i think a lot of the criticism of playboyy is rooted in a bad faith refusal to engage with the show beyond a surface level pearl clutching about the sexual content. the unspoken belief here being that sex scenes are inherently vulgar distractions. they can't be integral to characters or their relationships. they can't be vital pieces of a narrative.
to which i say, there are nine thousand other BLs out there where the kissing is chaste and sex scenes are ~tastefully abstracted shots of shoulder blades and hands. watch those instead.
13. if you decide you want to watch it anyway, take a couple minutes to examine what parts of the show make you uncomfortable and why. and to be clear, i think there’s a lot of value in watching things that make you uncomfortable; media is often one of the best ways to dip into interrogating your emotional responses from a safe distance.
but don’t use discomfort to dismiss the possibility that there’s meaningful artistic and stylistic choices made to serve a meaningful narrative. take a second to sit with your reactions and ask yourself where it’s coming from.
#playboyy#playboyy meta#i want you all to know i hunted through three emails to find the rhetoric of camp essay i wrote in college for this
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yea no I lied, I couldn't leave before doing this cause obviously I'm obsessed. obviously.
here's what I could research about the staff highlighted to be working on Black Butler season 4 in the time and patience that I had right now.
Kenjiro Okada: Director
I did some casual gathering on the good ol Wik. I don't recognize a lot or any of the previous works that he has been a part of, but it is a plenty some, so feel free to take a look for yourself. for a better idea, I took a glance at him through IMBD as well. I gotta be honest, not to cause any concern but just to be blunt, it's not the best look. when briefly checking out the works that he's done, a good some of them only make it up to 6 stars. only a few actually make it up to 8. but of course this could be due to a couple different factors, such as the source materials being not well known, or just not that great to begin with. after all he works mainly with adaptation. this could be his big break idk maybe :>
further on that, here's something I borrowed from Wiki.
honestly, this could be a potential concern as well. we all know that an unfortunate part of the fandom, especially over in japan, is into things the rest of us would rather not see in anime. I don't know why else yana would continue to add fan-service time and time again(I'd rather not think of her personal preferences). so if this person is really interested in pandering to the fanbase, it may lead to some scenes being uncomfortable... as usual. but, I shouldn't focus on the negative, all in all this looks like it will be a good thing! all we want from an anime adaptation is for it to be faithful to the manga, and especially after season 1 and 2, I think this assurance is much needed. besides, this could be an indication that he will be working closely with Yana, and projects that do so have succeeded *points to campania*. I'm optimistic, and I sure hope that we're in good hands.
Hiroyuki Yoshino: Head Writer
so unless I'm looking at a different Hiroyuki Yoshino it looks like this guy is a voice actor and singer first... interesting. as far as I can see it, he hasn't voice acted anyone in Black Butler.
oh no yea completely different guy, my bad! very different. the Real Hiroyuki Yoshino(screenwriter) was the screenwriter for Book of the Atlantic! sorry. we're all good here, perfect in fact.
unless he decides to substitute someone else for the double charles :] I still remember that. I don't remember if they're in this arc and personally I wanna keep it that way.
more info.
Yumi Shimizu: Character design
I'm not really jumping out of my seat to research this one, no offense to the designer, but I don't think we'll be seeing much character design other than Yana's. as for the artistic style of the anime, we already saw the teaser, and I think we're happy(I am really trilled that they released the announcement at the same time as the teaser, the announcement alone would not have had the same huge impact. plus it reduces the fear of cancelation ;] not putting that out there).
more info.
Ryo Kawasaki: Music
this is someone I really wanted to look into cause the music will matter a lot to me.
I found it, here's the soundtrack for the upcoming season 4.
with a background of jazz and band(popularizes to fusion genre apparently), this guy doesn't appear to fit with previous Black Butler soundtrack history. but I think that this is an indication that the mood and music of this season may be different of the rest due to it now being a sports show lol. and I think that's good! if done right I think the tone change will be hilarious, or, if everyone hates it, it's easily distinguishable from the rest.
I think this will be fun. here's more. also he looks awesome. impressive guy. man I'm praying for a killer new opening GOD.
I still wonder who the composer for the more classical score that I saw in the teaser is, if not him. it was nice :>
and finally:
CloverWorks
they're doing Spy X Family, did The Promised Neverland, Shadow House, many more that even I know of, we're good!
their page
a lot of y'all are very savvy at research, so if anyone wants to add on or contradict, go ahead! have a very, lovely day, everyone.
#kuroshitsuji#black butler#cloverworks#kuroshitsuji 2024#2024 anime#kuroshitsuji anime#black butler anime#masterpost#not the most serious thing though I mean I used Wikipedia and NOW im calling it a nigjt#some of these people I couldn't find pictures of that I was sure was them during the 2 minutes I looked through google images#and maybe they want it that way so I'm leaving it as it is#long post
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Why do I feel like Oscar is intentionally keeping Lando at a distance because he assumes it would never work out? And Lando kind of wishes Oscar would show an interest but he isn't so Lando pulls back too? Maybe I'm totally crazy but feels like they're doing a double fake out. If not then why not just be friendly the way they are with other guys?
This is my thought on them too. Anon explained really well. I see the same when I look at them. One of them wanna get more friendly but other's shields up and visa versa :I
(the quote comes from this anon and possibly also this one I'd received before)
I've tried giving this a look at other angles since obv none of us knows - and likely won't ever know - for sure, and I think the one way I can see this being the case is mixed signals? bc I feel like it being deliberate on either of their parts is too far a stretch.
long thing below and usual caveat that no I do not write this stuff thinking I actually know what's going on and it's just for fun and I do not take it seriously !!
like on the one hand, for a while before and even after meeting Oscar, Lando kept having to hear about this "rookie" who'd soon be his teammate and how he'd be the more experienced one etc. jokes about him "looking after" the new kid and how is he settling in blah blah. none of which Lando was remotely enthused about, understandably so. unlike team sports, mentoring isn't really something teammates do for each other in racing since they're each other's greatest measure of competition.
and Lando joined F1 so young (and was in the McLaren development program even younger) that while his talent and personality often deceives a lot of people into thinking he's become established and experienced, Lando himself doesn't rate experience much when it isn't bringing race wins or the WDC any closer. and his personality on camera was largely defined by latching onto Carlos and Daniel. he was a little more vulnerable around Carlos but mostly the dynamic of big brother/baby brother was the same for both those relationships. Lando with Max F and the Quadrant folks is pretty different to who he is with those older guys.
so it's easy to see why he didn't feel at all prepared to play the role that everyone kept assuming for him when Oscar came along. and re this babbling I did I genuinely think the difference between how young and small Oscar still was when they first met in winter of 2022 to the infamous "did you grow, what the fuck" moment was transformational for Lando. you look at his eyes gluing themselves to Oscar when Oscar isn't looking and the cheeky way he keeps getting Oscar's attention - and the way Oscar can't hide his surprise and how pleased he is - and I truly think the dynamic started to shift from a sort of stiff friendliness to Lando being genuinely interested in this guy.
Lando said himself that before the season properly started, he and Oscar had been so busy when they were in the same space that they didn't really talk beyond hello and goodbye. which needn't have been the case. I think a fair part of that was Lando's poor bruised heart at having Carlos leave and then Daniel being bought out, just not ready to deal with what he could fairly assume would be some younger guy jumping in wanting to do the bromance bit and glom onto Lando's popularity - all while probably cynically planning to strategize a way to a better seat or maybe one day take Lando's place at McLaren. his knowledge of Oscar at that point was of what a strong up and coming threat he was and that he had the balls/audacity (depending who you ask) to go up against his development team. and that Oscar had gone F1 fandom viral multiple times and was actually an existing personality to F2 and F3 circles. nothing about Oscar seemed vulnerable or unsure and yet people would not stop asking Lando about him as if he were Lando's responsibility.
and as Oscar said, his low frequency personality can often get mistaken (even by Mahk Wibba!) for not caring or being engaged. and if someone wasn't aware of his social media then I could see them thinking that someone as cool and calm as Oscar was almost aloof or disinterested.
with that limited knowledge, Lando would have been right to be wary. hell, Lando was distinctly cool toward Daniel when Daniel showed up pushing the 'landan' agenda as replacing carlando. we all know they ofc became good friends. but we also know that Lando wasn't remotely going to be guilted by Netflix or the fans into feeling responsible or overly concerned for Daniel's struggles. Lando was still very young and focusing on cementing his place in the sport. Daniel's inner and outer turmoil as a 30-something was for him to deal with.
so knowing what we now do of Oscar, this was not an ideal setup for him to meet the driver and new teammate - The Lando Norris - who he'd been a fan of for almost all of his junior career.
and on Oscar's side, it is extremely safe to say that after the Alpine/DR drama he just wanted to get his head down and prove to McLaren he wouldn't be any trouble and was more than willing to put in overtime at MTC and solo with the engineers (I think he essentially said this in the Laura Winter interview). his time spent in the car would speak for itself. but I feel like it's also fair to assume that Oscar not only being a fan of Lando's already but also knowing that he was following in Daniel's wake, Oscar mostly tried to just… not be a problem for Lando. that he put all the power and control over how their relationship developed outside of the track and meetings fully into Lando's hands - if indeed a relationship would develop (and it doesn't always). Oscar was used to looking after himself and he'd probably preferred to not risk upsetting Lando's routine or worse, pissing him off. I would not be at all surprised if that's what Oscar assumed was the safest, simplest approach.
but !! Oscar not launching into a bromance for the sake of his own image and him not trying to push for a relationship immediately for the sake of cementing the partnership would absolutely have felt weird and alien to Lando. and considering what was popularly said about Oscar following the Alpine stuff, him not pushing himself into Lando's space possibly would've come off as distant or cold and probably a bit calculating/cocky. maybe even a bit as if Oscar was so sure of himself, his youth and so laser focused on his own advancement (and boy did Netflix frame it up that way, dramatic Dutch angle and all) that it seemed as if he didn't see the point or the need in benefiting from an alliance with Lando. again - that's just possible conclusions that someone like Lando who hates having his stability threatened might have felt.
this is an even more HUGE leap but we know that Oscar visibly watched Lando closely since the start of the season and was learning from him and about him. and that Andrea had already instilled his new 'team before driver competition' ethos. and that Lando had seen examples of Oscar showing up for him - as a teammate at least - when their relative 'fortunes' before the updates would regularly see Lando in a better position or a better result. and like, if I were to truly jump to a conclusion here I'd say that Lando's gradual thaw in between Australia and Monaco absolutely delighted Oscar - and that he wouldn't have expected any more from Lando at all. Lando being chummy with him during media and a bit of bonding over the state of the car at the time could easily have felt more than enough for Oscar. (and just to throw in here as well that in those much earlier videos together, there were little flashes of Lando's sarcasm bordering on passive agressive but Oscar just laughing delightedly. like I think he fully either didn't mind or didn't notice that Lando was bleeding a bit of genuine annoyance over the car into their dynamic at times. the British theory test is a very good example of that.) whereas from Lando's perspective, maaaaaybe Oscar being so content with so little effort from him - compared to Carlos and Daniel - could have confirmed his suspicion that Oscar wasn't actually interested in being truly friends or bonding? idk that's me really exploring a big blue vague space asgfjlsagf. even more than I already do lol.
now I'm not saying at ALL that these friendships are remotely phony or PR because they're absolutely close in real life! but there's also no doubt in saying that like a lot of the drivers, Carlos and Daniel show up to a new teammate with the usual bromance shtick in their back pocket. and with how successful carlando and dando have proven to be with fans and sponsors and networks, they play into it with just a touch of cynicism even now. again, not saying that's nefarious at all and Lando's no dummy when it comes to personal brands and "shipping" etc. the boy is a youtuber/streamer lol so he /knows/. but yea, the 'oooh aren't we acting gay!' and overly touchy feely stuff especially is entirely for the fans' benefit. and we eat it up aslgfjsagf.
but Oscar has literally never had a bromance in any of the stages of his career and he doesn't publicize any of his non-racing friendships like the boys from boarding school he's still close to. we know he has probably a higher level of awareness of queer existence/culture than most of these guys and he doesn't hide it. I know the bar is in hell but it's significant enough that Oscar's never once used 'gay' as either an insult or as a hilarious joke - and he's had an active presence on social media since 2019 (his dad managed everything before that). when a Prema challenge was for him to kiss someone in the room and Arthur kept pushing, we know from the thumbnail that Oscar gave him a kiss through the covid plexiglass and then rolled around giggling. but he didn't treat kissing a guy in particular as 'hilarious' and he's never 'played gay' with any other guys. he also doesn't talk about Lily as if she's an accessory or "his". he brings her up in the context of things they did together or things she told him etc. the boy just doesn't know any degree of toxic masculinity apparently!!
where this gets confusing for Lando is that men are always dying to touch or cuddle or fawn over him - whether it's as a cute little brother like Carlos does (sorry fellow carlandos but that's the non-rpf truth) as a stereotypical bromance like Daniel does (and oh how I love that his ass caught feelings when he didn't mean to) or some potent mixture of fondness and attraction, which constitutes basically every other man who's met Lando.
and god knows I've written time and again how poor Lando does not know what to do with Oscar when Oscar looks with such intensity and he says so many things that show Lando respect and care and kindness. but he simply will not touch him ?? and he won't even half-fake half-serious flirt with him !! and he won't even take the bait when a bromance moment is pushed on them ! and when they're pressed close like in Twister, Oscar looks pink and flustered and refuses to put his leg between Lando's even though Daniel and Carlos have practically wrestled Lando with limbs akimbo multiple times. Oscar initiating the side hug at Silverstone was such an event that even Lando looked staggered by it. that's so strange !! Oscar is not remotely homophobic and he's not at all stand-offish physically and he's fine with people touching and hugging him. sure he doesn't do excessive PDA even with Lily but he still does some. he clearly is fond of Lando and doesn't mind when Lando decides to touch him. but we haven't even seen them hug ! and Oscar will give Lando such sincere praise and respect but he won't use hyperbole or make jokes like Carlos saying he was jealous of Lando liking Daniel or Daniel cracking sexual jokes about him and Lando.
and I fully feel like that breaks Lando's brain a little and has to make him falter at times bc everyone touches Lando and crosses easily over into some form of casual intimacy with him. Lando hides absolutely nothing and is extremely easy going. people feel very comfortable engaging with him, knowing that he'll play along so long as they're being kind or friendly.
and I think that's where the decision Lando made to let his brattier moods out around Oscar comes from. it's a very weird sort of compliment to Oscar that Lando isn't worried about pissing him off or being rejected - and I think it came from Lando being a little frustrated with Oscar for not falling in line with how everyone else is with him and not being able to get a secure read on how Oscar feels about him. as well as like I said earlier how Lando would be a little passive aggressive in his humor but Oscar never took offense. so Lando lets all his petulance and impatience come out around Oscar in a way I don't really know that he does much with anyone else? I think there's been a few times he's gotten like that around Max but Max has a good strong hand with him. but even when Lando goes Full Brat like the beloved Tic Tac Toe filming day Oscar is still endlessly charmed by Lando and you can see Lando soften and blush bc he knows he’s really letting it all out and Oscar is still being so good with him. Carlos would’ve picked him up and put him in a bin and Daniel would’ve out bratted him ajsbjsbsjd.
we know that Silverstone was a huge stepping stone for Lando and Oscar's relationship but I wish I could pinpoint before then when it was that Oscar realized just how much he couldn't apply his former racing friendships as a model for interacting with Lando. that Lando is anything but 'typical blokey guy' and even more than that, he isn't remotely typical or like anyone else in any way. definitely it was after Australia and by Austria the shift had already happened and we could see Lando watching Oscar as much as Oscar watched Lando. the trust and beginnings of feeling comfortable had already begun to be earned before Silverstone for sure.
and by the time he did this BTG interview, the genuinely fond way he talked about Oscar and mentioned the ways they're similar is such a major shift from simply saying that Oscar is calm and super quiet and fast as a driver. then we hit Singapore (where Lando sought Oscar out to spray champagne on him) the double podiums and Oscar's extension.
and then the Austin weekend and the filming they did and Lando posting that beautiful photo of Oscar smiling back at him all seems to have brought them to a place where yea, if we're being honest the lingering looks and the sense of sweetness to their shared humor is the dynamic we've had ever since.
and at this point I think what people are mistaking for a fakeout or misunderstanding is just that their lives outside of racing are so vastly different. Lando is in perpetual motion and constantly in demand and if you don't do a common activity with him like golf or padel then good luck catching him. whereas Oscar has been snared by a growth spurt that seems like it's still going on and he's either sleeping, sleeping, sleeping some more, spending time with Lily, sleeping, or spending time with his friends if possible. so there just isn't really an overlap with how their lives are right now.
to go out on another pretty out there limb, the one thing I might say is that Oscar still defaults to letting Lando call the shots about how much he wants to spend time together outside of being teammates. his own life is so uncomplicated that from his perspective it would feel a little daunting to try and insert himself in Lando's ever-changing schedule and multiple friend groups - esp since he already has so much time with Lando anyway due to the racing calendar. we know that it happens at times and that it's never broadcasted, only mentioned after the fact. it tends to be flying together or choosing to have lunch or after race meals together. the one time that rly gets to me is after Vegas when Lando could barely muster the energy to hit the tables with Max, Ria and Aarava. we find out later he spent at least part of that night with Oscar and someone mentioned that Oscar will have wanted to watch the cricket so like? it's kind of touching as well as saying a lot that the best time for their social lives to overlap is when it can be calm and quiet and Lando specifically does not want to be busy or loud. Lando dopey with painkillers and moody about crashing out of the race, possibly holed up in a hotel room with Oscar and the cricket playing on TV just sounds very sweet and likely. but other than those moments, their social lives just don't intersect easily. yet!!
but yea, I think ?? that by now they've kind of reached a comfortable place of knowing - at least for now - what their relationship is. it's why I honestly assumed Lando was finally doing the visit to Daniel's ranch and wouldn't be meeting up with Oscar in Australia. they're simply not to the point of coordinating off season schedules. even less of a surprise since he ended up spending less than 24 hours in Perth before he and Martin moved on!
ofc we as fans cannot get enough content of them together and just want more. but a lot of that is McLaren social media deciding to drop off just as McLaren started climbing up the grid ??? if they can get their shit together for 2024 then we'll see as much Lando and Oscar as we always did Lando with Carlos and Daniel.
#inchreplies#g o d I talk a fucking lot#bless you ppl who find it fun to read over breakfast or lunch bc at least it's entertaining someone other than just me !!#landoscar#inchidentallyanessay
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X-Men '97 and the Gambit Ford F-150 Trailer Hitch Clutching
So I haven't watched all the episodes yet, but I wanted to address the stuff I've seen/heard about certain dudes in the "fandom" getting all upset about Gambit's crop top and how it made him seem gay or bi coded, even though in the entire episode he's classic Remy LeBeau from the original 90s series--not too interesting in helping out or doing anything other than what he wants to do, shamelessly flirting with Rogue, and busting everyone else's balls/possibly flirting with them too, but will still jump into the fight when it's time.
Oh, and Gambit was my favorite X-Men character growing up and I'm a cishet male, if that matters. Spoiler alert: It shouldn't.
"Holy Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, Batman! It's his belly button."
If that's you, you clearly were too young in the 90s to remember the fashion of the day. The top photo and the ending basketball scene (a references to the comics as well), was soooo 80s/90s. Bishop's got a lime green tank top on and Cyclops' tank top is tucked into his shorts. The animators understood the assignment.
If anything, Remy (above) is rock-n-roll coded more than anything else. Just Google most 80s era rock bands that had songs about partying, sex, hot babes, etc. and you'll see big hair, eyeliner, bright colors, leather pants, jewelry, fishnets, fingerless gloves, and yes... crop tops. Maybe the 80s and 90s were "gay", IDK, but I remember most of my childhood clothes in the 80s and early 90s were some variation of a neon color as was every other kid's regardless of gender.
As mentioned above, he soooo badly wants in Rogue's pants, which possibly eliminates any gay coding, which only leave bi coding if a 90s crop top = being bisexual.
Who. Freakin'. Cares. Say this out loud with me. You can like, love, and enjoy a character without identifying with that character in any way, shape, or form (and that's probably a good thing for some characters). This can mean their sexuality, gender, ethnicity, religion, morality, or anything else about them. Yes, we can bring in the Punisher debate and how military and law enforcement appropriated the Punisher logo as their badge of honor and intimidation, and how they cherry-picked traits from that character to signal their toxic masculinity when Frank Castle is not meant to be a patron saint of law enforcement or the military. But it is also possible to just enjoy a character without making that character your identity. You can enjoy their characterization, storylines, or even something as simple as their costume, superpowers, or where they're from because you were born or grew up there too.
As mentioned above, Gambit was my favorite character growing up when I first got into X-Men, mostly thanks to this series, and he and I are very different. To me, Gambit was the cool, confident guy that I wasn't. He also wasn't Cyclops or Wolverine.
As a kid, most kids wanted to be Wolverine when playing X-Men on the playground because he had the claws and the healing factor. To us, he was OP which fit in with the whole childish argument of big, bigger, biggest, and finally infinity whatever... until someone busted out with the infinity times infinity argument. Also, there was no real internet and comics weren't readily accessible, so most of the knowledge at that time was from the show and limited comics one might've had. Plus, I think the whole Magneto pulls the adamantium from Wolverine's body storyline hadn't happened yet so yeah, that would've been a good game changer on the playground.
Anyway, outside of Batman, I was never a fan of the "popular" thing growing up and often preferred more underdog characters, teams, and things. Also, due to self-esteem issues I always felt less than, so while I liked Wolverine it was hard for him to be my favorite since he was everyone else's and I felt like I wasn't cool enough to like him. Cyclops on the other hand was the clean cut boy scout, which also didn't appeal to me because that was also something I didn't relate to. Outside of Beast and Morph, who got sidelined earlier in the series, that then left Gambit. (Note: Bishop wasn't a part of the main group and came later on.) But Gambit also seemed cool to me. He had a cool looking outfit, was agile and knew how to fight (I was into martial arts at the time as well), and could throw explosive cards. He definitely fit the "Rule of cool" in my child brain.
Lastly, and this goes back to point #4 above, it shouldn't matter what a character is like or how they identify. They're fictional and enjoying them as a medium should be fun. They are not you and you are not them, even if you have things in common. That said, I do think it's great when there's representation as well. I don't recall if this was in the OG series, though I seriously doubt it was, and I don't know about main Marvel canon, but I also think it's cool that Morph now has they/them pronouns as seen in the profile credits and Marvel wiki. I'm sure some people have missed this and I'm sure that'll be the next hot-button issue, but whether Gambit is gay, bi, straight, or whatever, he's still one of my favorites and it's why I grabbed this guy when it first came out.
I have more things to say about this first episode and my experience with the X-Men growing up, but I'll save that for other posts as this has gotten long enough already.
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The issue with Owl House is that it’s cliche in the most boring way. A show can be filled with overused tropes yet still be entertaining yet the Owl House just…isn’t.
This is why I can’t rewatch the show because it’s just not exciting enough to do so.
So I'm mostly going to focus on the rewatch value of the show here rather than the trope elements, I feel like I covered that only a couple blogs ago. For why it's a bad rewatch though: I've said before that TOH is REALLY good at introducing elements and TERRIBLE at follow through. Amity was presented with a lot of great potential in just two episodes because of how clear it was that her current relationship with success was toxic but that you also didn't necessarily want to see her fail in her goals. Then she becomes just a love interest who entirely forgets her goals and has pretty much everything we had introduced in the first two episodes she appeared in swept under the tacky rug named Odalia. Literally two of the first 5 episodes... Wasted. Almost entirely pointless because you could jump in at Lost in Language and her character reads WAY more consistent... But less compelling. She wants to be good at school but it isn't consuming her mind, even at that point despite Luz not really having discussed that part of her at all. She's much closer to a normal, driven girl rather than one demented by the need to succeed. That is frankly just less interesting, at least without ANY explanation as to why besides 'girl crush'. It's akin to how by Escaping Expulsion, she's let her grades slip and only seems to care because her parents are saying she's not allowed to have friends because of it. Or, more importantly, Luz.
That's the thing: Most of the character arcs and elements in TOH don't build on one another. Instead, you start with this really well built house that could use a few additions but it's quite serviceable as is... And then each episode takes a sledgehammer to it. Even the world counts for this. An interesting dystopia fueled by greed where being normal is prioritized over being good? Where everyone is looking for a dime and would threaten to kill you for their own gain because they know they'll get away with it so long as they do it in a normal manner? That's FASCINATING. And that is explicitly the Isles we get for about three episodes.
But then with Covention, it shrinks. Suddenly people are just a little suspicious of Eda but you start realizing that she does run a market stall in the middle of town. That without posters, people practically don't care about her bounty. Cheating is seen as unacceptable rather than what should be the norm with the lack of morals on the Isles. All while it hasn't actually examined the world it implied early on besides honestly a pretty normal con artist and the fact the school was willing to kill an intruder.
Just think about any element really. The EC/Lilith? Presented as really cool and something that could genuinely be a philosophical debate against Eda. Then their second episode is Once Upon a Swap, where they end with their leader as a dog and can't control a witch who has pretty much no control over her magic. So interesting. -_- Hunter is FAMOUS for this. The Golden Guard is an entirely different personality from Hunter himself and implies a LOT of fascinating things about him... And then they're all immediately dropped by Hunting Palisman, even small details like him being a prodigy respected in the EC. Willow is an unexpected one as her first real return is Hooty's Moving Hassle which bungled her power issues so badly, it took Sport in a Storm for the majority of the fandom to realize they were resolved in the sixth episode.
It's also why the show keeps having to add elements rather than having anything to actually expand on. Eda gets pretty much her entire character finished up by the end of S1. She could still teach Luz about potions and genuinely examine the struggle she has with the difference between little magic and no magic but... Instead she gets glyphs and a super form rather than proper character development. Then she gets a love interest that is what she focuses on for a couple episodes of the season. They even have to escalate the curse, despite it being toned down being part of the S1 climax, just because they have so little to actually do with her at this point. They've accelerated her character so quickly past all the things she supposedly cared about that they have to grasp at straws for what can be pulled back. It's why Willow and Amity take effectively an entire season to follow up on the end of Understanding Willow because at that point, they're desperate for Amity to be able to do ANYTHING that isn't just Luz. It's why she suddenly gives a shit about her father out of NOWHERE. It's why Gus has to have the same problem rehashed three times but tackled at with his only two character traits and then sudden anxiety issues that technically aren't out of character but still feel like they came out of nowhere. Because if the show isn't adding something to a character, it only has so much room to go, at least from how the writers seemed to have thought.
It's actually part of why Luz is so incredibly stagnant in S1. Her character is actually really basic and the show itself has NO INTEREST in multiple elements of it. She can be described in the first episode as a bullied girl who is an outcast from normal people with a desire to live out a fantasy instead and has a good heart. Now that first half, the bullied girl who is an outcast, is jettisoned for the sake of making Luz's transition into the Isles easier/selling the idea of the Isles as a place she/the viewer want to be in easier. She never has social anxiety or the like, or even struggles to make friends and connections, because that would get in the way of seemingly what the writers actually care about like their romance plots and her wish fulfilment. So if you don't have those elements then all you have is her desire to live out a fantasy and that she has a good heart.
And for like half the show, that pretty much doesn't change at all. It's why a lot of the episodes with her effectively come down to her making a mistake because she wants to live out an Azura book, implicitly (Teenage Abomination) or explicitly (Covention), but then her good heart makes her set things right. And that is fine for your MC. It actually worked to keep her unobtrusive from the other characters as they worked through their arcs and lessons. MCs like this work well in general honestly. I've referenced Danny Phantom and Randy Cunningham as characters who fit this archtype, who also are pretty basic as both are teenage boys who would like to be popular but also have good hearts that will cause them to do the right thing even if it humiliates them, and those shows are great! There are issues with the style, and Luz has PLENTY OF THEM, but they work for a base.
But part of her stagnancy and issues with the trope is that she never seems to learn anything. That's because of TOH's problem of only tearing a character apart... Until it replaces. Lilith isn't Lilith anymore. She's now the cool aunt. Eda was practically never criminal or anarchist. She's just Momma Eda. The Golden Guard never existed, there's only the sad but mad boy. Etc. Etc.
The old character and their history do not exist and the new one... Is usually summed up really easily. Usually just with the statement of "A generally nice person." But having excised all of that old potential also means they can't do a lot with these characters without seeming to go back on their character development. This is why we get Hunter as a new Amity so someone can do her angst a second time since they decided to race past it all. It's why we get romance added more heavily because there are still tropes they can do with that genre and even love interests they can add. Why nothing gets explored because the show was so impatient to get to the big moments it wanted, even before the shortening since that mostly didn't affect the first half of the series so stuff like Amity's rushed development was not something forced on them, that it lost out on the chance to do the actually interesting ideas they pitched in the first place. Remember how Luz and Eda were pitched at the beginning as student/mentor? Theoretically, as the two main characters? And how after Adventure in the Elements, they have two plots together where they speak for more than like a minute with each other. Stranger Tides and Titan Where Art Thou, the latter of which actually rehashes a concept from literally a season ago (Grom) because they just forgot about Luz wanting Eda's approval until then.
All of this, all of this rambling, makes it so that while I am a firm proponent for the journey meaning more than the destination... It's hard to want to go back on that journey. To constantly be like "This is the best this character will ever be," through the first half of the show, if that, and then have only a couple character climaxes to look forward to. Worse yet is that even these introductory episodes HINGE on payoffs down the line, like Understanding Willow. That potential was part of what made them good when honestly a lot of them are kind of boring without the novelty of the potential story they're setting up. Knowing there's no payoff just makes the setup INFURIATING.
It also makes it really easy to understand why so many praised it so much harder early on. It comes out of the gate swinging but its punches have no follow through so when S1 was done and everything was introduced, the potential for the show was laid bare, we got HUNDREDS of animatics. We got thousands of comics. The fandom has NEVER thrived harder.
But by even the hiatus in S2... There's a reason why a LOT of people jumped onto Clarvee like ravenous hounds. A reason why a lot of people jumped onto Huntlow when it started being teased. Kept jumping to new elements being added because the old ones were left to rot, if they weren't actively sabotaged.
And the finale for a lot of people so actively contradicted one of those early statements, one of those early novelties people pointed to for why an okay episode was better than it was, that it really feels like it fractured the fandom. A lot of people saw Luz become a chosen one, literally empowered by God with no consequences and little work, and one of those things that people praised from episode 2... Shattered.
And suddenly they realized that strong house they thought they'd lived in the entire series had so many holes in it from the sledgehammers that it all simply fell as if it were always a house of cards.
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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Meanwhile the others were held back, burdened with false unfavourable images and had to claw their way out of the ditch. They weren't given the same chance to shine, because Sony though there could only be one successful star out of 1D. They also held the others back to have everyone's focus on H. ///
Liam had David Beckham's manager and a great deal with UMG. Nobody was telling him he couldn't make it because he has an excellent voice. Capitol Records was delighted to sign Niall and gave him the same opportunities Harry had. Straight into touring, first to release a single. Nobody told Niall he couldn't make it and RCA certainly didn't tell Zayn that either. When he was signed the CEO called him an 'icon' and his first single was more successful than SOTT.
Only Louis was told by the music press that he wouldn't have a solo career but that was based on his shaky vocals. If the industry really thought he had no chance nobody would have signed him.
Hi, anon!
I'm not saying they weren't given a shot at success. They all were, despite the odds. They were all from a very successful band, were talented, lovely boys and with huge fanbase backing. Of course other labels would jump on that, there were money to be made on them. But the other four boys didn’t have the perfectly curated image, the international recognisable face and notoriety, preperation time nor the billion dollar label deal. They were all fortunate to sign good-ish label deals, but had to rebrand to fix their images (as well as they could, Sony still controls it). They also needed to compete against each other because they didn’t have gp recognition like H had.
Imagine how different things would be if Zayn was the one tasked with dating TS to help 1D break America, or if Louis was the one in the BBC deal with Nick Grimshaw, or if Niall was the one to attend fashion shows, if H was made to date E and Liam dated Kendall Jenner. Sony gave all this to Harry so that he'd be ready to go solo after 1D.
Liam got Beckham's manager who'd never managed a music artist before, only sport stars. It showed. Liam also brought with him an image of people's least favourite member, with an addiction due to the way they were treated in the band, and little name recognition in the US. The label and management struggled to create an image for him and find a fitting sound that the fans responded well to. Remember the payne chain era? The controversy around his bi song? It showed inexperience and lack of understanding of trends and fandom by both label and management.
Niall got a good deal but he was still stuck with Mo*est who was hated by the entire fandom. He was able to successfully rebrand, because his previous image wasn't in tatters. He got rid of the blond hair, dressed better and found his sound pretty quick. He's dated/been linked to other celebrities and gotten his name out there like Pal*in. Hail*e and Sele*a, and he's "bff"'s with Shawn. He's also been a judge on the voice that have exposed him to american audiences. He still haven't been given the opportunities that H has. He wasn't hung from a helicopter in his first music video. He isn't writing songs with max martin. He's on a budget.
Zayn jumped ship and had a really good start to his solo career. That song is a banger. Turned out his time in 1D was traumatic enough that he'd gotten anxiety and adopted some not good coping mechanisms that hindered his career developement. I think he was tired of fame and his fake mysterious image and needed time out of the spotlight. He needed to prioritise himself and his mental health.
I've discussed Louis so many times, that i won't repeat myself and we all know what he's been through and is still going through.
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I'm getting really tired of Ian using the whole thing about the writing and characterization in the series being inconsistent throughout the years as an excuse. Yes, there has many wildly different interpretations and takes of the characters in the many different spin-offs in media that have been made throughout it's history. Imo it's why the franchise has remained so relevant and it's fandom so active to this day, because it's made the characters and series more accessible that way. Anywhere can be a jumping on point for people. But I really don't think people are asking too much for there to be some consistency or set of rules within a continuity that he and the others working on IDW have, or tried to have, established. Unlike with Archie, where they were literally making things up as they went along, they're supposed to be starting completely from scratch with IDW.
And it doesn't help with him doing writing work on a mainline game like Frontiers, because it's meant to take place in the same exact canon as the main games. Assuming he had something to do with it, I wouldn't have any problem with how the whole Eggdad thing was done(aside from it just feeling completely rushed) if it was in a completely different continuity that was it's own thing, as the character has had so many different portrayals throughout the franchise's history. But since this is meant to be the same Eggman from the games, I have to look at it through the lense of how he's been in the previous games up until that point- which I would say has actually been pretty damn consistent- and because of that, it feels so off-putting for him to suddenly soften up out of nowhere, when he normally would have immediately pushed the off button on Sage, or do a bit of "reprogramming", the second she started talking back.
It's a lazy copout, not befitting of Best Sonic Writer The Veteran, and it's not even true!
You know what, I'll just put this from the FAQ, which wasn't written for sport:
“Games!Sonic is inconsistent.”
Yes, different writers choose to emphasize different aspects of Sonic’s personality. In ShTH, he was overly giddy and excited, and even seemed to not notice Shadow being upset because he remembered his own death. In ‘06, he was overly stoic. In Colors, he gained the sudden quirk of taunting robots who couldn’t respond.
However, Sonic still has core traits that no game has changed: for example, Games!Sonic is always supportive towards his friends, and trusts them to know what they’re doing… something that isn’t always present in IDW. Games!Sonic remarked that Shadow saved the world once and thus he isn’t just a weapon in Battle; IDW!Sonic guilt-tripped him by reminding him that he tried to obliterate the planet once in #6. Games!Sonic listens to Tails, and he makes sure to apologize to him after the one time he has offended him in Lost World; IDW!Sonic brushes Tails off and deflects blame when Tails confronts him about his decision to let Metal Sonic go in #50. Games!Sonic is fairly terse when it comes to himself, and only speaks for longer when he talks about the power of friendship; IDW!Sonic goes on whole speeches about his general modus operandi (granted, this is an issue with Flynn’s writing in general, who really seems to like writing many words).
Sonic is a simple character at his core, and as such, the traits that make his very being have always been respected. Sonic is friendly, kind although with a noticeable ego, he always always tries to save people in need even if he has no idea of what's going on, always sees the best in those people, but he's somewhat uncaring of villains, especially the ones who have crossed the line in his mind - he doesn't automatically go for the kill, but if he has to kill them, he'll do it. The fact that he's more of a chatterbox in Colors than he is in '06 doesn't mean that there is one game where Sonic has suddenly turned into a manipulative bastard, or somehow thinks that Eggman could ever reform.
The games. They're meant to be played. With care.
And of course, same with Eggman. Yes, the Eggman from '06 is a much more serious, less hammy version of the character, that is inconsistent. But throughout 31 years, Eggman never, ever displayed any positive quality that would suggest that he'd grow emotionally attached to a child, even one of his creation. This is why I hate the argument "well Bowser can be a dad and still be evil!" sure! Bowser. Not Eggman. They're not the same character. Anti-heroes who slash everyone in their way and still are heroic exist, but that doesn't mean that Sonic would be one of them!
Justifying it with "muh inconsistency" means you're not above the level of a 6 year old who makes up the rules of the game as they go along, because they really want to win.
#sonic the hedgehog#also i really hate flynn's sarcastic attitude#'it's not like...' shut up and be courteous will you?#and more respectful to the brand that allowed you to ascend so high
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10 characters/10 fandoms
YESSS THANK YOU @jaynesilver FINALLY MY WIDE READING OF FIC COMES IN HANDYYY
We're gonna go chronologically through my life because I think that's REALLY FUN (I legit couldn't choose a west wing character just know that if there's a secret 11th character is the ensemble cast of the west wing)
Artemis Fowl, Artemis Fowl
My first antihero, and we started YOUNG on that, I was reading these books premiddle school. I was obsessed with these books as a kid, and I'm still obsessed with them today. There's rumors of a third, more adult series when Artemis and Holly may get together and I will EAT THAT SHIT UP I LOVE THEM
2. Vexen, Kingdom Hearts
I Legit think this man primed me to enjoy Hux as a character. Like, I'm not kidding, I was obsessed with him as a kid. I'm 90% certain I wrote deviant art fan fic, but I have since abandoned that account so it's hard to know for sure if it ever got published. I was definitely roll playing at age, like, 13? way too young but god I loved him he was BATSHIT
3. Ianto Jones, Torchwood
Man, I can't really explain how much Ianto Jones as a character, he and Jack's kiss on screen, their relationship, and the events of the 456 changed me? It was DEEP though, I woke up the next day a different person, with much less trust in television writer's and their good intentions.
4. Desmond Miles, Assassin's Creed
We have to jump a few years to mid high school, because no joke I was on that Kingdom Hearts train for a WHILE. I love him, he was probably my first blorbo, before the term was invented. I tried to play the games after (MAJOR SPOILER) but I just couldn't do it. They didn't have the draw without him.
5. Stiles Stilinski, Teen Wolf
Now we've hit late high school, arguably my second blorbo. As a kid with ADHD, he was no joke valuable representation to me, even if it was sometimes played for laughs. I was also the least athletic kid on multiple sports teams who still tried really hard, so I got him, yknow?
6. Will Graham, Hannibal
It's legit tough for me to chose if I like the Will Graham of the books or the TV show better. (Don't ask me about the movies, I haven't seen them, and I probably won't. Movies and I have trouble. See: ADHD.) I'm not sure if he's a blorbo or just like, a regular character I like? My hannibal phase was my last 8 year ship, so the line is pretty blurred.
Now we've reached the part where I dived into a lot of fandoms at once, because I dropped out of college and kind of did a weird spiral? Idk, we've lost chronology is what I'm saying
7. Artemis Crock, Young Justice
god I cannot say enough good things about her and I also cannot express how much (MAJOR SPOILER) made me mad FOR HER. Like it was cruel specifically to her and we should talk more about that, honestly. She was definitely a blorbo, but we're still PRE blorbo as a word in my vocabulary.
8. Darcy Lewis, MCU
My first real fandom bicycle, I ship her with everyone from Loki to Agent Coulson to Natasha. As someone who often feels like the comic relief character in their own life, I appreciate her.
9. Kent Parson, OMG Check Please
My sweet, sweet disaster son. My emotionally constipated hockey boy. The reason captain america is my SECOND favorite character with a birthday on the Fourth of July. I love him, he was amazing, and also my first experience with like, really toxic fandom was being so mad when people tried to equate his canon mental health issues with a noncanon, imagined abuse?? It was wild, I ended up so distressed about it i did have to leave the fandom.
10. Armitage Hux, Star Wars
I mean you've been on my blog for like ten seconds i think it's obvious?? The others needed explanations but like YOURE HERE YOU KNOW
WAIT I FORGOT TO TAG PEOPLE SHIT @sariastrategos @gingersnappish @fallingdeeperintothispit
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Please get more mean about fanon :) we wanna see it
prefacing this to say that one day i’m gonna post fics and make posts with bad takes & people are gonna be like uhhhh look here dude, turns out you also suck. sure! cool! we’re all multifaceted people, in theory, and sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss. I think there are a lot of really talented and interesting people in this fandom. it's all interpretations and headcanons and personal opinions. however. this is what misses for me:
fashion! It shouldn't really matter but ughh 😒 I'm really into fashion and costume design and expanding the imagination to a broader wardrobe (i have secret pinterest boards of ST character fashion aesthetics actually ssssh it's fine). but, Michael "He-Wouldn't-Wear-That" Wheeler. why is mike so often made out to be this hybrid of 2007-esque emo kid and glam rocker? He’s just a dude. That’s why i like him. His 80s teenage rebellion is to stop dressing like a baby accountant/mini-ted exclusively donning the latest Gap window display. He's breaking free from the Sears catalogue but he's not about to go join van halen. Maybe some ripped jeans. Band tees. That leather jacket. exploring creativity in denim. Subtlety mimicking eddie m but not really ever going full metal-head. he might go a liiiiiittle new wave, but not too far. It’s the falsity of insisting on the nail polish and the fucking non-existent rhinestone belt and leather pants and makeup for me as a prerequisite for an accurate mike portrayal. and to me that’s… not mike. It’s maybe the inability to remove the actor’s extra curricular modeling career from the fictional character on tv. Mike is just some dude!! And that’s ok!! folks are not gonna like that one, but that's what they call an informed opinion!! 😎 personal preference, some may scream, but whatever. the planet keeps spinning.
the reddie-fication of byler. I love IT and reddie. Will is not eddie kaspbrak. Mike is not richie tozier. Yeah man, i get it. 80s and gay repression and insecurity and secretly being in love with your best friend. But that’s where it stops. I personally don’t see many similarities between any of these characters. Will is not a jock!! He would never join a sports team!! He is not joining track or working out a ton! That makes sense in the context of the eddie k character (i’m not saying that eddie is a jock lmaoooo god no, i’m just saying that track and running are a believable eddie fanon thing and there’s already a bunch of eddie k stuff i see projected onto will so nahhh). & eddie and richie are at each other’s throats and making bitchy little comments and riling each other up but mike and will do not have that sort of relationship. Yeah, they’re gonna argue and snip at each other but it’s a different flavor, it’s a different cuisine entirely. AND ANOTHER THING, why do people put the milkdud dynamic on will/mike. They are not constantly rolling their eyes, exasperated and dismissive with each other either, for the record. They’re genuinely best friends. Where’s the best friendship-ism of it all?!! That’s what makes mike and will such a good pair! The codependency, the longing, the complimentary dynamic, conversationally being on the same page. Ughhhh.
I feel like so many folks just want sanded down versions of these characters. Where Will is stoic and colder and loses his quick jump into extreme emotions. have him weep, have him be annoyed and jealous, have him tear up. let him be anything but this personality-lacking shell. He is not a quippy badass. He is a mess, sometimes pathetic, he is the personification of ‘do it scared, do it sobbing, do it anyway.’ and mike. Hmm. mike is abrasive, he can be an asshole. Mike cares a lot. Mike’s friends actually like him and value him. He can be all of these things simultaneously. Why is he portrayed in story after story as being this mopey burden, this person they regrettably keep around only to insult and discredit? It’s weird. Why is everyone always threatening him when it comes to his relationship with will? No one is doing that. Kill the shovel talk. Take your fucking shovel and dig a grave and bury it and walk away. Corny ass trope. Why is the fanon portrayal of the party this bunch of meddling kids, overly invested in their two friend’s love lives, placing bets and feeling no shock in 1980-whatever when mike and will get together, exchanging money and being smug? What is that? Corny ass trope.
Speaking of sanding them down……… to be quite honest, there is so much realistic stuff already out there. wHoLsEoMe. i love sappy stuff, i love slice of life and all that but there comes a point when it feels like the meat of the actual show is something people wished wasn't an aspect?? i get that you can just write whatever you want and have whatever takes you want and that’s cool i guess, but then so much of the personalities of these characters (not just will/mike, the whole damn show cast) has been shaped by the supernatural/horror elements liiiike. It’s there for a reason. That’s the show. So many character traits and motivations and whatnot are because of the setting. I can’t personally separate the canon story from the canon characters. if byler wasn't a factor in ST i would still really really love ST soooo. Idk this is such a vague point but it is what it is, it’s been talked to death and i’m beating the dying horse like a pinata but the prize unfortunately is people accusing you of saying that one heartstopping teen show shouldn’t exist. Ok???? 🤔
The fucking wheeler family. Aren’t they interesting enough without making them the byers 2.0? This point has also been done to death but can’t we just watch the show and see literally what is being portrayed on screen? Middle america flavored conformity in the face of rampant political conservatism in rural indiana in the 1980s and how mike wheeler is fucked up from that environment, creating what he’s got going on internally? That’s not enough of a bold fucking characterization and motivation for you? You gotta make shit up? Idk man. Ted wheeler is not Doing All That. i see so much that just bewilders me. like cool original idea you came up with, cool random post you made. What does it have to do with the ST we are actively watching? The wheelers are kind of what we see is what we get. Idk does my staunchness on this make me boring? I just don’t think it’s necessary to invent shit when we already have so many different family dynamics available to analyze in the actual show.
I feel like some people saw what mike and will were like in s2 and just. Stopped. Caring? or are interested in character growth whether “positive” or “negative” only in the way that only fits their mental aesthetic? Like it or not (i personally love s3 and i know this is an unpopular view on tumblr.com. it’s not without major flaws, but i still like it a ton) but s3 happened and these are the characters who we have decided to allow total brain infiltration. Characters grow and develop their personalities in this fictional world and where we are as of s4 is worlds away from s2. It’s ok to not think of them as innocent twelve year olds forever…
Fanon’s favorite cliche: “Will fell first but mike fell harder” lol fuck off. I hate this phrase in regards to ships in general but this???? Oh boy. Oh boy i laugh. Will “i’m not gonna fall in love/tears in my eyes you’re the heart/ you make me feel like i’m not a mistake/ down bad 24-7 mike wheeler is the light of my life my literal knight in shining armor” Byers …… hmm. 🤣🤣🤣
#idk i am just some dude w thoughts on this damn show#this is pretty long but i am CHATTY as fuck and i don't usually say much but maybe i should stop holding back and just SPEAK#i honestly have sooo much more to say about everything else i kind of got caught up on byler stuff but this novel needed to end lol#nothing matters honestly it's just a television show we're all gonna be ok 😎#asks#st
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If you don't mind me asking, how did you tell Mr mpp you write fics? I'm in a new relationship and I don't know how I'd even begin to approach this. This world is so dear to me and I worry that my bf will think it's silly (even though I know this is just my anxiety speaking & he isn't the type of person who would judge me for it)
I also worry about him asking to read my work. Idk if I am ready / will be ready for a while to give him access to this part of my life. The idea that he can easily find my stories online at any given point in his life is very daunting. I do not have any intentions of telling him about the jily community anytime soon but I can't help but think about this.
Bit silly but just thought I would ask how you went about it if you are willing to share. Thanks MPP ❤️
hi there! I have to disclaim that I did not tell Mr MPP right away. When we met, I was not active in the community and was not writing. For context, I was in my final year of college juggling a full course load, a 35-40 hour work week, and social/partying life. He did, however, learn quickly that I was a big HP fan and he read the series (as a kid he'd only read the first 3). I also read his favorite series and we read new books together, etc. I assume I'd mentioned that I wrote fic as a teenager but probably not much beyond that.
When I first started writing again a couple of years later, we were already living together. Then a few years after that I wrote a little again and we were married. In 2020, I jumped back in again in earnest and he was in too deep to get away from me (joking, ofc).
It would be disingenuous for me to wave a pompom and just say, "shout it from the rooftops! have no shame! fanfic is awesome!" That's really never been my approach lol. However, fanfic reading/writing is like any other hobby, IMO. Tell your boyfriend as much or as little as you are comfortable with. If he's into sports, anime, video games, comics, it's really not all that different. There's tons of articles out there now talking about the prolificity of fic.
When I first talked about it, I explained what I liked about the characters and how I've enjoyed spending time in the fandom. But I also told him that I wasn't comfortable with him reading my stuff and he understood that. I didn't tell him my pen name and he didn't ask. As time has passed though, I have given him things to read, or I've read him things I'm proud of, and I've even bounced plot ideas off of him. He even jokingly calls me by my pen name sometimes 🙃 Most recently, he's informed me that he started reading TWR which was... a surprise to say the least lol.
Just like most things in life, our conversations have evolved. At the start, it was enough for me to say I am being active in a fandom (reading, writing, blogging) and naturally as our connection grew stronger, I opened up more and more.
One last general thought: I have no doubt in my mind that Mr MPP thought it was silly at first but he is loving and respectful and never made me feel bad for it. A good partner doesn't tear you down even if they don't fully understand. He also respected my boundaries when I communicated them to him. Please don't settle for anything less than respect.
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X-Fast
Fandom: X-Men
Characters: Storm, Rouge, Wolverine, & Jean Grey
Summary: You go out for breakfast with the X-Men after a sleepover.
Continued from: Night at the Mansion
\Chapter One
When I was offered the opportunity for breakfast with my best friends I jumped outta bed at the opportunity. I felt like a child on Christmas all over again. Rising out of bed like Dracula, my eyes jetting around the room as I try to wake up despite the internal excitement. My eyes wonder over to Wolverine. He surprising actually sports a jacket now, over his tank top of course.
“Come on! Get up Sugah!” Rouge yells waving her hand up like she was Doctor Strange.
I finally realize that I don’t have anything that are actual clothes. I run to Storm asking her if she could run me to my house so I can get some clothes. Instead she throws me a look & a smirk. Throwing me light tan pants with a navy blue sweater.
“That should work honey.” Storm says as a smirk comes across her face. I feel seen by her, as if she was a caring mother.
“Everyone ready?!” Logan shouts with even more gruff in his voice than last night.
In just a moment everyone runs over to Logan, dressed in pure perfect outfits like we were at a gala.
“Let’s head out!” Logan yells as he swipes Scott’s keys off the table in the main hall. A smile even coming across his face as if he’s proud of stealing Scott’s keys. He hurries us out the door quickly like a father who is messing around with his kids.
Chapter Two
A bell rings throughout the hall of the diner, the door swinging open with the ding in unison. The calming feeling of classic music comes over me, the wall covered in posters of Elvis, Dean Martin, & Frank Sinatra. Filled with the 50s feeling like we were really there.
“Hey kid, over here!” Logan yells waving his hand in my direction.
I was too busy zoned out to even realize the group had already sat down. I quickly head over to them, moving in-between Rouge & Storm. Plumping myself down inside the leather booth seats, feeling every inch of my body sink into them like they had been quicksand.
"You okay (Y/N)" Storm asks glancing to her right towards me.
"Yeah yeah! Sorry!"
Glancing to my right as to see what Rouge plans on ordering, she flips between different types of waffles like they aren't just waffles at the end of the day.
"So how did everyone sleep?" Logan springs up out of nowhere.
"Considering I was in a bed with three others, pretty good!" I reply trying to get closer to him.
"You know I can read your mind right? You can't lie about sleep near me." Jean says as she stares at me from across the table.
It felt like years had passed in that moment, our words & laughs engraved into the table itself. Flowing throughout like melodies in classical music. Until our food finally comes, steaming out & perfectly fresh.
"Will you want an extra fork for your stack of pancakes sir?" The waitress asks Logan.
"I'll be fine." He says with a smirk at the end, letting his claws out as he picks up all six pancakes at once.
The woman gasps with fear, as if she has never seen a mutant before. She speeds walk off like she had a firework up her ass. In that moment we all laugh so hard Rouge spits out her waffles. Even the other tables begin to look over at us in confusion, until they're met with heavy judgement filled glances. The laughing ceases, the diner falls quiet. Everyone stares at us with hate in their eyes.
"I think it's time we go." Logan angerly lets out as he grabs his leather jacket.
"GET OUT OF HERE YOU DIRTY MUTANT!" The diner folk yell as they begin throwing their food. Yet Jean is here for us, she stops the food all in mid-air. A smile runs across her face as she looks over to me & Logan, a moment shared between us as we break into laughter. Which ends tragically as soon as we turned back around to the door. A man stands there, looking into my eyes. A cop with shaky hands, I can see the fear in his eyes. He looks into mine with hate, with anger, thinking I'm a mutant. The gun shakes in his hand as Logan is still too busy laughing about the food with Jean. BANG! I collapse to my knees as a bullet enters my shoulder in pure shock. Logan stops his laughing turning immediately towards the officer. Anger runs through his face as Logan throws the cop through the window like it's nothing. A tear runs down my face as I clamp my hand around my shoulder. The bullet going straight through.
"Come on kid! Lets get you back!" Logan yells as he lifts me up in a hurry. Jean in anger sends everything throughout the diner flying.
To be continued...
#x men fanfiction#x men comics#xmen rp#xmen#x men#rouge x men#your name#marvel#marvel comics#fanfic#jean grey#wolverine#james howlett#logan howlett#storm#waffles#dinero#writing community#writing#writeblr#writers on tumblr#storytelling
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Chapter 24: The Honorable Ladies Souzas
Fandom: Doctor Who
Current Masterlist || Previous Story
Taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @foxesandmagic @kmc1989
If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s work/edits, let me know!
The Doctor stepped out of a grocery store holding a rather large chocolate egg in his hands, minty fresh of course, for his��
He scrunched up his face at the water that practically smacked him in the face.
"Sorry!" He heard Minerva's cry right after. He lightly sighed as he patted his face dry with a cloth from his pocket. Minerva quickly reached him with an apologetic face that he frankly couldn't ignore. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I was just trying to practice again and then...well..." she made a face as she patted his cheeks, "...on the bright side I finally got my 2 seconds to turn into two minutes?" She gave a small, nervous smile.
"Which means I'm proud of you," the Doctor declared and placed a kiss on her lips.
"Yeah? Cause Zohar says I'm behind. Donna's practically mastered the snow by now! She's moving onto the ice!"
"Everyone has their own pace, dear. Plus, Donna isn't also learning how to raise up a kingdom, how to form relationships with other planets' leaders and she isn't learning about all of time and space at the same time."
"But still, I'm the princess and I still can't hold water for five minutes. And I can't even activate my ice and snow. It's a bit disappointing to my grandfather..."
"To be fair, he's gotten a lot more difficult to impress lately," the Doctor sighed, "The only thing he's going to be happy about is the day you tell him you've finally left me."
"Never," she declared dead serious, "I told him on the day of our wedding this was final. You and I forever, always together. It'll take him some time but he'll eventually have to accept it, I'm married now."
"And what lovely time it's been so far," he Eskimo kissed her, making her giggle.
"Oh yes," she linked arms with him and began walking down the London night street with her husband, "Still feels like yesterday we married...actually, it still feels like our wedding night..." she admitted with a blush as she looked to the side.
"What? You're telling me that's not how the first four months as a married couple is supposed to feel?" the Doctor looked at her with a teasing face, though he also sported his own blush.
"Oh shut up," she playfully hit his arm with her free hand, "And eat your chocolate instead."
"What ever you wish, wife," he smirked as he began unwrapping his chocolate.
~ 0 ~
Not too far away from the couple, a woman with long black hair and brown eyes was running down the night streets carrying a heavy backpack. She looked back as a police detective was hot on her tail along with several other policemen. She noticed a bus not too far ahead and quickly ran for it, the detective seeing her and running after her.
She jumped inside the bus and gave a small smile to the bus driver, "Hello. I'm so terribly sorry. That card paying device thing, that's a Lobster card, am I right?"
"Oyster card," the driver gave her an odd look.
"Ah, well, that's the problem, you see. I only use my Oyster when there's an R in the month."
"It's April," the driver reminded.
The woman sighed with no patience. She took her earrings off and held them to the driver, "Diamonds. Genuine," she dropped them into his palm, "Drive!"
"Works for me," the driver shrugged.
The woman quickly hurried down the bus and sat down at the first open seat by the window. Before the bus shut its doors a lovely couple entered and the woman swiped a card.
"You're just in time," the driver remarked.
"Thank you!" she called to the driver as they continued through the bus. With the sudden start of the bus, the pair fell to different sides of the bus, "No, thank you!" the woman called as she sat up and saw her husband across her, "You okay?"
The Doctor looked down at the chocolate egg in his hands and grinned, "Yes!" he looked over to the woman that sat beside him, "Sorry about that, by the way."
"It's fine," the woman mumbled, waving him off.
"I'm the Doctor! That's my wife, Minerva! Happy Easter!"
"The chocolate is minty by the way," Minerva added with a grin, "It's really good. Glad you were able to actually land us on Easter," she looked at the Doctor, "Maybe getting rid of that hammer actually improved your piloting."
He mock-glared at the Clever Girl. "I still can't believe you actually did that."
Minerva had actually chucked his hammer out into outer space! Granted she had warned him of her intention two minutes before she'd actually done it. He thought she'd been kidding...
...she had not been kidding.
"I promised the old girl," Minerva shrugged and looked at the woman beside the Doctor, "I'm sorry. You shouldn't hear a lousy disagreement, it's Easter!"
"Funny thing is, I don't often do Easter," the Doctor admitted then smiled at Minerva, all disagreements forgotten, "Perhaps now that I have a wife with excellent human memories, I'll start having Easter more often," Minerva silently smiled back, "Although I never could find it, it's always at a different time. Although I remember the original. Between you and me, what really happened was... "
A beeping sound interrupted him and so he quickly handed the chocolate egg to the woman beside him while he reached into his pocket, "Oh, sorry, hold on to that for us. Actually, go on, have it, finish it."
"Hey!" Minerva frowned upon seeing their chocolate I'm the hands of another woman, "I still wanted it!"
"It's full of sugar," he declared, "You're energetic enough and I'm determined to keep these teeth," he bared his teeth to her.
"Funny, cause you didn't seem to have that problem with me last night," she shot him a smirk when he blushed.
"Anyways..." he quickly looked down as he pulled out the gadget he'd been searching for in his pocket, "Ah! Oh, we've got excitation!" he shook it and garnered an odd look from another passenger behind, "I'm picking up something very strange."
"I know the feeling," the black-haired woman gave him a quick glance, actually hoping he'd go sit with that wife of his and leave her out of whatever that gadget was all about.
"Rhondium particles, that's what we're looking for," the Doctor began to explain to the black-haired woman since Minerva knew all about it. Minerva could see the woman had no interest in the Doctor's words but Minerva kept quiet for the Doctor's sake, and because he looked so adorable rambling on, "This thing detects them," the Doctor was tapping the gadget in his hands, "The little dish should go round, that little dish there...
"Right now, a way out would come in pretty handy. Can you detect me one of those?" the black-haired woman finally spoke up in a normal tone.
Behind the trio was another couple where the woman seemed nervous as she looked to her husband, "Lou, can you hear them?"
"Hear what, sweetheart?" Lou asked, sensing her nervousness rising.
"The voices. So many voices. Calling to us. Calling so far."
"Oh, the little dish is going round!" the Doctor exclaimed, "Look Minerva."
She smiled and nodded, "Yup. Oh, but..." the dish started spinning until a part of the gadget exploded, "I don't think it's supposed to do that.."
"Excuse me. Do you mind?" a blonde woman behind them gave both a sharp look, irritated with the commotion.
The Doctor stood up, "Sorry. That was my little dish."
"Can't you turn that thing off?" the black-haired woman asked
"What was your name?" he looked at her for a second.
"Christina."
"Christina, hold on tight," he told a seat beside Minerva ad wound an arm around her waist while the other hand held onto the handle, "Everyone, hold on!"
The bus lurched and shook, making the passengers scream and jerk forwards. The Doctor fell to the floor with Minerva unfortunately.
"The voices! Oh, the voices, they're screaming!" Lou's wife cried.
One of the bus windows shattered and sparks flew from the overhead wires. A young man toppled down the stairs from the upper deck and shouted as soon as he could, "What's going on?!"
With a blinding light, the rest of the windows started shattering. A couple minutes later, the Doctor opened his eyes to find the wrecked bus and the sunlight that streamed through the window, that had definitely not been there a couple minutes ago!
"Oh, it is hot" Minerva groaned as she sat up.
"Are you alright!?" he quickly turned to her, "Is it too much!?"
She shooed his hands off her as they stood up, "A bit of a new heat, but..." she looked around, seeing the endless sand hills that was now their new environment, "...manageable."
He sighed in relief, it seemed that the adaptation was going just fine for his Clever Girl. It was a fact that she, unlike the rest of the Moontsays except Zohar, could withstand much higher levels of heat. However, that didn't mean she was easily resistant to all types of heat. So, the Doctor had made it his job to slowly introduce her to those other heat levels little by little. It was a work of patience and even if he really had none, he magically garnered extremely high levels of it when it came to Minerva. It seemed like it was all paying off seeing how she was taking the new desert they were in.
The pair moved to the doors and opened it up to look at the desert, "End of the line," the Doctor declared as he stepped out, taking Minerva by the waist and pulling her down, "Call it a hunch, but I think we've gone a little bit further than Brixton."
The other passengers slowly started coming out of the bus where they took observation of their bus and environment. The bus's tip deck was crushed with smoke wafting from it. Apart from that, it seemed lie they were the only ones around.
Minerva watched the Doctor laying on the ground letting the sand sift through his fingers. She really didn't know what he was trying to accomplish. The sand was just...sand. She supposed this was one of the lessons he was yet to teach her. She'd been learning a lot faster now that she wasn't human anymore, but it wasn't like she was a genius either. Even with a fast pace the universe was vast and had many complicated things about it that simply didn't stick in her head.
"That's impossible. There are three suns. Three of them!" A blonde woman exclaimed, horrified at the sight in the sky.
"Like when all those planets were up in the sky!" a second young man added.
"But it was Earth that moved back then, wasn't it?" the first young man asked.
"Oh, man, we're on another world!"
"It's still intact, though! Not as bad as it looks," the bus driver was studying the bus, "The chassis's still holding together. Oh, my boss is gonna murder me!"
"Can we please desist of the word 'murder', please?" Minerva had looked back with a displeased face. That word was still sensitive to her and she didn't wanted to hear it any more.
"Can you still drive it?" the blonde woman asked the driver.
"Oh, no, the wheels are stuck. Look at them, they're never gonna budge," the driver gestured to the tires that were deep inside the sand.
Christina took off her jacket once she felt the desert heat and put on some black sunglasses, "Ready for every emergency."
The Doctor and Minerva looked back and saw the woman with her sunglasses. The Doctor took off his own glasses and used the sonic to tint them then promptly put then back on, "Me too!" he cast a concerned look at Minerva, "Would you like some, dear?"
"No," she declared rather fast, "I wanna get used to this kind of heat. Eyes too," she pointed at them.
"And what's your names?" Christina asked them.
"Minerva," the brunette raised a finger.
"I'm the Doctor."
"Name, not rank," Christina gave him a sharp look.
"The Doctor."
"Surname?"
"The Doctor."
"You're called 'the Doctor'?"
"Yes, I am."
"That's not a name, that's a psychological condition."
Minerva snickered. "That is the most underrated line of your life!" she looked down at the Doctor.
He mock-glared at her for a minute then returned to the sand, "Funny sort of sand, this. There's a trace of something else," he put some of the sand on the tip of his tongue to 'taste' it then crinkled his face, "Blah, that's not good."
"That's sand," Minerva frowned and made a distasteful face, "And this is me...stepping away from your mouth."
Quietly, the Doctor scoffed and mumbled: "That won't last long."
"What was that?"
"Nothing, dear," he flashed a small smile.
Minerva rolled her eyes, "You walk on thin land, Martian. Why don't we get back to business? What, I dare to ask, did that sand taste?"
At that, the Doctor's sense of playfulness faded. He really would rather not answer that and really scare her, "Nothing important," he dismissed the question, avoiding the questioning look she was giving him.
The rest of the passengers started coming over, one person singled out already as the culprit, "Hold on a minute, I saw you, mate! You had that thing, that machine. Did you make this happen?" one of the young men had a pointing fingers at the Doctor.
"Oh, humans on buses, always blaming me," the Doctor mumbled, not even surprised anymore, "If you must know, we were was tracking a hole in the fabric of reality. Call it a hobby. But it was a tiny little hole, no danger to anyone. Suddenly it gets big, and we drive right through it."
"But then where is it? There's nothing, there's just sand!" the driver gestured to the surroundings.
"All right. If you want proof," the Doctor reached down for some sand, "We drove through this," he threw the sand at the space behind the bus to real a swirling vortex that quickly disappeared as fast as it had appeared.
"And that was?" Christina stared where the Vortex was.
"A door in space!" Minerva exclaimed excitedly, quickly realizing the other may not have been as excited to know that information.
"So what you're saying is, on the other side of that is home? We can get to London through there?" the bus driver asked
"The bus came through, but we can't," the Doctor answered but apparently ignored.
"Well, then what are we waiting for?" the bus driver looked at the other passengers.
"Oh, no, don't," the Doctor tried calling but the man wouldn't listen.
The driver headed for the portal, "I'm going home, mate!"
"I said don't!"
The driver headed into the portal and screamed as his body caught fire.
"He was a skeleton, man! He was bones, just bones!" one of the young men cried.
Minerva walked back to the bus, observing its state, "It was the bus that kept us safe, right?" she looked at the Doctor who had moved up beside her, "It protected us, right?" he smiled and nodded before kissing her head, making her beam she'd gotten another thing right.
"Rather like a Faraday cage?" Christina walked over, staying by the entrance of the bus.
"Like in a thunderstorm, yeah?" one of the young men asked, "Safest place is inside a car, cos the metal conducts the lightning right through. We did it in school."
"But if we can only travel back inside the bus...a Faraday cage needs to be closed. That thing's been ripped wide open," Christina looked at the top of the bus.
"Slightly different dynamics with a wormhole. There's enough metal to make it work, I think. I hope," the Doctor made a face as he also looked over the bus.
"Then we have to drive five tonnes of bus, which is currently buried in the sand, and we've got nothing but our bare hands. Correct?"
"I'd say nine and a half tonners..." the Doctor trailed off
Minerva peered around him with a polite smile, "But he means you're correct."
"Then we need to apply ourselves to the problem with discipline! Which starts with appointing a leader."
"Yes, at last, thank you, so..." the Doctor turned to the group...when Christina took over.
"Well, thank goodness you've got me! Everyone do exactly as I say! Inside the bus immediately!" she motioned for everyone to get on inside.
"Is it safe in there?" one of the young men asked.
"I don't think anything's safe any more, but if it's a choice between baking in there or roasting out here, I'd say baking is slower. Come on! All of you. Right now! And you. 'The Doctor'," Christina eyed him before stepping inside.
Minerva giggled at the face her Martian was making and moved in front of him, "Is someone upset their dominance is being threatened?"
He looked at her with a mock-glare and pointed, "Shush."
She rolled her eyes and pulled him inside the bus, "C'mon, Martian."
~ 0 ~
Christina was busy giving her speech to the other passengers, declaring herself as the leader of the far, neither the Doctor nor Minerva had argued against it. She seemed fine and, at the end of the day, she had the same goals as the rest of them. Getting home was pivotal.
"Point five, the crucial thing is, do not panic. Quite apart from anything else, the smell of sweat inside this thing is reaching atrocious levels," Christina said, still grimacing. "We don't need to add any more. Point six. Team identification. Names. I'm Christina, this man is apparently 'the Doctor' and that is Minerva," she gestured to each of the pair.
"Hello," Minerva wiggled her fingers at the group.
"And you?" Christina turned to one of the young men.
"Nathan," he waved.
"I'm Barclay."
"Angela, Angela Whittaker," the blonde female went next
"My name's Louis, everyone calls me Lou, and this is Carmen," the third man gestured to his wife beside him.
"Excellent. Memorize those names. There might be a test. Point seven, assessment and application of knowledge. Over to you, the Doctor," Christina pointed to the man.
"I thought you were in charge," the Doctor made a face, confused for a minute.
"I am. And a good leader utilizes her strength. You seem to be the brainbox. So, start boxing."
He shrugged and moved to sit on the back of his seat, facing the rest of the group, "Right. So, the wormhole. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was just an accident."
"No, it wasn't. That thing, the doorway. Someone made it. For a reason," Carmen cut in.
"How do you know that?" Minerva asked, curious.
"She's got a gift. Ever since she was a little girl, she can just... tell things. We do the lottery, twice a week," Lou explained.
"You don't look like millionaires," Christina remarked.
"No, but we win ten pounds. Every week, twice a week, ten pounds. Don't tell me that's not a gift!"
The Doctor hid three fingers behind his back as he moved up to Carmen, "Tell me, Carmen. How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Three," Carmen replied and when the Doctor added another finger behind his back, she spoke again, "Four."
"Very good! Low level psychic ability, exacerbated by an alien sun," the Doctor sat down across her, "What can you see, Carmen? Tell me. What's out there?"
"Something... Something is coming. Riding on the wind. And shining."
"What is it?"
"Death. Death is coming."
Angela began weeping at the words, "We're going to die."
"I knew it, man, I said so," Barclay shook his head.
"We can't die out here. No-one's gonna find us," Nathan looked out to the endless sand.
The passengers started talking all at once, all sharing the same fear.
"This isn't exactly helping," Christina rubbed her temples.
"Shut up, we're not your soldiers," Barclay snapped.
"It's not doing any good..." Nathan said.
"You're upsetting her, be quiet!" Lou exclaimed.
"Will we be bones, like the bus driver?!" Nathan cried.
"Hey, STOP IT!" Minerva shouted, her voice above all the others. She stood in the center of the bus with her hands on her hips, "God I really miss my whistling abilities," she mumbled to herself.
The only sound new heard in the bus was Angela's quiet weeping. The Doctor moved to stand in front of her, gripping her shoulders, "Angela, look at me. Angela, Angela, answer me one question, Angela. That's it, at me, at me," she stopped crying to look up at him, "There we go, Angela, just answer me one thing. When you got on this bus, where were you going?"
"Doesn't matter now, does it?"
"It does matter this time," Minerva gave a small smile and moved beside them, "So just answer the question."
"Just home..." Angela answered
"And what's home?" the Doctor asked her.
"Me, and Mike and Suzanne, that's my daughter. She's 18."
"Brilliant age," Minerva remarked and patted Angela's shoulder. She looked over to the others, seeing them still uneasy, "What about you, Barclay? What was going on tonight?"
"Dunno. Going round Tina's," he shrugged, sighing.
"Who's Tina? Your girlfriend?" the Doctor looked back.
"Not yet..." Barclay smiled a bit mischievously.
"Good boy. May I suggest you not waste time, it's a very precious thing," the Doctor smiled softly as he glanced back at Minerva.
She blushed under his gaze and looked at Nathan instead, "What about you, Nathan?"
"Bit strapped for cash, I lost my job last week. I was gonna stay in. Watch TV."
"Brilliant. And you two?" the Doctor called to pair at the back of the bus.
"I was going to cook," Lou replied first.
"It's his turn tonight. Then I clear up," Carmen added.
"What's for tea?"
"Chops. Nice couple of chops and gravy. Nothing special," Lou said.
"I think if you're eating together and happy, then it's very special," Minerva corrected, "I know it's special to me when I eat with my Martian."
"The brownies are my favorite part," the Doctor admitted with an excited grin, "So it is very special, Lou, Carmen."
"What about you, Christina?" Minerva looked back at the black-haired woman who had been oddly quiet for the moment.
"I was going... so far away..." she answered absently.
"Far away. Chops and gravy. Watching TV. Mike and Suzanne and poor old Tina," the Doctor shrugged as Barclay gave him a sharp look.
"Hey!"
"He's kidding," Minerva apologetically smiled at Barclay then promptly smacked the Doctor upside the head, "Stop being rude to people!"
"Sorry, dear," he mumbled and rubbed the back of his head, "Alright, back to the point: just think of them and what your plans were for tonight. 'Cos that planet out there, all three suns and wormholes and alien sand, that planet is nothing. You hear me? Nothing compared to all those things waiting for you. Food and home and people. Hold on to that. Cos we're gonna get there. I promise. I'm gonna get you home."
"We're going to get you all home," Minerva corrected the passengers and clarified to the Doctor. She would have no more of this 'he saving the world', no. They were married now and as such she would stand by him in all situations that affected them: together.
~ 0 ~
Barclay and Nathan were coming out of the bus holding seat cushions where the Doctor and Minerva met up with them, "Here we go! That's my boys! We lay a flat surface between the bus and the wormhole, like duckboards, and reverse into it!"
"Let some air out of the tires, just a little bit. Spreads the weight of the bus, gives you more grip," Christina joined them.
"Oh, that's good," Minerva remarked.
"Holidays in the Kalahari."
"Yeah, but those wheels go deep," Barclay reminded.
"Then start digging," Christina shrugged.
"With what?"
"With this," Christina reached into her bag and pulled out a folding shovel.
"Wow, got anything else in there?" Minerva blinked as the Doctor took the shovel and opened it then handed it to Barclay.
"Try that, might help with the seats," Christina handed a small axe.
"Thanks!" Nathan took the axe and headed back to the bus.
"I can't find the keys!" they heard Angela from the inside of the bus.
"Buses don't have keys!" Minerva half-shouted as she poked her head inside the bus, "I saw that when I used to travel. There's this master switch, one button for start, the other one for stop, yeah?"
Angela, sitting in the driver's seat, checked for the button, "Hold on, oh, I've got it," she flicked a switch, "Here we go, hold tight, ding ding!"
"Clever one you are," the Doctor neared Minerva from behind and kissed her head.
"It's not clever, it's observation," she corrected.
Angela had pressed the button but the engine spluttered for a second then died.
"Oh, that doesn't sound too good," the Doctor took Minerva and himself over to the engine and took a look, "Oh! Never mind losing half the top deck, you know what's worse? Sand. Tiny little grains of sand. The engine's clogged up."
Christina walked around to where Barclay and Nathan worked on the wheels, "Anyone know mechanics?"
"Me!" Barclay stood up, "I did a two-week NVQ at the garage. Never finished it, but..."
"Well come on!" Minerva called, "Let's see how much you learned!"
"Try stripping the air filter, fast as you can," the Doctor took Minerva's hand and started heading away towards the dunes, "Back in two ticks."
"Wait a minute!" Christina called after them and quickly hurried to follow, "You're the man and woman with all the answers. I'm not letting you out of my sight."
~ 0 ~
Minerva passed a hand through her hair, feeling slightly enclosed with the heat as she walked through the desert. She could take it, she knew it...but it wasn't going to be easy. She shrugged her elbows to try and lift off a piece of hair for at least a second. Then, she'd run her hand through it just to lift off her shoulders once more. She had even discarded her gray sweater in the middle of the desert, ignoring the Doctor's suggestion to simply hand it over where he could keep it safe. She was determined to make this work, she would not give up at the first real struggle of heat, no sir.
"Do you happen to have something for hair inside that bag of yours?" she settled for asking Christina for a bit of help, but only for a bit. At the first sign of genuine help the Doctor was sure to overreact and quickly send her back to the bus where it was slightly less hot.
Christina nodded and reached for one of the backpack's smaller pockets in front and took out a black scrunchie, "Ever thought of just cutting it?"
"NO..." Minerva made a horrific expression that made Christina laugh.
"Asking her to do that is like asking her to stop breathing," the Doctor casually remarked.
"Really?" Christina raised an eyebrow, making it sound like it was ridiculous, but to her it really was.
"Thank you," Minerva took the scrunchie from Christina and proceeded to pick up her hair, "Let me make a comparison to you, Christina, that'll make you understand the value: asking me to cut my hair is like me asking you to leave that backpack behind."
"No, no, this goes where I go," she pointed to the backpack, playfully rolling her eyes at the look Minerva was giving her, "Yeah, fine, I get it now."
Minerva chuckled as she fixed the last part of her ponytail, "Knew it would work. I'm clever like that, you know."
"My clever wife," the Doctor remarked, wounding an arm around her waist.
"You two are married?" Christina blinked, surprised, "Really?"
"Why do you say it like that?" Minerva raised an eyebrow, not offended simply curious of the reaction.
"Just didn't strike me as the married couple. I can see it Carmen and Lou, but...not you two..." she eyed the pair to see if she could be wrong but simply did not see the picture 'happy married' couple.
"Well, to be fair, you didn't strike me as a woman who's afraid of sirens," the Doctor gave her a sharp look, "Just who are you?"
"As much of a mystery as you two are," Christina countered.
"We're not mysteries," Minerva corrected, "We're just a pair of travelers, that's all."
"Let's just leave it as mysteries, shall we?"
Minerva shrugged and gave up.
"So why not tell me about Carmen's prediction?" Christina asked, "If that wormhole's not an accident, then what is it? Has someone done this on purpose?"
"I don't know," the Doctor answered as they stopped walking, "But every single instinct of mine is telling me to get off this planet, right now."
"And do you think we can?"
"We live in hope, it's kind of our thing," Minerva informed casually, "But I know we'll get out of this, just like we always do."
"That must be nice..." Christina paused and eyed the two before holding her hand out to the, "It's Christina de Souza. To be precise, Lady Christina de Souza."
"Hey! We're cousins," Minerva laughed as she shook Christina's hand, "Minerva Souza, get it? Only I'm not a Lady..."
"You very well can be, you're a princess after all," the Doctor corrected as he shook Christina's hand, "And I'm a Lord."
"Princess of what? And Lord of what?" Christina raised an eyebrow.
"Quite a big estate," Minerva answered, "For both of us..."
"No, but there's something more about you," Christina looked at the Doctor suddenly, "That device you were carrying, and the wormhole. Like you knew. And the way you stride around this place, like..."
"Like?" the Doctor asked.
"Like you're not quite..."
"Anyway! Come on! Allons-y!" the Doctor continued on with Minerva, the brunette groaning as they did.
"What have I said about that word?"
"That it was very adorable when I said it," he smirked.
"Shut up," she playfully rolled her eyes.
They stopped on a high dune that looked to the horizon where they could ahead in a distance the sky was becoming grayer and grayer.
"Ah. Don't like the look of that," the Doctor said.
Christina shaded her eyes, "Storm clouds. Must be hundreds of miles away."
"But it's getting closer," Minerva frowned.
"If that's a sand storm, we'll get ripped to shreds," Christina said.
"It's a storm. Who says it's sand?" the Doctor challenged, all three immediately running back.
~ 0 ~
Lou and Carmen were still sitting in the bus, Carmen with her eyes closed and mumbling: "Closer... and closer and closer..."
The Doctor hurried inside the bus with Minerva, Christina and Barclay behind him, "Where is it?"
"There, there on the seat," Barclay pointed to his seat where his cellphone laid in.
"You're hardly going to get a signal, we're on another planet!" Christina exclaimed.
"Oh, just watch me. Right, now, bit of hush, thank you," the Doctor started dialing on the phone, "Gotta remember the number, very important number."
"Hello, Pizza Geronimo?" they heard a man on the other line answer as the phone was on speaker.
"Pizza is an important number?" Minerva raised an eyebrow.
"Shush," the Doctor pointed as he hung up and redialed, "Seven-six, not six-seven..."
"This is the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Please select one of the following four options," a new voice answered.
"Oh, I hate these things!" the Doctor exclaimed, noticing how pale Minerva had gotten once the phone had been answered again.
Minerva was severely uncomfortable with UNIT, despite being the place her best friend worked at. To say the word 'uncomfortable' wouldn't even cover half of her feelings towards the place...terror described it perfectly. Now that she knew who she was and what UNIT could've done to her if they had figured out her actual origin before her...well...she'd had some pretty bad nightmares that would describe it. She knew UNIT had closed their investigation on her and left in the dark but it didn't stop her fear that one day someone new in the place would pick up the file and re-open the case. The Doctor had tried numerous times to remind her that he was still working for them (in technical terms) and that he would never allow UNIT to lay even a finger on her. Plus, he was actually on good terms with UNIT nowadays and just by that relationship the two shared, Minerva wouldn't be harmed. He just needed to prove that to her, perhaps today could be the day...
"No, if you keep your finger pressed on zero, you get through to a real person," Angela suggested to the Doctor, "I saw it on Watchdog!"
"Thank you, Angela," the Doctor sat down and reached for Minerva's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze to let her know he was here and she would be okay.
"UNIT helpline, which department would you like?" a new woman's voice answered the other line.
"Listen, it's the Doctor! It's me!"
~ 0 ~
A soldier approached the captain with a mobile, "Captain! Urgent call, ma'am, relayed direct from HQ."
"Who is it?" the captain asked.
"It's him, ma'am. It's the Doctor."
The captain took the cellphone and spoke through it, "Doctor. This is Captain Erisa Magambo," she saluted, "Might I say, sir, it's an honor."
~ 0 ~
The Doctor made a face, "Did you just salute?"
"...no."
"Erisa, it's about the bus. HQ said you're at the tunnel, yeah?"
"And where are you?"
"I'm on the bus. But apart from that, not a clue," the Doctor looked out the window, "Except it's very pretty and pretty dangerous."
"A body came through here. Have you sustained any more fatalities?"
"No, and we're not going to. But I'm stuck. I haven't got the Tardis, and I need to analyse that wormhole."
"We have a scientific advisor on site, Dr Malcolm Taylor..."
~ 0 ~
Erisa was entering a mobile physics lab filled with electronic equipment. Malcolm, an older man wearing glasses and a white lab coat sat in the midst of the place.
"Just the man you need, he's a genius," Erisa said.
"Oh, is he? We'll see about that," the Doctor said, over the speaker phone as well.
"Don't be rude!" Minerva's voice came afterwards.
"Here's the Doctor," Erisa told Malcolm as she shut the door.
"No, I'm all right now, thanks. It was just a bit of a sore throat, although I've got to be honest, a cup of tea might be nice," Malcolm cluelessly said.
"No, it's the Doctor."
"Do you mean... "the Doctor" Doctor?!" Malcolm nearly gasped.
"I know. We all want to meet him one day, but we all know what that day will bring," Erisa mumbled.
"I can hear everything you're saying," the Doctor reminded.
Malcolm incredulously upon hearing the Doctor's voice, "Hello, Doctor? Oh, my goodness!"
"Yes, I am. Hello, Malcolm!"
Malcolm chuckled, "The Doctor! Cor blimey. I can't believe I'm actually speaking to you! I mean, I've read all the files!"
~ 0 ~
Minerva mindlessly bit her nails as the Doctor spoke on the phone through...UNIT. The man, Malcolm, sounded very nice, cheerful even, but that didn't change the fact he worked for UNIT...the institution that had wanted to seize her as human...it terrified her.
"Really? What was your favorite, the giant robot? No, no hold on, let's sort out that wormhole," the Doctor shook his head and stood up, 'Scuse me," he took Minerva's hand and led them to the front of the bus, needing her to see he wouldn't let go of her for one moment when UNIT was involved. He plopped down on the driver's seat, pulling Minerva down to his lap. He gave her a kiss on her temple and wound his arm around her waist, "Malcolm, something's not making sense here. I've got a storm and a wormhole, and I can't help thinking there's a connection. I need a complete full-range analysis of that wormhole, the whole thing," he ordered.
"I've probably got the wrong idea, but I've wired up an integrator. I thought it could measure the energy signature," Malcolm said.
"No, that'll never work. Just listen to me."
"It's quite extraordinary, though! I'm measuring an oscillation of 15 Malcolms per second."
"Fifteen what?" the Doctor blinked.
"Fifteen Malcolms. It's my own little term. A wavelength parcel of ten kilohertz operating in four dimensions equals one Malcolm."
"You named a unit of measurement after yourself?"
"It didn't do Mr Watt any harm. Furthermore, 100 Malcolms equals a Bernard."
"And who's that, your dad?"
"Don't be ridiculous, that's Quatermass."
"Right. Fine. But before I die of old age, which in my case would be quite an achievement, so congratulations on that, is there anyone else I can talk to?" the Doctor felt a small chuckle escape his wife and beamed, "Actually, no, stay on the line, you're doing someone very important to me good," he smiled at Minerva.
"Um...okay," Malcolm slowly said, confused, "I set the scanner to register what it can't detect and inverted the image."
"You did what?"
"Is that wrong?"
" No, Malcolm, that's brilliant! So you can actually measure the wormhole. OK, I admit, that is genius!"
~ 0 ~
"The Doctor called me a genius," Malcolm excitedly looked at Erisa beside him.
"I know, I heard," Erisa nodded.
"Now, run a capacity scan. I need a full report. Call me back when you've done it. And Malcolm? You're my new best friend-well, no, my wife's my first best friend but you can be the second."
"Uh, you're mine too, sir," Malcolm said before the phone call ended. Confused, he looked over to Erisa, "The Doctor has a wife?"
"That can't be right..." Erisa thought for a moment on it, "...there was nothing in the files..." she mumbled as she started heading out, confused.
~ 0 ~
"Barclay, I'm holding on to this," the Doctor waved the man's phone as he and Minerva stood up.
"Then you'd better bring it back!" Barclay warned as the two went out, Christina once again hurrying to catch up.
~ 0 ~
"Send this back to Earth, see if Malcolm can analyse the storm," the Doctor held up the phone high up to take a picture.
"There's something in those clouds, something shining. Look..." Christina pointed.
"That looks like metal," Minerva tilted her head, the Doctor taking a picture with the phone.
"Why would there be metal in a storm?" Christina frowned.
"We never did say it was sand..." Minerva mumbled.
While the Doctor snapped more pictures, Christina heard the sound of chirruping. "Did you hear something?"
"Hold on. Busy..." the Doctor replied, turning.
"Well, Minerva? Did you hear it too?" Christina tried as she looked around.
"A bit, yeah," the brunette nodded.
Christina's eyes widened when she saw an insectoid creature watching them, "Doctor, Minerva..."
The creature approached the trio with a weapon in its hand and began to speak, more like click. The Doctor answered back in its language, "That's 'wait'. I shout 'wait', people usually wait."
"You speak the language?" Christina looked up at the man with wide eyes.
"Every language, actually," Minerva smiled in amusement as her Martian and the creature spoke.
"That's begging for mercy," he informed the women.
The creature motioned with its gun.
"And that means 'move'," Minerva pointed.
"Ooh! You're learning. Clever you are!"
Minerva chuckled, "Nope, it's just how it usually goes with us," he made a face and agreed.
The creature marched the trio off in front of it.
"These fly things, they must be responsible. They brought us here," Christina said as they arrived at the creature's crashed ship.
"No, no, no, no, no! Look at the ship, it's a wreck. They crashed, just like us," the Doctor pointed at the half-destroyed ship on the sand.
~ 0 ~
The interior of the alien ship was no better than the outside. It had the appearance of ongoing construction with wires and electronics left all over the place.
"But this place is freezing!" Christina shivered.
Minerva loudly sighed in relief of the lower temperature they were now in. She didn't want to admit it but the new climate change outside was more than she could handle at the moment.
"You okay?" the Doctor turned to her with concern.
"Now I am," she nodded with a dim smile.
"Why's it so cold?" Christina asked while rubbing her arms in an attempt to regain some of her heat.
"The hull's made of Photafine steel," the Doctor answered her, "Turns cold when it's hot. Boiling desert outside, freezing ship inside."
"Since we met you, Christina, we've been through all the extremes!" Minerva remarked playfully.
"That's how I like things. Extreme," the black-haired woman nodded firmly.
"Oh, this is beautiful! Intact, it must have been magnificent. A proper streamlined deep-spacer!" the Doctor looked arund with intrigue.
"I'll remember that as I'm being slowly tortured," Christina mock-glared, "At least I'm bleeding on the floor of a really well-designed spaceship!"
A second creature joined the group and touched its device attached to its clothes.
The Doctor noticed it and nodded, "Oh, right, good, yes, hello! That's a telepathic translator. He can understand us."
"Still sounds like gibberish to me," Christina remarked.
"It doesn't seem to work the other way around, though," Minerva observed, "What does he say, Doctor?" she looked at him.
"Um, "You will suffer for your crimes." Et cetera. "You have committed an act of violence against the Tritovore race," he translated then looked at both women, "Tritovores, they're called Tritovores. And they say "You came here in the 200 to destroy us." Sorry, what's the 200?"
"It's the bus. Number 200, they mean the bus," Christina reminded.
"Oh! No, look, I think you're making the same mistake Christina did," he gestured to himself, "I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is my wife, Minerva and our friend Christina, the Honorable Lady Christina, at least we hope she's honorable! But we got pulled through that wormhole. The 200 doesn't look like that normally. It's broken, just the same as you."
The Tritivores spoke to each other and lowered their guns.
"What are they doing?" Christina asked at the motion.
"They believed him," Minerva guessed.
"What, as simple as that?"
"I've got a very honest face. And the translator says I'm telling the truth. Plus, the face," the Doctor flashed a cheeky grin, "Right! So, first things first, there's a very strange storm heading our way, can you send out a probe?" he made his way to a control panel with Minerva, followed by the Tritivore with the translator as it spoke to them, "Ah, they've lost power. Hmm, the crash knocked the mainline crystallography out of sync. But if I can jiggle it back..." the Doctor kicked the panel and the power came back, " I thank you!" the creature chittered, "Yes, I am! Frequently. Okie-dokie, let's launch that probe."
The trio watched the picture they garnered from the probe as a hologram projection in front of them.
"Oh! This is the Scorpion Nebula, right!?" Minerva exclaimed excitedly as she looked at the Doctor for confirmation.
He smiled softly and nodded, "You got it, dear."
She beamed, "Yes! My lessons are paying off," she looked at Christina who had been looking in amusement, "We're on the other side of the universe, Christina. Just what you wanted, so far away. This is the planet of San Helios."
"Correct, correct, correct," the Doctor kissed her head, happy she was beginning to gain more knowledge after her months of learning.
"And that's us? We're on another world," Christina looked at the projection with awe.
"We have been for quite a while," Minerva said.
"I know, but seeing it like that..."
"It's good, isn't it?" the Doctor asked, knowing the feeling the woman had to be feeling.
"Wonderful," Christina smiled.
The Tritivores started telling their story to the trio, only the Doctor understanding what was being said.
"The Tritovores were going to trade with San Helios. Population of one hundred billion. Plenty of waste matter for them to absorb," the Doctor explained.
"By waste matter, you mean?" Christina crinkled her nose, half-guessing what he was trying to say.
"They feed off what others leave behind. From their... behind," the Doctor clarified, "If you see what I mean. It's perfectly natural. They are flies."
"Charming. Just remind me never to kiss them," Christina mumbled.
Minerva was watching the projection show a thriving city with trees and green parks, "Well this is quite beautiful," she remarked, "San Helios City."
"That's amazing. But you've seen this sort of thing before, haven't you?" Christina looked at the pair.
"Thousands of times," the Doctor nodded.
"That Lordship of yours... The Lord of where, exactly?" Christina asked, suddenly intrigued, "And you said Princess," she looked at Minerva, "Princess of what?"
"Of Time. I come from a race of people called Time Lords," the Doctor answered first.
"Princess of the Silver Monsoon," Minerva offhandedly replied, "Water-based race - well, part of his," she jerked a thumb at the Doctor.
"So you're both...aliens?" Christina looked from one another, as if searching for anything that would back up their statements.
"Yeah. But you don't have to kiss us either," the Doctor mumbled, "Don't you dare," he subconsciously pulled Minerva closer to his side.
"But you both look human..."
"Well technically, you—" Minerva pointed at herself and Christina, "—look Time Lord. Our races came first."
"But anyways, back to the point," the Doctor reminded to the projection.
"So if that's San Helios, all we need to do is find that city. They can help us!" Christina exclaimed.
"But that's the problem," Minerva looked at the projection as it changed to the desert they were in now, "This is the city..."
"But it's sand! That first image, the temples and things, what's that, then? Ancient history?"
One of the Tritovores chirruped and so the Doctor translated, "The image was taken last year."
"It became a desert in one year?" Minerva frowned.
"I said there was something in the sand," he bent down and let the sand fall through his fingers.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Minerva asked.
He looked up with a bit of guilt, "It would've scared you."
"It would not have..." she shifted as she took notice of all the sand, "...a lot..."
He just sighed as if that proved his point, "It's the city, the oceans, the mountains, the wildlife and 100 billion people, turned to sand. All those voices in Carmen's head. She's hearing them die."
"But I've got sand in my hair. That's dead people! Oh, that's disgusting! Oh!" Christina shook her head and hair, now wishing she would've used that scrunchie Minerva had for herself.
"Doctor, even if it scares me I still want to know," Minerva adamantly said as he stood back up, facing her, "I'm actually trying not to be so fearful of things but you know after this regeneration everything's a bit more...fearful, after everything I had previously went through. But that doesn't mean I don't want to know the reality of situations we're in. So next time, please just tell me, alright?"
"Alright, that sounds fair," the Doctor nodded, though he still wasn't very convinced. He only wanted to protect her from scary things and whenever he could, he wold, "So something destroyed the whole of San Helios and we should probably know why."
"And who," Minerva pointed.
"It's in my hair!" Christina was still stuck on that detail.
Suddenly, Barclay's cellphone rang and the Doctor pulled it from his pocket, "Malcolm, tell me the bad news!"
~ 0 ~
Malcolm was sat on his chair with his phone on speaker and Erisa beside him, "Oh, you are clever! It is bad news! It's the wormhole, Doctor, it's getting bigger! We've gone way past 100 Bernards, I haven't invented a name for that."
"How can it get bigger by itself?" the Doctor asked.
"Well, that's why I'm phoning! You'll work it out, if I know you, sir."
"Doctor, we estimate the circumference of your invisible wormhole is now four miles, heading upwards. I've grounded all flights above London. We can't risk anyone else falling through," Erisa spoke up.
"Good work, both of you," the Doctor praised.
"But I have to know. Does that wormhole constitute a danger to this planet?" Erisa questioned.
~ 0 ~
The phone beeped and so the Doctor looked at it, "Oh, sorry, call waiting, gotta go," he switched it off for the other call.
~ 0 ~
"Call waiting!?" Erisa half-shouted.
"He's a devil, that one!" Malcolm laughed.
"I'll say he's got a lot of explaining, starting with that wife of his..." she shook her head, "...I found the file."
Malcolm raised an eyebrow, seeing the subject was more complicated apparently, he only wondered why.
~ 0 ~
"Yep?" the Doctor answered the other call.
"Doctor, it's Nathan. We got those duckboard things down, but..."
"It's my fault," the Doctor heard Angela in the background.
"No, it's not, don't say that," Nathan shushed her.
"Why, what's happened?" the Doctor asked.
"We kept on turning the engine, but...we're out of petrol. Used it all up. Even if we can get those wheels out...this bus is never going to move."
The Doctor lowered the phone and Minerva immediately saw the new expression her husband wore, "What's wrong?" she asked him quietly.
"You promised you'd get us home. Doctor? Are you still there?" Nathan asked.
"Doctor, tell me, what did they say?" Minerva asked, Christina joining them.
A beeping noise from the monitors interrupted them followed by the excited chirrups of the Tritovores.
"It's the probe. It's reached the storm," the Doctor moved to the monitors.
"And what's he saying?" Christina questioned.
"It's not a storm."
The probe was flying through a massive amount of creatures flying in the air, looking like manta-rays which the group could see through a video on the ship.
"Okay, scared now..." Minerva started breathing harder. "That's a swarm...millions and millions of them..."
"Billions," the Doctor's eyes widened.
One of the creatures flew straight for the probe with its mouth wide open and showing off its sharp teeth. The connection was soon lost after that.
"Ah! We've lost the probe. I think it got eaten..." Minerva trembled a bit and shook her head.
"Everything on this planet gets eaten," the Doctor realized with distaste.
"How far away is that swarm?" Christina asked.
"Hundred miles. But at that speed, it'll be here in twenty minutes," the Doctor replied and the Tritovores chirruped, "No, they're not just coming for us. They want the wormhole."
"But that means they're heading for Earth!" Minerva gasped.
"Show the analysis," the Doctor instructed the Tritovores. Quickly, a 3D image of the creatures appeared before them, "Incredible! They swarm out of a wormhole, strip the planet bare, then move on to the next world, start the life cycle all over again."
"So, they make the wormholes?" Minerva asked curiously.
"They must do..."
"But how? They don't exactly look like technicians," Christina observed, "And if the wormhole belongs to them, why are they 100 miles away?"
"Because they need to be?" he tried then shook his head, "No. That's bonkers. Hang on! Yes! Oh! Do you see? Billions of them, flying in formation, all around the planet, round and round and round, faster and faster and faster, till they generate a rupture in space! The speed of them, and the numbers, and the size, all of that rips the wormhole into existence!"
"And the wormhole's getting bigger," Minerva reminded, "Because they're getting closer?"
"Correct!"
"But how do they get through? Cos that wormhole's a killer, we've seen it!" Christina reminded.
"No, no, see the exo-skeleton?" the Doctor pointed to the projection.
"It's metal," Minerva blinked, "Wow..."
"They've got bones of metal! They eat metal, and extrude it into the exo-skeleton! So their velocity makes the wormhole, then their body makes it safe! Perfect design!"
"Those things are going to turn the entire Earth into a desert. So why exactly are you smiling?" Christina raised an eyebrow.
"Worse it gets, the more I love it!"
Minerva shook her head and sighed when Christina gave her a look, "Yes, I did voluntarily marry that."
And just like that, the grin on the Doctor's face dropped. "Hey."
"The thing is, Doctor, you're missing the obvious," Christina said before the man started another little moment with his wife, "We came here through the wormhole, yes? But our Tritovore friends didn't. They came here to trade with San Helios. Therefore, the question is, why did they crash?"
"Ah, good question! What a team! Like she said, why did you crash?" he asked the creatures.
One of the Tritovores lead the group into another room with a large open hole on the floor where apparently the answer laid.
The Doctor observed the hole, "Oh, yes. Gravity Well, look. Goes all the way down to the engine. So what happened?" the creature chirruped, "He says the drive system stalled. Ten miles up, they fell out of the sky. But what caused that?"
The Tritovore shrugged.
"No idea," Minerva sighed.
"Yeah. But wait a minute, that's a crystal nucleus down there, yes?" he looked at the creature which chirruped, "And it looks like it survived the crash. If the crystal's intact... Oh, yes, that's better than diesel!"
"What, you can use the crystal to move the bus?" Christina asked.
"I think so. The spaceship's a write-off, but the 200's small enough."
"How does a Crystal drive a bus?"
"In a super-clever outer-spacey way, just trust me!" the Doctor pulled a feed on a monitor.
"What have I said about those words?" Minerva raised an eyebrow, "You got me doing them!"
"I'm a very good influence," he smirked then glanced at the Tritovore, "There's the crystal! It's fallen to the bottom of the well. Have you got access shafts?" it chirruped, "All frozen? Maybe I can open them! Internal comms, put that on," he gave Minerva a Bluetooth-like device and ran for the door, "You two stay here, keep an eye on the shaft. Tell me if anything happens," the Tritovore followed him.
"Where it's safer," Minerva sighed and gave Christina a tired, irritated look.
"Overprotective?"
Minerva rolled her eyes and nodded. She covered the part of the speaker before she talked, "I had um...an accident, months ago where I changed and needed a lot more protection. I sort of used be like a human, all fragile and stuff, so he took it upon himself to protect me. And that was nice and all - it still is," she admitted with a light shrug, "But I'm myself again. I've got my strength back and I'm getting my powers too, but he's taken this job of protection severely serious to the point where I don't think he'll ever let me try anything dangerous again no matter how many times he tells me he'll 'try'," she rolled her eyes.
"And it's highly annoying," Christina slowly moved to the hole, well, and peered down.
"Truly," Minerva sighed, "It's more irritating because he thinks the dangerous jobs are all his. He's the one that has to deal with the enemies and has to keep everyone safe. And yes, I like when he protects me but that doesn't mean I want him to do it all the time. We're a team, we're married, I want to help him too."
In all the meantime, Christina had moved back to the well and peered down, a small idea popping into her head.
"I understand he's only looking out for me but I want to prove to him that I'm no longer that meek woman he met years ago. I'm different, literally. I can handle more things but he just needs to give me the chance to prove it," Minerva continued.
"If I can use that sunlight to start the automatic maintenance. Minerva?" she heard the Doctor call through the bluetooth, "If you see a panel opening in that shaft, let me know."
"Got it," Minerva replied quietly as she turned to face Christina.
She blinked when the black-haired woman held out a harness, "Well my dear cousin...how'd you like to prove to your husband you're more than ready to get in the game?"
Minerva followed Christina's gaze to the well and immediately knew what the plan was. Christina raised an eyebrow and smirked, nodding to the well, daring the brunette woman to go ahead and do what she wanted, what she needed to do.
"Minerva, anything now?" she heard the Doctor ask again.
Minerva bit her lip and held her hands to Christina, "Gimme."
Christina quietly laughed and obeyed.
~ 0 ~
The Doctor was pulling and connecting cables in the other room, "Anything now?" he asked again.
~ 0 ~
Minerva now wore the harness which Christina was making sure was set correctly, "Nothing," Minerva said.
~ 0 ~
"Any sign of movement?" he sighed.
"Nope."
"How's that?"
~ 0 ~
Christina set up a wire cable and winch for Minerva, "Nothing," the brunette replied again.
"Any result?"
Christina attached the cable to the harness. "Martian, you need that crystal right?" Minerva asked, Christina took out a small torch from her bag and attached it by Velcro to the harness.
"Yup, that would be right," the Doctor cluelessly replied.
"Then consider it done," Minerva winked at Christina, "Thank you," she whispered to the black-haired woman.
"Off you go then you're highness," Christina backed away.
~ 0 ~
The Doctor's eyes widened at his Clever Girl's words. "Minerva? What are you doing?" He had stopped his work to get the answer. "Minerva!?"
~ 0 ~
"Proving myself," Minerva determinedly answered, "A good princess does whatever needs to be done for her people and a good wife always helps her husband." She swan dived into the gravity well.
"NO!" the Doctor hurriedly ran inside the room but too late as his wife was gone, "What have you done!?" he angrily faced Christina.
She was as calm as ever however, "How about instead of yelling you help her?"
Minerva tried her best not to give any shouts to show her massive fear of her choices as she fell through the well with her arms outstretched. It would just make it worse.
The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the pulley and made Minerva stop, "That's better — somewhat!" he nearly shouted again, still giving Christina dagger glares, "You let her do this!?"
"She wanted to!" Christina exclaimed, crossing her arms, "You're suffocating her with your over-protectiveness!"
"What!?"
"Martian, I was doing good," he heard Minerva's soft voice through their devices.
He sighed in irritation, "Minerva, you were about to hit the security grid, look."
Minerva looked down and saw a field of cracking energy below her, "Oh...okay, so what do I do?"
"Try the big red button," he said.
She pressed the button on the wall, "Yes!"
"Now come back up! I can do that! PLEASE!" He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, that hole reminding him far too much of the Titanic's engines where she nearly died...
"No."
"No?"
"No. I'm doing this so shut up and let me help you."
"You'd be helping me far more if you were here!"
"But it's not helping her," Christina quietly said, earning another round of glares.
"Oh and you are?" he snapped.
"Frankly, yes. She told me you wouldn't let her do anything even when she's her alien self again," Christine didn't understand exactly what that meant but if it would make the Doctor get the idea then she would use it, "How do you expect her to be better if you don't let her try to do stuff on her own?"
"I am her husband and I will protect her. I'm the one supposed to be doing this," he pointed down at the well, "She's innocent and she doesn't know what harm can come to her—"
"She's not innocent," Christina started with that, "And even if she was, it wouldn't be good for her. You can't be innocent in this world and survive. She needs to experience things and you're not letting her. God forbid this, but what if something happened to you and you died? You spent all this time protecting her from everything and never allowed her to do something, to protect her self...how would she move on by herself? She wouldn't know anything..."
The Doctor opened his mouth to make a comeback, but...there was nothing really to say. Christina looked at him with a 'I'm right' expression. But as right as she may be, the Doctor could not allow his wife to be doing anything dangerous when he could do it...he didn't need to do it, he was sure Minerva could actually protect herself quite well on her own if she needed to. But, he remembered all those centuries where he was married and she told him of all the dangers the Monsoon had to deal with, apart from her family problems. At those times he wished he could promise, swear, that he would protect her and comfort her...but the fact was he couldn't. He was married, he had his children, he had his wife. Minerva had her own life on the Monsoon and as such deserved a man who could stay at her side and give her the love she deserved.
But that had finally changed and she was his wife now, his wife. Now, he could finally protect her like he'd always wanted to. He could care for her, openly love her and show her he loved her. She didn't need to be worried over these problems because he could always be there now. He would always take care of her.
"I'm fine, Martian," Minerva informed the Doctor as she continued on her way down the hole. She didn't like the way she was probably making him feel and that wasn't her intention. But, this was the chance she wanted and finally had thanks to Christina. He would see that nothing bad would happen and that she could help much better than her previous incarnation had.
"Just...just please be careful," was the Doctor's plea, looking at Christina with a less angry face. It pained him that she was right.
"My cousin is doing just fine," Christina smiled.
"Cousins? Oh no, no, no," he shook his head, "You're a bad influence on her. The moment we finish up, we leave."
"Where to exactly?" she raised an eyebrow, curious, "And how? On a little rocket?"
"I'll have you know my TARDIS is much cooler than a rocket," he frowned, immediately softening when he heard Minerva's laughter.
"What's a TARDIS?" Christina moved around the place, a little bored having to wait for her 'cousin' to reach the destination.
"Well...a little blue box. Travels in more than space," he replied, "It can journey through time, Christina. Oh, the places we've been. World War One. Creation of the universe, end of the universe, the war between China and Japan..." the Doctor tilted his head as he saw something shiny from Christina's backpack. It seemed like his wife's curiosity had infected him because he found himself moving over to the backpack and opening it up, "Oh..." his eyes blinked rapidly, "And the Court of King Athelstan, in 924 AD.," he lifted a golden chalice up just Christina spun around, "But I don't remember you being there. So what are you doing with this?"
Christina stormed over, "Excuse me, a gentleman never goes through a lady's possessions!" she tried taking the chalice but the Doctor lifted it up to where she was unable to reach it.
"Doctor, what's going on?" he heard Minerva ask.
"It's the Cup of Athelstan. Given to the first King of Britain, as a coronation gift from Hywel, King of the Welsh. But it's been held in the International Gallery for 200 years, which makes you, Lady Christina, a thief. Your cousin is actually a thief, Clever Girl."
"I like to think I liberated it," Christina hopped for the chalice.
"Don't tell me you need the money."
"Daddy lost everything. Invested his fortune in the Icelandic banks."
"That's not right," the Doctor heard Minerva again, "If she was short of cash she would've robbed a bank or even a liquor store. That's her lifestyle."
"My wife is very clever and she says this is your lifestyle," the Doctor told Christina.
"I take it you both disapprove?" Christina raised an eyebrow.
"Absolutely," he nodded before thinking on it more, "Except, that little blue box. I stole it. From my own people."
"AH!" Minerva suddenly yelped.
"What is it!? What's wrong!?" the Doctor peered down the hole.
"We never did find out why the ship crashed..." Minerva breathed as she saw the end of the hole coming closer.
"Minerva, I think you should come back up," the Doctor swallowed.
"It's too late, I can see it..."
"Please, Minerva, please, be careful and do this slowly," he looked over to the Tritovore, "Have you got an open-vent system?" it chirruped, "I thought so."
"What does that mean?" Christina asked, stopping her hopping when she noticed it was serious again.
"It's like when birds fly into the engines of an aircraft..."
Minerva reached the bottom and saw one of the creatures, "Oh dear..." she breathed at the sight, "It's one of the creatures..."
"Got trapped in the vents. Caused the crash. Minerva, get out," the Doctor begged again.
"It's not moving, I think it's injured," Minerva offered to relieve his nerves a little. If it was injured, it wouldn't be able to cause much harm.
"No, it's dormant, because it's so cold down there. But your body heat is going to raise the temperature."
"But not that fast," she reminded, "I'm part Moontsay and that should give me just enough time," she tried to release the crystal as best and quickly as she could, "And you needed the entire thing, right?"
The Doctor sighed, "Yes..."
She lifted it from the ground, cautiously looking over at the creature, "I'm almost there, Martian. It's okay."
"Minerva, you're giving me heart attacks," he whined, actually rubbing his chest as he felt them constrict when thinking of the creature with her.
"Not so fun, is it?" she smirked when there was no reply, "Got it!" she looked over to the creature and saw it barely move, "And look at that, it's just waking up."
The Doctor used the screwdriver on the winch and pulled her up, "Come on, come on!"
Minerva saw the red button coming up again and pressed it as she moved past it, turning on the field, "And just for precaution."
"Oh she is very good," Christina remarked as the Doctor swung the brunette over to the side, "Well done, cousin."
"Thanks," Minerva breathed with adrenaline and handed her crystal and couplings.
Suddenly, she found her face turned to a very crossed Martian. "Don't ever do that to me again!" he brought her to his lips for a deep kiss, "Ever, ever, ever!" He pepper-kissed her face until she laughed.
"But it worked out fine, see?" she gestured to the place, "I can do these things now," she took his hands in hers, "I'm not a goddess or anything, or even you, but I'm capable now."
But the Doctor was just too relieved to see her in front of him, safe and alive. He took off all the contraptions on her and pulled her into his arms for a very tight hug, needing to bask in this small moment. He supposed now he understood completely what it meant to have a heart attack, or in his case hearts attack when the person you loved faced a danger.
"Doctor, we need to go," Minerva reminded, trying to wiggle out of his arms, "C'mon, Martian!"
"Right," he pulled back but kept her hand in his with a tight grip, "Commander! Mission complete! Now we've got to get back to the 200, all of us," but the commander Tritovore chittered, "Oh, don't be so daft! A captain can leave his ship if there's a bus standing by."
"We can take you to a nice planet," Minerva promised, "But we have to go now! That swarm can't be long now, c'mon!" she motioned to be followed as they started running.
~ 0 ~
The rest of the bus passengers could see the swarm reaching them only they still believed it was just a storm...except Carmen of course. She was the one who was freaking out the most.
"What sort of storm is that?" Angela had to ask.
"Run! Run, run, run, run, run!" Carmen mumbled, sensing the trio, along with two newcomers were running towards them.
As the group ran, the Doctor could hear that cellphone ringing again and when he answered he'd only let Malcolm say his name before he said, "Not now, Malcolm!" and hung up.
"Still rude!" Minerva exclaimed.
They reached the bus where Nathan and Barclay stood at the door, their eyes wide at the Tritovores behind the trio, "What the hell are those?" Nathan pointed.
"Don't point, it's rude," Christina scolded.
"Hey, now you're getting it," Minerva laughed, "And they're friends so be nice," she warned the two men.
"Get inside, get them sitting down," the Doctor ushered the two men away and held the crystal, "Now then, let's have a look."
"So what does that crystal do?" Christina questioned.
He tossed it over his shoulder, "Oh, nothing, don't need the crystal."
"She risked her life for that!" she pointed to Minerva.
"No, no, she...risked," he really didn't like remembering that detail. "Her life for these," he unhooked one of the clamps, "The clamps!" he ran to the driver's side front tire and attached a clamp, " One there. One there. One there. And one there!" he had made a trip all around the bus putting each clamp on the tires, "Now get in! All of you!" he ushered the women in and the Tritovores.
"But what are the clamps for? Do they turn the wheels?" Christina asked once inside the bus.
The Doctor took a seat in the driver's seat, "Something like that. I just need to fix this. Have you got a hammer in that bag?"
"Oh I bet she does," Minerva sighed as said hammer was pulled out of Christina's bag.
"Phone, phone...: the Doctor handed her the phone, 'Press redial, dear," Minerva dialed the phone while he hooked the plate to the steering wheel. Once someone answered, Minerva placed the phone to his ear, "Malcolm, it's me!"
~ 0 ~
"I'm ready!" Malcolm exclaimed, popping up from the floor with large goggles.
"Ready for what?" the Doctor asked.
"I don't know! You tell me!"
"I'll try to get back. There might be something following us. You need to find a way to close the wormhole."
"Would that be a compressed burst of feedback on a counter-oscillation, perchance?"
"Oh, Malcolm! You're brilliant!"
"Coming from you, sir, that means the world."
"Doctor, what sort of something?" Erisa spoke into the phone, "That wormhole is now measuring ten miles and growing, I need to know the exact nature of the threat."
~ 0 ~
"Sorry, gotta go," the Doctor nodded to Minerva who hung up the call. He worked on the steering well up until it sparked and made him lean away, "Ah, it's not compatible! Bus, spaceship, spaceship, bus. I need to weld the two systems together."
"And how do you do that?" Minerva asked.
"I need something non-corrosive, something malleable, something ductile, something..."
Both looked over to Christina, "Gold."
Horror flashed across her face knowing exactly what they wanted from her. "Oh, no you don't!" She hugged her backpack to her chest.
Minerva groaned. "Christina, seriously, what is it worth now if you're going to be a little too dead to cash it in!?"
Barclay came forwards to offer his watch, "Hey, hey, use this!"
"I said gold," the Doctor reminded.
"It is gold."
Minerva gave him an apologetic smile. "Let's not add one more bad thing to this," she patted the man's shoulder and sent him back to his seat.
"Christina!" the Doctor exclaimed in frustration.
She looked at her bag then the other passengers and finally took the chalice out, "It's over 1,000 years old. Worth £18 million. Promise me you'll be careful."
He took the cup from her gently, "I promise," he then turned the cup upside down and banged it with the hammer.
Christina's expression flattened as he banged it probably about ten times. "I seriously hate you."
"Exactly why I threw away the TARDIS hammer," Minerva smirked. She turned to face the passengers, "Ladies and gentlemen please stay seated we are about to leave this desert, hot planet. And yes, there are currently two new passengers, nice Tritovores, so please be nice to them," she flashed a smile to the said aliens who chirruped back.
"No, she stays with me, fellas," the Doctor called to them after their remarks about Minerva being so kind. Yes, she was kind, yes she was funny, and yes she would be staying only with him.
"What's he going to do, though?" Barclay asked.
"Just do as he says please," Minerva smiled and turned to the Doctor, her smile dropping as she leaned down beside him. "You do know what you're doing right?"
The Doctor flatout ignored her and continued with the steering wheel. "Come on, that's it... You can do it, you beauty! One last trip!" Suddenly the bus powered up and rattled. It rose from the sand, astonishing the passengers.
Barclay looked out the window, "Ah, you are so kidding me!"
"We're flying! It's flying!" Nathan laughed.
"He's flying the bus!" Lou breathed.
"It's a miracle!" Angela blinked, a bright smile on her face.
"Anti-gravity clamps. Didn't I say? Round we go," the Doctor cheered as he turned the bus and faced the the wormhole.
Carmen looked back the window to the swarm, "Doctor! They're coming!"
"Do you think this thing will survive the journey back?" Christina quietly asked the pair.
"Only one way to find out!" the Doctor shrugged, "Next stop..."
"Everywhere!" Minerva cheered, "Though it would be nice to stop by Earth first..."
Everyone held on tight as the Doctor propelled the bus through the wormhole, yelling as it did.
There was a flash of light before the wormhole became visible to the soldiers on the other side on Earth and suddenly the bus came through, flying over everyone.
"It's London!" Barclay looked out the window to see the dark night of London, England.
"We're back home!" Angela cheered.
"He did it! He did it!" Nathan exclaimed.
"Malcolm! Close that wormhole!" the Doctor ordered through the phone that Minerva held to his ear.
"Yes, sir! My pleasure, sir!"
The Doctor blinked, "He's hung up on me!"
Minerva smirked, "You had that one coming."
~ 0 ~
Malcolm pressed a button on his keyboard, "Yes!" but the electronics sparked and away went his excitement, "Oh, no, no! No!" a small fire sprouted which he quickly put out with a fire extinguisher.
He heard the phone ringing and so picked up only to say, "Not now, I'm busy!" he set the phone down.
~ 0 ~
"He's hung up again!" the Doctor cried and so Minerva went ahead and redialed, "Malcolm! Listen to me!" the Doctor exclaimed once Malcolm had picked up again.
"It's not working!" Malcolm said.
"I need that signal. We've got billions of those things about to fly through!"
"Well, what do I do?"
"Loop it back through the integrator, and keep the signal ramping up."
"But by how much?"
"500 Bernards! Do it now!"
Malcolm made the adjustments on the computer, excitement back on when he saw it working, "Yes!"
Outside, the wormhole sealed up and left only the three manta creatures on Earth. Unfortunately, for the first couple of minutes it would seem that the soldiers' bullets didn't harm the creatures.
"Doctor, it's coming for us!" Nathan pointed at an oncoming creature heading for the open window of the bus.
"Oh, no, you don't!" the Doctor swerved the bus and batted the creature away.
Finally, the creatures were taken down by the soldiers and everything was left to pure excitement and cheers inside the bus.
"Back home," Minerva sighed in content and looked down at the Doctor, "Knew you could do it."
"Technically we did it together," he took one of her hands and kissed the back of it, making her smile.
Once the bus landed, everyone gathered their belongings and as the Doctor sonicked the door open, they filed out with a soldier giving instructions for them.
"Welcome back. If you could step away from the bus to be safe. As fast as you can. It's standard procedure. We need to screen you, and then you'll all be taken to debriefing."
Minerva tensed as she remembered just what sort of institution was guarding the perimeters. The Doctor stood and took out his psychic paper, "We don't count," he flashed it to the soldier and stepped out with his wife.
Christina made to follow the pair, "No, but, Doctor..." but the soldier took her by the arm.
"With me, ma'am," he took her away.
"Doctor!" Malcolm exclaimed as he saw the pair heading towards Erisa.
"You must be Malcolm!" the Doctor stopped and surprisingly found himself in a hug.
"Oh! Oh, I love you,"Malcolm pulled away, "I love you, I love you."
Minerva had to chuckle, not so much afraid of this man, "Not as much as me though," she warned, "Cos that's my job."
"To your station, Doctor Taylor," Erisa joined them.
"Yes, ma'am," Malcolm headed back to the lab but turned and pointed to the Doctor, "I love you!" the Doctor simply pointed back with a smile and Malcolm went on.
"Doctor," Erisa saluted, "I salute you, whether you like it or not. Now, I take it we're safe from those things?"
"They'll start again. Generate a new doorway. It's not their fault, it's their natural life cycle. But I'll see if I can nudge the wormholes on to uninhabited planets," the Doctor said, feeling Minerva silently and discreetly move a bit more behind him, "Closer to home, Captain, those two lads," he nodded to Barclay and Nathan, " Very good in a crisis. Nathan needs a job, Barclay's good with engines. You could do a lot worse. Privates Nathan and Barclay, UNIT's finest."
"I'll see what I can do..." Erisa noticed the woman practically hidden behind the Doctor, "...I take it that's your wife? Also known as our formerly investigated case in San Diego, 2009."
Minerva, seeing no other point of hiding, moved back to the Doctor's side, gripping his hand like she was holding onto dear life, "...hello..." she greeted with a shaky voice.
"Ma'am," Erisa nodded.
"Captain I'm going to be frank here, my wife's terrified of UNIT because of the investigation on her last year. Can you please tell her that it's alright now? Because it is alright now, right?" the Doctor gave the woman a sharp look, practically daring her to say something else, "There are no current investigations of her and her human family...right?"
Erisa caught the question - warning - and nodded fervently. "Quite right, Doctor. Miss Souza there no investigations over you anymore," she informed the brunette, "Though we will need to create a new profile for you."
"Why?" Minerva breathed and stepped back.
"Just to have a record of you like the Doctor."
"But why? I haven't done anything bad, I swear. I'm good."
The Doctor chuckled, "It's just to have something to follow by for protocols," he took her hand in his up to his lips for a kiss.
"Protocols? What for?"
"Employees," Erisa explained but garnered confusion from Minerva.
"Employee?" she blinked, "But I don't...I don't work here..."
"Now you do," Erisa nodded.
"So...UNIT doesn't want to like...poke me or anything?"
Erisa had to laugh, "Not really."
"Oh, okay," Minerva breathed a sigh of relief then looked at the Doctor with a dim smile, "I'm working for UNIT..."
"Want to be my partner?" he raised an eyebrow, sharing a smirk with her.
"That sounds nice," she laughed.
"And as a peace gift, we've got something for you and your husband, ma'am," Erisa cut into the moment and gestured behind them where a tarp dropped to reveal the TARDIS.
"The box of wonders!" Minerva cheered, running over to the dear box, "Better than any sort of transportation!"
"Found in the gardens of Buckingham Palace," Erisa explained as she and the Doctor joined the brunette.
"Oh, she doesn't mind," the Doctor waved it off.
"Now, I've got three dead alien stingrays to clear up. I don't suppose you fancy helping with the paperwork?"
"Not really, but could you please send over the Tritovores to us? We're supposed to bring them to a nice planet for them."
"Of course," Erisa nodded, "Till we meet again, Doctor, ma'am," she called to Minerva.
Minerva turned around with a half-smile, "Minerva," she corrected for future references.
The Doctor walked up to Minerva and took her into a hug, "See? I told you everything would be fine with UNIT. You had nothing to be afraid of."
"I know it was stupid but it was a real fear for me," she sighed, resting her head on his chest, "I didn't want them questioning my family here, or even my friends."
Christina, who was being monitored with a Geiger counter saw the pair near that blue box of theirs and swatted the soldier, "That's quite enough of that!" she ran towards the pair
The detective, McMillan, spotted her and went after her. "She is not getting away this time."
"Little blue box! Just like you said!" Christina looked at the TARDIS with excitement, "Right then, off we go! Come on, Doctor, cousin," she eyed Minerva, "Show me the stars!"
"No," Minerva sadly smiled.
"What?"
"No," Minerva repeated, looking at the Doctor to see if he was thinking the same.
"But I helped you," Christina reminded, "I helped both of you."
"So?" the Doctor asked.
"We're surrounded by police. I'll go to prison."
"Yeah."
"But you were right, it's not about the money. I only steal things for the adventure, and today, with you...I want more days like this. I want every day to be like this. Why not take me with you?"
"People have traveled with us and we've lost them. Lost them all. Never again," the Doctor replied, "And my wife needs a lot of help right now. She is my main priority and I make no trips that interfere with her assistance."
McMillan arrived with policemen, "Lady Christina de Souza! Oh, I have waited a long time to say this. I am arresting you on suspicion of theft," Minerva watched with sadness as Christina was handcuffed. " You do not have to say anything, etcetera, etcetera. Dennison, take her away."
As Christina was taken away, Carmen and Lou walked over to the pair.
"Doctor? You take care, now," Carmen warned.
The Doctor smiled, missing the warning, "You too! Chops and gravy, lovely! What do you think we'll have for tonight, dear?" he looked at Minerva.
"No, but you be careful. Because your song is ending, sir," Carmen reiterated her warning with further explanation.
"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, his smile gone.
"It is returning. It is returning through the dark. And then, Doctor... Oh, but then... He will knock four times."
As the humans parted, the Doctor and Minerva shared a concerned glance with each other. The last time they heard about a song, well...a certain human song ended (Minerva) and a certain hybrid song began...Minerva. But this time, this time the song was his...
Thankfully, the two Tritovores arrived as requested, distracting them from the dark moment.
"Oh, please come in," Minerva opened the TARDIS doors for them, "We'll be taking you home right now! Any requests?" she called as the two went inside.
The Tritovores chirruped from inside and the Doctor poked his head inside, frowning, "For the last time, she is staying with me!" he closed the doors and faced his wife who giggled, "What?"
"You're so ridiculous," she turned away to see Christina being led to a police car. Suddenly, she reached for the Doctor's screwdriver and pointed to her 'cousin''s handcuffs, unlocking them, "My cousin will not go to jail."
Christina noticed the unlocked handcuffs but remained silent as she was placed in the backseat of the car. As soon as the door was closed, she scooted to the other side and bolted out of the car, heading for the bus as the McMilan and another officer chased her.
"No! Stop that woman! Stop that woman! Stop her! Don't just stand there, stop her!"
Minerva handed the Doctor back his screwdriver and hurried up to the bus with him.
"Open the door! I'll add resisting arrest!" McMillan pounded on the bus doors.
"I'd step back, if I were you," the Doctor warned him.
"I'm charging you too! Aiding and abetting!" McMillan warned the two.
"Yes, we'll just step inside this police box and arrest our selves," Minerva sweetly smiled and took the Doctor's hand as the two returned to the TARDIS.
Christina waved to the detective and started the bus. McMillan watched helplessly as the bus lifted off the ground, "No! Come back!"
The rest of the passengers laughed at the getaway. The pair stopped in front of the TARDIS doors where Christina hovered and opened the doors to call out, "We could've been so good together, cousin," she smiled.
"Sorry cousin, but I've got a kingdom to build and a husband to deal with," Minerva playfully shrugged.
Christina laughed while the Doctor mock-glared at the two. She waved at them then flew and the bus flew into the sky, leaving behind a cheering group of their new friends.
"Time to go home," the Doctor whispered to Minerva while taking her hand.
"Yes, please," she agreed and allowed him to take them back to the TARDIS to finish their last task before they could end their long day.
#ocappreciation#fd: doctor who#doctor who#10th doctor#allaboutocs#ochub#doctor who ocs#10th doctor oc#10th doctor x oc#doctor who fics#doctor who imagines#dw#dw fics#dw imagines#dw ocs#10th doctor fics#10th doctor imagines#oc: minerva souza#fic: star-crossed
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Hello again, friends! My laptop isn't cooperating with me, so I won't be able to make a cut or add a photo since I'm making this post on mobile! I'll try and come back and make a more user friendly post once my laptop decides to work with me! (Cuz its nearly an hour past 5pm CST, when I said I'd post, I'm so sorry! I had to retype this all out on my phone TwT)
So without further ado, here are Zexal Week 2022's prompts!
Sunday, May 29th: Sports Day - Children's Card Games are the claim to fame for YGO, but in Zexal, we do sometimes see the characters in their gym class! From the springboard jumping over stacks, to the school's indoor pool, what other sports can you see characters doing? You can keep it simple and in-universe, or you can go as far as a full revamp of Zexal and make it a sports anime!
Monday, May 30th: Prank Wars - What characters are the most capable of shattering the peace, setting off a full on prank war? Who's participating? Who are unwitting victims, or amused, untouched bystanders? Does it stay simple? Do things get complex? Does someone take it too far?
Tuesday, May 31st: Mer/Maid - Its the last day of May! During May, 2 different common events in fandom take place: MerMay, and Maid Day (Held on May 10th in Japan)! As a send off to the month, use today to promote any Zexal content you made this month for those events, or make/share something new!
Wednesday, June 1st: Roadtrip - Its the start of the summer months, so we're celebrating with a roadtrip! Who's going? Where are they going? How long is it going to take? Are they making pitstops/small trips to see the sights along the way? Was it a spur of the moment trip? Was it meticulously planned to the most minuscule of details?
Thursday, June 2nd: Retro - YGO Zexal is set in a futuristic setting, but what if it was set in a more recent past? Zexal but 90's, 80's, 70's, hell even Roaring 20's? Whether or not you incorporate the card game or not is entirely your call!
Friday, June 3rd: Call to Attention - With nearly 150 episodes, Zexal definitely had a fair amount of time to introduce and explore different characters and concepts, as well give the fandom enough fuel for fan-theories galore! What is/are some aspects of the show you wish had been given more attention? Do you think a character should have been more fleshed out? Was there a specific direction you thought a plotline was going, only for it to go somewhere completely different? Was there one that just seemed to be dropped? Tell us your thoughts!
Saturday, June 4th: Free Day! - Just as it says: Do as you will, anything is fair game!
Extra Prompts:
A character(s) you relate to the most
Museum of Wonders
Coffee shop date
The Measure of a Life
Defying Gravity
We're Getting the Band Back Together!
"This is a retroactive nightmare."
"Here's to a night we'll never remember, with the people we'll never forget!"
"Lie after lie after lie, we all stopped counting the crimes. You know why we can't trust you, don't you?"
"Do you want to be the layer of the bricks that seal your fate, or would you rather be the architect of what we might create?"
"All I wanted was you."
"I'm minor in a major kind of way."
-☆-☆-☆-☆-☆-☆-
Now, as usual, the prompts are not mandatory! They're meant more as a framework for those who prefer a guideline or structure! If there's something you'd prefer to do that is not mentioned here, then by all means, go for it! We're celebrating Zexal, and doing so in whichever way you feel is best is totally fine!
Not only that, but by no means is participation in Zexal Week limited to producing content! Likes and reblogs, even leaving comments on others' posts all count as contributing to Zexal Week! Even if you don't consider yourself a creator, your actions and support help make things possible!
In addition, while I am aware that fanfic and fanart are the most common forms of fan content, I encourage all types of content, AMVs/fancams, poetry, screencap edits, even simple posts or videos of you just talking about Zexal! OCs and Self-Insert characters are also totally acceptable!
That being said, if you plan on contributing content, I kindly ask the content you share be your own, and that you're not reposting someone's work, or at the very least, not doing so without their permission and/or passing it off as your own. "Credit to the Creator" does not fly here. Having commissioned someone to make content for you is fine, so long as you state/acknowledge it was commissioned, share who commissioned it, and confirmed with the creator that it is ok to share like that!
Additionally, I will accept mature works, so long as there are clear content warnings and proper tags.
Finally! I kindly ask that you use the tags "#Zexal Week" and/or "#Zexal Week 2022", cuz those are the tags I check to see people's content! In the past years, some people's posts fail to show up in the main tags, so feel free to tag this blog in your posts if you're concerned I might not see them!
Thank you for your patience, and again, I'll try and clean this post up when my laptop stops being rude to me! I'll see you all soon!
-- Krys 💙
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hmm the more i think bout it, this IF is kind of like x-men with different lore and universe...YASS♥️🔥＼(^o^)／
That would probably make my dad proud, I think, haha! (´∀｀)
Ah, to be fair, the hopeful transition stage during which I was trying to detach these characters (originally OCs in my middle school years) from their fandom origins was notably influenced by the MCU hype back then: A Superhuman AU that allowed (most of) them to retain certain abilities from their former fandom + allowed (some) characters to keep their full identities semi-veiled for a time.
Surprisingly, certain characters losing their powers (ahem, Akil) really allowed them to change in ways I hadn't intended, just as needing to alter certain powers to create less repetitive powers (ahem, Retriever) had much the same effect. Aha, I tried out so many AUs for these characters at that time! The second-closest AU I wanted to choose back then had been a sort of fantasy Empire setting. Sigmund was a Demon, Curadora was a Sorceress, Imka was a Seer, Fyodor was an Angel, Akil perhaps a Mer-creature of some sort like a Siren or something else horribly deadly . . . and so on like that, haha!
Anywho, I'm very glad to see you're enjoying the vibes! （*´▽｀*）
But, I must admit . . . I am not overly familiar with the X-men. I could name a good lot of them (Wolverine, Cyclops, Professor Xavier, Magneto, Storm, Quicksilver, Colossus?, Deadpool?) but that's mostly because I was obsessed with film / show review videos in High School, some of which reviewed the films at that time or cartoons + associated comic lore (which I never chanced to watch). It's odd since my dad really wanted us to share two of his greatest passions from his childhood (Superheroes, mostly Marvel, and Star Wars) when we were kids, yet he never really shared any X-Men material. Not even when it came to the Deadpool films did he jump at watching it with us older kids. It was mostly MCU family-bonding we had, though my sisters and I loved Teen Titans and Spiderman shows as well. (Also, our earliest hero fascination, the Powderpuff Girls + my very first fandom, I think. Definitely my first read fanfictions. My sisters declared me as Blossom in our trio, haha!)
The X-men, though, were largely absent / uncommented on by him. ┐(´ д｀)┌ Oh, other than him loving Wolverine, haha! (I remember we even nicknamed our Grandpa's older Mercedes the "Wolverine Car" because of vicious tears in the front seats that he - jokingly to us little ones - claimed came from a werewolf attack. Still don't know the real cause to this day!)
Mm. though in typing all this I just realized . . . it's funny that siblings and I had stumbled onto sharing his love for WWE-style wrestling with each other without any encouragement from him, haha! At least, in the sense of us performing flashy moves with eccentric characters rather than actively watching the televised sport (as blood did and does make me squeamish)!
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What's your favorite trope to write or to read in a THG fanfic?
For writer, if you can convert one of your fanfics to become original writing, what is it? Why do you pick it?
For reader, if you can make a live-action adaptation of your favorite fanfic, what would it be? Why?
Thank you :)
@curiousnonny
Oh wow, great questions! Tough questions! Honestly, my favorite trope to read changes and it's kinda just what I'm feeling in the mood for. I love a lot of them, mainly AU these days. I always start out in a fandom really into canon then delve into a bunch of AUs. I love the sports ones, Friends to Lovers, Roommates, Age Gap, Mutual Pining, Enemies to Lovers (occasionally), to name a few. Canon-wise, I like the Growing Back Together ones.
I enjoy writing a lot of different AU tropes. I get into the crossovers with movies, shows, and other books, too. It's kinda just whatever jumps into my head and I get excited about.
Actually, I am converting one of my fanfics into an original, so more on that later!
Which fanfic would I want a live-action of... wow, so many! I'm just gonna pick one that jumped into my head that I love so much. Sunsets on the Grass by @alliswell21
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