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saiilorstars · 3 years

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Ch.3: Memories

Chapter summary: The next Shadow Sailor Guardian has awakened and is determined to find her princess no matter what, leaving Azula, Mamoru and Meroko scrambling for numbers and a good plan against her.

Fandom: Sailor Moon (Crystal) – – [Rewrite of season 2, AU-ish in that there’s new OCs and the fusion of plots from the manga, crystal and the og series]

Pairings: Eventual OFC x OMC, Usagi x Mamoru

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @perfectlystiles

{If you’d like to be added to this OC’s taglist, let me know!}

// Story Masterlist //

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Sailor Hemera and Prince Endymion walked alongside each other along the dry field.

"My people were originally from the Sun," Sailor Hemera gestured to the setting sun in the sky. "But then it became uninhabitable and we had to move. We found a home in Shadow and merged with its people. They procreated and now here I am."

"But you're not...exactly like the people from...Shadow?" Endymion gestured to where the supposed Shadow kingdom was. He was still tempted to try and go through the invisible barrier but he was also interested in this Sailor Scout before him. Up until this morning he believed there were only Sailor Scouts belonging to Silver Millennium.

"No," Sailor Hemera shook her head. "With each new generation we began to lose our Sun abilities and now they've become almost scarce. The powers of the light on Shadow are truly rare nowadays. I have been gifted with these powers and I believe they were given to me to use them for a higher purpose."

"And what would that be exactly?"

"To protect my Kingdom, my Queen, and my Princess."

Mamoru woke up from his sleep with a terrible pit in his stomach. He had been dreaming about that Sailor Hemera ever since she first appeared on the street. But not only was he dreaming about her, now he was getting brief compilations of other people. There were other men - generals, he believed - and then there were girls who had strange powers. What got him worse was the repeating girl with a golden crescent moon on her forehead he kept seeing. It frustrated him that her face was never clear.

He felt like he had done this before, but that was all a dream.

But then he saw another girl, with flaming red hair that he knew he had seen somewhere…

He was going to lose his mind, he was sure.

~ 0 ~

Azula ran her hands through her bright red hair for the tenth time and released a big, tired sigh. She rubbed her forehead and reached for the keypad in front of her. "I've gone through every facial recognition here, done the algorithms too, but this Sailor Hemera could be anyone, Luna," Azula dropped her hand from her forehead and gazed up at the large computer screen in front of them.

She and Luna were back in the base under the arcade trying to figure out who Sailor Hemera was. It had been days since the woman's first appearance and since then she had been flickering in and out saving those who fell under 'Senka's' path.

"Can't you, I don't know, go to the Moon again and do something magical there?" Azula gave Luna a weary glance. It had been days sleeping in late and waking up early for school because of this research.

"Usagi left it meaning everything there doesn't work," Luna reminded. Usagi had chosen to continue living as a regular human, without her memories, and so everything on the Moon would soon again perish from disuse.

"I swear to God one day I'm going to make a big ole supercomputer that can find me anything," Azula let her head drop on the keyboard much like Usagi would have done in that situation.

"I think you should get some rest, Azula. You've been working very hard since Sailor Hemera appeared," Luna truly appreciated how much the girl committed to taking care of the city and the memory-less scouts. "I can call Artemis in while you're out."

"That's great," Azula raised herself up and took a big breath in. She felt her stomach grumble and decided maybe taking a break wouldn't be so bad. She grabbed her purse on the floor and promised Luna she would be back later.

When she was out on the street she buttoned up her coat and did her best to fight against the cold. It had been getting mysteriously colder with each day. She walked into the Fruits Crown Parlor and ordered some nice, steaming coffee. That'll keep her awake for the day.

"Azula?" Minako called from her booth.

Azula, unsurprised, turned sideways to see Minako and Makoto sharing the booth while having lunch. Since Sailor Hemera's appearance, the two girls apparently had gotten to know each other better now. They had also been talking to Azula more now and it worried Azula that it would trigger their memories. Fortunately, nothing of the sort was happening yet.

"Unazuki, bring the order here," Minako called to the waitress. "Azula, you'll be having lunch with us, right?"

"Sure," Azula smiled weakly and went over to the two. "How are you guys?"

"Oh, you know, battling exams," Minako pretended to shiver.

"It would help if you studied," Makoto giggled but Minako rolled her eyes.

"I wanted to try out for the volleyball team!"

"And did you make it?" asked Azula curiously. She remembered that before everything happened with the Dark Kingdom, Minako desired nothing more than to join the volleyball team at her school.

"Yes!" cheered the blonde.

"The problem is-" Makoto began, earning herself a small glare from Minako for ruining the moment, "-that now her practices are getting in the way of her studying."

"It's not my fault! I mean, seriously, who can be expected to remember everything Haruna says?" Minako dramatically sighed. "I wish I was like that genius Mizuno Ami. She could probably remember everything just by looking at it."

Azula smiled to herself at the thought of Ami. She rarely saw Ami now. Like Rei, Ami barely left her home without her old friends. Azula figured the girl would probably spend her afternoons studying on her own. At least Azula could catch Rei sometimes at the nearby mall but it was really rare.

"Azula, you seem tired," Makoto remarked after catching Azula languidly blinking into space.

Minako reached for her soda can and glanced at Azula. "High school must be very difficult."

Azula didn't want to discourage them from their future. She smiled through her tiredness and shook her head. "It's the best. You guys will love it when you get there. I've just been having some rough nights."

"Probably trauma from that weird cloud thing calling herself Senka," Makoto offered, making Minako nearly choke on her soda.

"Don't remind me!" went the blonde.

Azula found it hard to believe this was the famous Sailor V, now scared of the mere mention of a cloud-shadow thing. Memories of that particular Sailor Guardian had also been erased, and thoroughly.

"You guys hear of the other attacks?" Makoto lowered her voice when she asked. "This Senka thing really wants to find that Shadow Crystal at all costs."

"What even is that?" Minako made a face.

"Wish I knew," Azula said with a small sigh. Because she, Luna and Artemis had been trying to figure that out ever since the first appearance.

The cats speculated Sailor Hemera and Senka were from another civilization among the galaxies. It was just hard to figure out which one. No matter how impressive those of the Silver Millennium are, their minds are not infinite to hold every information of every civilization in the universe. It was a long job to do, which explained the tiredness Azula carried.

After lunch was over, Azula figured she should get home to take a well needed nap. She had come down the stairs of the cafe when she spotted a familiar blonde stepping out of the arcade with ginger-haired girl.

"Oh hi, Azula," Usagi greeted her kindly and cheerfully. "You remember Naru?" she gestured to the girl beside her.

"Yeah," Azula nodded.

"I should go," Naru said, backing away, "We have that test tomorrow, Usagi. You can't forget!"

"I won't!" Usagi exclaimed but Azula knew damn well she would.

"Did you win at the Sailor V game today?" Azula asked after Naru was gone.

Usagi's face fell. "No," she muttered. "That game has to be rigged!"

"Impossible, I played it yesterday and I won," Azula said proudly but it just ticked Usagi off even more.

"I'm going to win one day-"

"Mhm…"

"I will!"

Azula laughed and stepped back, bumping into someone in the process. "Sorry!" she quickly said but began to stammer when she saw it was Mamoru. He turned sideways and stared her with a new look in his eyes, nothing like before. "S-sorry...I-I didn't mean…"

"You can't be serious," Mamoru put down a photograph on the table. His face was contorted into utter irritation.

Azula sat across him wearing a devious smirk. "I did the math, rose boy. It has to be you." Mamoru was not amused and Azula knew it. She laughed at it honestly. "You are Tuxedo Mask and there is nothing you can do to make me think otherwise. Your disappearances from school coincide with every public appearance Tuxedo Mask made, and Sailor Moon's for that matter. It's you."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I got bored."

"You're crazy," Mamoru let a little laugh out, but it was a shaky one. "I'm not him."

"Won't matter if I open my mouth," Azula leaned back on her chair. "All I have to do is point out your odd absences, your odd fashion choices, lack of coherent thoughts, and radical distancing...that should do the job. Doubt is very easy to implant in people who got nothing better to do."

"What do you want, then? Money?"

"My Dad owns the Crown arcade and the Fruits Crown Parlor shop. Money I got."

"Then what?"

Azula's smirk was wide as could be. "I want to meet Sailor Moon."

Mamoru blinked fast and rubbed the side of his head. Azula was staring in concern but didn't say anything. "Y-your name is Azula, right?" he finally spoke.

"Yeah…" the red-haired confirmed. There was something in his eyes that was flickering and Azula dreaded it. This was something she had seen in Usagi herself before truly discovering her identity.

Mamoru took an unexpected quick leave. Azula thought it was for the better, honestly.

"Wooooow," Usagi giggled beside her.

Azula noticed the blush on Usagi's cheeks and groaned. "You have got to be kidding me. You couldn't have had more than 30 seconds to look at him!"

Her words flew over Usagi's head. "Do you know him? Does he go to your school?"

"You're not kidding," Azula concluded. She didn't know much about love but she figured this had to be something about that cosmic, star-crossed love story of theirs. It appeared she wouldn't be getting her nap because Usagi was dead set on asking and asking about Mamoru.

~0~

Sailor Hemera was not used to working alone. Sure, she had guarded the sacred barrier between the Shadow Kingdom and the Earth Kingdom for countless years, but at the end of the day she would always come home to the palace where she would see her fellow guardians, Princess and Queen. Working alone had never been a part of her. She wasn't built like that...and yet here she was, awakened in a future where she knew no one. Humans surrounded her by the thousands.

"I must find my sister," she set herself for one goal at a time.

She understood that being awoken meant something was going to happen that would endanger her Princess. The problem was, she barely remembered herself what had happened centuries ago. Her mind wasn't completely awake yet. She was just sure that her Princess had been reborn, not awoken like she had, but truly reborn and reincarnated. Being that the case, it also implied that the Princess knew nothing of her real self and much less that she was in danger. Senka was on her way to find her and Sailor Hemera needed all the help she could get.

"Asteria, where are you?" Sailor Hemera whispered in the lonely, abandoned factory she had turned into her temporary home.

There were no leads so far on any of her people. They were probably still sleeping - well, Asteria was probably on her way to waking up judging by that coldness that never seemed to leave the air now.

"But what if I'm not entirely alone?" Sailor Hemera got to thinking about the only other person she'd managed to remember besides her Guardian comrades, Princess and Queen. "That Earth Prince had to have been reborn too. It's law that every planet have a protector."

So maybe she could start her search with him first. After all, he had powers too and any help towards finding Princess Reign was good.

"Your world is fascinating, Prince, but humans are humans. They have no power," Sailor Hemera had said so calmly and kind. She did not mean any offence but was merely pointing out a fact.

"No, but that does not mean we are any less brave," Prince Endymion said, sure of himself.

Sailor Hemera gave him a sharp look. "Your highness, Queen Nyx informed my comrades and I that the royal human family did hold several unique powers. I know for a fact you have powers."

"Your Queen seems very informed despite living behind this…" he gestured to the invisible barrier beside them, "...wall."

"Well, she held a close relationship to your family."

"But not with me."

"She knew that you were young and still learning. But she has gotten ill, you must understand."

"Must I prove myself to meet with her?"

"No, you-"

But Endymion did not wait for the answer. He was growing impatient not being able to see this Queen Nyx who had settled herself onto his planet. He stared at Sailor Hemera with a new look, a powerful one too. Before she could figure out what he was doing, she heard his voice in her mind.

'I have a right to see Queen Nyx and discuss her stay on my world. If I cannot see her, I demand to see the next in line.'

Sailor Hemera was in utter shock. "You can...you can go into my mind!?"

The prince simply smirked. "And the best part is, due to your linkage with your Guardian comrades, they have heard the warning too."

"Oh he will definitely help me," Sailor Hemera nodded to herself.

He owed Princess Reign, after all.

#ocappreciation #sailor moon #sailor moon crystal #fd: sailor moon #sailor moon oc #sailor moon fics #sailor moon imagines #oc: azula keena #oc: sailor reign #fic: reign from the shadows

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wildbootsappeared · 3 years

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Continental Divides Chapter Discussion #0: Humble Origins/Editing and Rewriting

I recently enjoyed hearing Negrek talk about the behind-the-scenes of the most recent chapter of Salvage and was inspired: I figure some of you might be interested in hearing some of that type of thing for Divides, too. CD touches on some pretty complicated subjects (historical events and politics and glazed-over-science) that are worth teasing apart a little more. So I’m going to start slowly adding in some chapter reflection posts! Keep in mind that these will probably be full of spoilers, and you’ll want to get caught up before you read em.

If you want to hear me talk about something specific, feel free to shoot me a question.

(By the way, if you’re not reading Salvage yet—fam, get on my level. I’d describe it as a black humor odd-couple tale of … friendship??? Hm, that’s definitely not the right word, is it? Anyway! Featuring: an absolute goblin of a pokemorph, dismemberment, corruption, and Very Good Decisions. And lovely prose, by the way.)

With that, let’s get into it!

(CD spoilers below!)

Art by Giulia Bernardelli

From Humble Origins

I’ve mentioned before that Mark and Natalie were my first original characters. They were side characters in my first ever fic from … god, 2003 or 2004-ish? So in many ways, they’ve grown up with me.

I learned about fanfic shortly after Ruby and Sapphire came out in the US, so of course baby OSJ had to try her hand at a Hoenn journey fic. I’m really sad that I don’t have a copy of the original text anymore because it was hilariously bad. You see, Brendan and May had to run away from home (instead of just … journeying like every other trainer?) because they were IN LOVE (after, like, a day and a half at most) but their parents WOULDN’T LET THEM BE TOGETHER. The story featured dazzling moments of creative genius like … Brendan and May “sneaking” into Rustboro at the wee hour of 10 am, whereupon May ran into a lamp post somehow.

Later, Mark and Natalie appear to yell at our poor heroes and then at each other. Lots of yelling. In their first inception, Mark and Nat were basically discount Jesse and James but with less dress-up and queer subtext. Mark had a glorious moment of running while dragging his feet (?). Also, during a double battle against Brendan and May, I forgot about his zubat, so it fainted because “it was tired from flying,” despite having no feet and despite taking zero hits during the fight. Then Mark took shelter from the rain under a tree, where Natalie yelled at him some more and decided for both of them that they had to team up “temporarily” to get the red and blue orbs back from those meddling kids or something. I had grand plans for this whole plot where Natalie would kidnap May to get the orbs, but then May would end up in Magma’s hands (like a human hot potato), and Brendan would have to rescue her??? Something, something, Mark and Natalie see the error of their ways and team up to help Brendan and May … do stuff?

Anyway, I never finished it, and that’s definitely for the best.

I did revisit Mark and Natalie a few years later, though, this time for a story of their own called Out of Hand. I didn’t finish that one either, but I do have the original text this time (plus snarky comments and a “review” from me ten years after the fact). I can’t honestly tell you it was … good. Maybe good-for-a-highschooler. But! When I stumbled upon it again in 2018, there was enough in it that almost worked that I started to think about how I’d handle those themes and characters as an adult.

A lot has changed since then, but that 2010 draft of Out of Hand established some of the skeleton of Continental Divides. For example, that was when Archie became Natalie’s brother to help explain how she got involved in Aqua. I decided to keep that structure because it was a good way to let Natalie start as a neutral party/reader proxy and then quickly become embroiled in the conflict. It was also the first time Mark’s sister appeared, though I don’t think I’d decided what to do with her at the time except to use her as decorations in his angsty dreams, haha. His smoking habit also started in 2010. I, too, thought he’d quit “years ago,” in literal real time. Jokes on me—it turned out to be a useful way to signal the start of him losing control, the negative influence of Cora/Magma in his life, his hypocrisy, and his guilty feelings about things he’s burned. Scarlet appeared for the first time in this draft, too. I think I was equal parts trying to humanize Archie and to write my way through feelings about growing apart from/pining for someone. Her backstory took up a disproportionate number of pages in the old draft, but I liked the idea of keeping her around as a figure who could complicate Natalie’s relationship with Aqua and with Archie. The 2010 has a couple fights between Mark and Natalie that I respect for bringing real danger to the protagonists ... but also can’t help laughing at. They literally fight until they tumble over a waterfall, like a cartoon. Silly as those scenes are, you can also see how they laid a foundation for scenes like the fight in Chapter 9.

CD is basically me responding to Out of Hand with, “I see you and I raise you.”

2010-OSJ had some vague feelings about inequality and environmentalism, but none of it was very well thought-out. She mostly wanted to tell an enemies-to-lovers story, in part because she thought she was living in one IRL. Nowadays, I’ve got a lot of feelings about climate change, political divisions, activism and responsibility, corporations, policing, and whether or not violence is a good answer to certain kinds of questions. Hoenn is a safe space to explore those feelings. (It’s got pokemon, so it’s inherently more fun, right???)

Kyogre and Groudon are such obvious parallels to sea level rise/more intense storms and rising temperatures/wildfires respectively that I couldn’t resist. And in Magma/Aqua I see a lot of parallels to political conflicts happening in the US right now. The far left and the far right don’t share a vision of what a “better world” would look like, but they do share a mutual mistrust of “the swamp” and all the ways the government tag-teams with corporations to dunk on ordinary people. I’d love to believe that someday we could team up across the aisle to fight corruption together. It’s certainly hard to imagine how we could get to a better world with one half of the country pitted against each other … Something has got to give eventually, probably not peacefully.

My versions of Magma and Aqua aren’t exact parallels to the US political left and right—both are pretty left-leaning, for one—but I still find a lot of hope in the idea of two enemies from rival factions learning to (eventually) care for one another and work together towards common goals. At the very least, it’s something I can manifest and control on the page, and that makes me feel better about all the things I can’t control.

Editing and Rewriting

My first attempt at Continental Divides was inarguably an improvement on earlier versions of Mark and Natalie … but it still took quite a bit of rewriting to get to the draft that’s available to read now. The first draft in 2018 opened with what’s now Chapter 3, the protest in Rustboro. I had the right idea with “starting at the beginning,” but starting with an action scene was the wrong move: we didn’t know enough about Natalie to care when she was in trouble or to understand why she was making any of those choices. Moreover, even though the political content is important, this is ultimately still an enemies-to-lovers story: the beginning needed to center Mark and Natalie’s relationship. You know, to establish some interest before it all implodes. The next attempt ran a little long, though, and the current version condenses their initial meeting and Nat’s backstory much better. Maybe the next time I start a new project I’ll have an easier time knowing what makes a good starting point, but this time there was a lot of swinging back and forth to find a balance.

If you’re interested in seeing how my first chapter changed over time, you can see that here.

I’m really happy to have a first chapter I know is a solid representation of the subject matter, tone, and writing level of the later chapters. Getting stuck in an editing loop is a real danger … but if you’re ever going to edit part of your fic, let it be the first chapter. A good first chapter is critical to keeping potential readers onboard. I can tell from feedback that I’ve stuck the landing now.

Hope you enjoyed this not-so-little reflection on the origins of this story!

Some music (Spotify links):

Night of the Long Knives - Everything Everything

MMMMHMMMMM - Four Fists

#continental divides #pokemon fic #pokefic #pokemon fanfic #team magma #team aqua #fanfic #writing about writing

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vb-hcs · 5 years

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millicent231-watt: “Could I request some angst reacts for Noya and maybe Kenma? Their s/o is in a fight with someone, but she decides to stand up for herself. They push the S/O and she loses her footing and hits her head against something on the ground. She calls out to her partner weakly as blood starts slowly pooling around her head. The shock of the impact impacted her vision for a bit. She can't do anything too physical and she starts to feel down. I hope this is alright for you, if not just let me know.”

thank you for requesting, this is my first one! also thank you for recommending that video, it was really helpful since I don't know a lot about the subject ;-;. if I messed anything up please let me know! unfortunately, I don’t write x reader scenarios as I said in my blog info but I 100% understand if you didn’t see it or didn’t read it! I tried to find an alternative way to write your request that focused less on the violence and made the s/o a separate character so it was more about the boys reactions but I got carried away T^T. the scenario turned out a lot different from your request and only had a whisper of angst so if you want me to rewrite it, it’s no problem! thank you again <3!

*warnings: mentions of blood, mentions of passing out, head injury, vision impairment from head injury, mentions of fighting, hospitals, minor implied anxiety (please comment any I missed <3)

*Infinity War spoilers (I’m sorry I got very off topic)

Nisihinoya Yuu

noya first found out that his s/o had been in a fight from some students at school

he overheard some kids saying that the fight didn’t last long because someone fell and hit their head and there was blood everywhere!!!!

noya was like haha that's so sick

and everyone was ????? that's your s/o ??????

he went w o t

he tried to contact them but no one was responding D:

finally their mom called him on their phone

“areyouokay-”

“Nishinoya? This is s/o’s mom. I’m sorry they haven't been able to respond to your texts, we’re in the hospital right now-”

“-aretheyokay?”

he goes the hospital as quickly as he can D:

much to his surprise, they seemed pretty okay ??

they told him what happened and he’s like haha you’re so sick

I promise he’s concerned

he really is

the doctors kept them there over night for observation because they lost consciousness but they’re back home pretty quickly and nishinoya declares himself Nurse Yuu !!

he insists that he’s qualified

“look at my credentials!”

“that's a picture of you holding the stethoscope that you stole borrowed from the nurse.”

when his s/o tells him that they’re still having trouble with their sight he could tell how much it was bothering them :(

so he decides to read everything for them

it’s actually a little obnoxious lol but he’s trying his best and they’ve actually learned a lot

they never took the time to read the back of the cereal box before

“you got a text from ‘Mom’ with a heart emoji! ‘Do you want me to pick up more stomach medicine from the store? You were in the bathroom for-’“

“nkjdcbsjlfjdlkfncjldsnvo”

Kozume Kenma

kenma didn’t find out until his s/o’s parents called him and he got to the hospital as soon as he could

but like,,, what was he supposed to say ??

he doesn’t know how to be comforting and certainly not in a situation like this

when he walks into the room the first thing he sees is a hoodie

covered in blood

now he was sure that his s/o was Absolutely Not Okay

which also meant he was going to have to stay at least three feet away from them at all times

their mom cheerfully welcomed him and ushered him over to their bed

he didn’t resist but to say he was stiff was is an understatement because oh my god what if he breathes on them wrong and they disintegrate oh my god this is Infinity War all over again

he wasn’t prepared for Spider-Man flashbacks AND and an injured s/o :(((

they start talking to him and explaining what happened ??? he visibly relaxes because they seem Actually Maybe Okay

even if kenma isn’t the best at verbally comforting them, he stayed with them at the hospital until they got released and spends most of his time with them now that they’re home

he began to notice that they seemed down while they were playing a videogame together (that he was absolutely crushing them at)

he figured that the screen was probably giving them a headache so he offered to turn it off

they insisted that they were fine but he knew something was off

he tried not to push but his incessant worried staring was enough to encourage them to speak up

they were still having problems with their vision so it was hard for them to see what was happening on the screen and for them to read the subtitles

kenma tried really hard to plan activities for them that didn’t cause too much vision strain but they caught on quickly

they still really appreciate it though :0

please leave any constructive criticism!

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu!! headcanons #haikyuu #haikyuu headcanons #haikyu #haikyu headcanons #hq headcanons #hq hc #haikyuu!! hc #haikyuu hc #haikyu hc #haikyuu nishinoya #nishinoya yuu #haikyuu kenma #kenma kozume

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manicwordsfleeing · 6 years

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Random Scene!

Well, i wrote this scene due to me and my very corrupted BFF’s having a VERY *cough-dirty-cough* interesting conversation about our OC’s and their love lives. Including people that have crushes on them, and future awkward scenes that should appear in our books. Not only will have have the original story on this post, i will also rewrite it and that will also be on this post. I’m 100% sure that Fang hates my guts just because i wrote this scene. I may go missing after this is posted, R.I.P me!! XD

Gosh darn these high cabinets, who in the world thought that 9 feet high cabinets were a smart idea? The tallest heroes in the facility didn’t even reach 6′4 and that's with heels. Believe it or not, heroes are typically short, most of them falling under 6′0. so why the hell are there cabinets in the kitchen 9 feet in the air! Well, truth be told the only person who used the high cabinets was Alex and he only used them to stash his chocolate supply. Basically, I’m stealing some of alex’s chocolate, he doesn’t need it anyway, over weight pig. I, on the other hand, do in fact need some chocolate, if i could ever reach it!

Straining my arm as far as it could go, wasn’t helping one bit. “Maybe I should climb on the counter,” I muttered under my breath, “ It would be easier and i wouldn’t have to stretch my- NO! I will not use the counter! I am not short, therefore I won’t lower my self esteem by using the counter to elevate me!”

Confidence levels boosted, the quest to reach the forbidden chocolate intensified. Now I was on my tippy toes, my need for sweets canceled out the concern for my well being. “Come on! Almost.. there.” I whispered, stretching my arm to the max. My fingers lightly brushed the chocolate, but could go no further.

“Dang it.” I hissed, withdrawing my arm and planting my feet firmly onto the tile floor. I guess I’ll be using the counter after all. Placing my hands on the counter, I prepare to lift myself up, when a warm presence appeared behind me. A hand reached past my head, grabbing the bag of candy out of the high cabinet. Startled, i whipped around expecting to see Alex, but discovering a god instead. I had no idea who the hell this guy was, but he’s gorgeous. if Michelangelo‘s “i haven't researched this yet” had come to life, this guy was it. he was all hard edges, sexy hard edges. And lord was he tall, 6′11 at least, basically a whole head taller than me. Light brown hair barely covered his head, shaved short on the sides and longer in the middle. Long lashes surround his chocolate eyes, his eyes were almost the same shade of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate. Ironic given the fact that he was holding a bag of dark chocolate. His tan skin gave the impression that he certainly didn’t spend his time indoors.

“Where you reaching for this?’ he asked, tilting his head, which caused his lovely hair to sweep across his face.

“Uh... yea,” i said still taken back, “But I wanted the milk chocolate, not dark.”

“Oh?” Mr. Sexy Thing said, “ Milk chocolate coming right up.” Stretching his visibly muscular arm past my head again, which I really didn’t mind, he switched the dark chocolate for milk and handed it to me.

“Need me to reach anything else handsome?” He inquired, lifting one of his manicured eyebrows, his chocolate eyes still latched onto mine.

“Umm, no. That should be- wait...” The sudden realization slammed into me, leaving my answer trailing off into silence.

“Did you just call me handsome?”

He chuckled, “Yes, I did. Is it wrong to call people as they are?”

“Well... I-I-I don’t, er. Y-y-you can’t just go around calling people handsome you know!

“But I’m not calling anyone else handsome, except for you.” He countered, “I don’t go around calling everyone by their looks, only the few that catch my eye.”

Only the few that catch his eye? then that meant... oh my! Heat flooded my face, starting from the bridge of my nose and spreading to my cheeks. He couldn’t actually be interested in me, could he? If it was one thing I’m not it’s attractive. I mean, my looks were no where near all the other guys, they always had girls hanging on them left and right. With me the only thing that hung around was silence. And this incredibly hot stranger called me handsome? Me, of all people. This was a joke wasn’t it, it had to be... right? Well, whatever it was didn’t matter, cause I’m going as far away from this sexy, complimenting, tall, dark chocolate eyed man, who, come to think of it, appeared out of thin air, as i can. People who randomly flirt with strangers, creep me out. So what could i do to advert this strangers attention? suddenly, an idea popped up in my head. Oh yea, this was perfect and simple, now all i have to do was put it into action.

“Say, there’s another bag of candy I can’t reach, could you reach it for me?

“Changing the topic now, are you?” He pointed out, taking a step so he could lean on the kitchen island.

“I like chocolate more than i like conversations, chocolate tastes better.” I stated. Crossing my arms I gave him a pointed, raised eyebrow and all.

“I suppose it does taste better.” Mr Sexy admitted.

“You know, chocolate tastes better when it’s shared.” I slyly said.

“Does it now? I guess I’ll have to find out. Where is the other bag of chocolate again?

“Its over there, in that high cabinet.” I told him, pointing to the opposite of the door I needed to escape through. Pushing himself up, he lazily stalked up to the cabinets, opened up the one I pointed to, and began to search it. While he was searching for a nonexistent bag of chocolate, i edged towards the door slowly but surely nearing freedom.

“I can’t find the bag, are you sure it’s up here?” The stranger asked.

“Yep, I’m pretty sure it’s up there. Be thorough, the bag is small and easy to miss.” I responded, still moving towards the exit. The doorway was so close, i silently begged for the stranger to not turn around. Only two yards to go now, maybe i would escape without him noticing. Step by step I tipped toed towards the doorway, now inches from freedom. Upon reaching freedom’s doorway, I once more checked to confirm that Mr.Sexy was occupied searching for nonexistent chocolate. Seeing he was, I slipped through the doorway. Only to bump into - wait for it - none other than Mr.Sexy-man-who-should-be-looking-for-some-nonexistent-chocolate.

“I knew you were planning something when I saw that evil gleam creep into your eyes.”

Wha- what, how was he in front of me? Wasn’t he just behind me? Ahh... I understood now, teleportation. Teleporters were notorious for being flirtatious, since girls loved their “disappearing” act, which mostly including materializing with flowers or food for their audience. Once a teleporter set their sights on you, there was little chance of them changing it any time soon. There was only one way to rid yourself of a teleporter. Direct them to someone else.

So who else would i throw him on except the hottest boy in the city, Conner.

ok so the rewrite will go down here, but im tired. so ill do it some other time. so. let me tag some peeps to read this.

@theguildedtypewriter @feathered-quill @writingmyselfintoanearlygrave @prettylittledemonbitch @quiteweirdbutstillamazingbastian

idk if y'all want to be tagged, so tell me if you don't and ill delete the tag!

#fanghatesme #imadietonight #TheBlack #fangwolf #Ipromiseillwritetherewrite

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articlewritingbd · 4 years

Text

A Step-by-Step Guide For Writing a Compelling Article Introduction

Wouldn't it be great if each and every single individual that clicked one of your posts review it from beginning to end, incapable of drawing their eyes away from the display?

I think we both recognize the solution to that concern.

To attain this goal, however, you should understand the art of article writing exciting intros.

Wait for a second; you're thinking and writing introductions? Isn't that sort of a small detail of a 2,000-word article?

Your article introduction is not tiny information.

The introduction to your article is typically the distinction between interesting readers and having a bounce price high enough to make a click-baiter cringe.

Consider it. You'll shed them if you don't grab your visitors right away.

You experienced all that work of content writing an excellent article, right? You worked hard at it. You spent a great deal of time on it. You did a heap of research.

If your introduction draws, your initiatives will certainly be all for nothing.

You shed prior to you even began!

If you intend to compose great content, improve the success of your advertising campaigns, and boost the loyalty of your followers, you need to master writing intros.

Allow me to show you exactly how.

1. Master the opening line

To have a solid introduction, you require to open with a strong initial sentence.

The millisecond your visitor strikes the web page, they have a very high possibility of leaving the page.

Data claims so.

The initial sentence has one single objective: to entice the reader to read the following sentence. In doing so, it sets the tone for the remainder of the article, hooking the viewers in, one action at once.

If you fall short at this, your readers won't scroll.

This is a histogram revealing how far people scroll via Slate article pages. Each bar represents the share of individuals that quit scrolling at a specific place in the article. (An article is assumed to be around 2000 pixels long; if the top of your internet browser home window gets to the 2000-pixel mark, you're counted as scrolling 100% with the article. The X-axis most likely to 120% since on many pages, there's normally things listed below the 2000-pixel mark, like the remarks area.)

This graph consists of people that spent any time involved with the page whatsoever (users that "jumped" from the page right away after touchdown on it are not stood for.) The graph reveals that many Slate visitors do not scroll in any way. That's the spike at the 0% mark, standing for regarding 5% of readers. Most site visitors scroll concerning midway via a regular Slate tale. The spike near completion is an abnormality brought on by pages, including photos as well as video clips - on those web pages; individuals scroll with the entire page.

As well as if they don't scroll, they won't engage.

Take a look at this article by Dilbert author Scott Adams to see just how the initial sentence is done.

He composes this:

I went from being a negative writer to a good writer after taking a one-day training course in "service writing."

That's a fantastic opening line.

Why? Because it makes me would like to know more!

- How did he come to be an excellent writer?

- What did he discover?

- Could I take advantage of it too?

Adams accomplished. He attracted us in by making us ask questions.

The remaining 980 words of your article will be a complete waste if you do not understand just how to craft an intriguing initial sentence.

Save your writing introduction suggestions in one place across all the paper applications you make use of.

With a couple of easy methods, the good news is for you, writing an incredible initial sentence can be rather simple.

The very first point to bear in mind is that you want to maintain the first sentence brief. This makes it very easy for the visitor to digest the first littles details and stops them from wearying swiftly.

But there is even more to it than that.

It would be best if you made certain that the very first sentence orders the visitor's attention as well as holds it for the remainder of the article.

Below are a number of reliable techniques that produce incredibly compelling, very first lines.

Ask the reader an inquiry.

This is a simple method to get the viewers' focus and get them engaged without a great deal of effort.

For instance, if you are writing an article on stopping your job as well as starting your own business, you could open with the inquiry: "Did you recognize that practically 70% of Americans report being proactively disengaged from their jobs?"

Why does this work?

It concerns the brain's "limbic incentive system."

When this system is triggered, dopamine is released. And also, dopamine gives us a sense of benefit and pleasure.

When we are fascinated by an inquiry, i.e., experience a sense of curiosity, the limbic benefit system brightens. Which's why we intend to keep reading - it's rewarding to please curiosity.

Writer Olga Khazan asks an inquiry that's on everybody's mind, causing the visitor to be instantaneously interested.

We desire to recognize the response to that inquiry, so we maintain reading.

That's why a question is an excellent opening line. You can also make use of the inquiry as to the article title.

Inform a story

The mind likewise illuminates when it comes across a tale.

According to the theory of neural coupling, particular portions of the brain are triggered when a reader believes regarding the very same psychological as well as exercise that a character in a tale is doing.

James Clear normally begins his blog posts with a story, typically a true tale.

The story makes his viewers curious about the article and keeps them reading to the actual end.

Make use of a surprising quote.

An additional excellent method to begin your article is to make use of an attention-grabbing quote.

Allow's say you are writing an article on world traveling. A fantastic method to present the article would undoubtedly be with the quote from Helen Keller:

" Life is a daring experience, or absolutely nothing at all."

Tell the viewers to visualize

Stimulating the imagination is a quick way to attract the visitor right into the experience of the article.

Notification just how this article from Wired For Story begins:

The viewers attempt to comply with the essential by visualizing. This initiative urges the visitor to review further, attracting them into the article.

Writers for The Atlantic are skills at their craft. This writer does the very same thing - asking the visitor to think of it.

Share a fascinating reality.

When the Internet is so rife with crappy details and deceitful "masters," individuals are hesitant in a day and age. They have every factor to be.

Opening your article with a pertinent truth or fact is a wonderful method to develop depend on as well as authority from the first sentence and also let viewers understand you've done your research.

1. Have something one-of-a-kind to state

Okay, so you've crafted an excellent, very first sentence, as well, as you have your reader's interest.

Currently what?

Now, you need to hold that interest by having something unusual and fascinating to claim.

Very few individuals take time and energy regularly to generate new, thought-provoking content. You'll set on your own apart from the herd in a huge method if you do.

Neglect re-purposing of old articles or rewriting things from various other individuals' internet sites. You have to state something they've never listened to prior to if you want to have the visitor's regard and interest.

Unfortunately, a great deal of right stuff you read today has actually been spewed 28 times previously.

Let's imagine you run a traveling blog. Based on my suggestions, you write a number of 3,000-word comprehensive "How-To Guides."

Whenever a reader opens your guide on funding their first-round the globe trip, they'll expect to read all concerning airline company benefits programs, frugality, and bank card points.

Which information is terrific, yet it is likewise really common.

A better intro would certainly be something like this:

Exactly how would you such as to save up enough money in the following 6 months to spend every one of 2017 taking a trip the globe?

That would certainly be pretty epic?

Well, this is entirely feasible, and in today's article, I am most likely to show you just how you can do this.

It's not by avoiding your morning cappuccino or investing hundreds of dollars with your credit score cards on a few hundred miles, either.

I will show you how you can develop a life of flexibility and freedom by leveraging the abilities you already have, tactically picking your locations, and using an unfamiliar tax obligation secret that will conserve you countless dollars!

Sound good? Allow's reach it.

It's tough to be different. I recognize that.

In some cases, to create distinct stuff, we merely have to function harder, assume much longer, and research study greater than our competitors.

Right here are some means you can develop that unique voice in your article introduction:

- Share an individual tale or fact. You're the only you there is. You can share a tale or experience no person else can. One means to tell such a tale is to compose, "If you recognize me ...".

- Get your feelings in it. People have a psychological reaction to feelings. Individuals often tend to respond when we communicate our feelings in our writing. Emotion is additionally a one-of-a-kind as well as an individual thing. How do you connect this in an intro? Easy: "Want to know how I really feel about it? I feel ...".

- Share your objectives or vision. If you have a directing goal or vision permanently, you can communicate this in your intro. "That's one of the factors I composed this article. My goal in life is to ...".

- Make a guarantee. A guarantee is an eye-catching and individual point. Provide your viewers with a contract, and also, it will protect their loyalty and also their interest. "I assure you that I'll do my dead-level ideal to ...".

Distinct isn't easy. It's worth it.

2. Keep it easy.

We live in a globe where most individuals have a focus span of just a few seconds.

Apparently, our focus period is obtaining much shorter!

After a few secs, we get tired and also go on to the following glossy object.

Make sure your existing points as just as possible if you desire your viewers to make time in their days to read what you have to claim.

Longer posts, obviously, deserve longer intros. However, it's important to respect individuals' time and attention. You can not transform what is (people's attention deficit disorder) by writing a lengthy introduction based on what needs to be (longer interest spans).

Stay clear of babbling regarding how terrific your information is, and also share it currently!

3. Talk directly to the viewers.

Whenever you are writing academic products for other individuals, you wish to utilize the words "you" as much (and also as normally) as feasible.

In this article, I've made use of some variation of words you more than 100 times. Why? Because I'm speaking to you! I want you to know this info. I desire you to benefit from it.

By highlighting the word "you" in your article, you show the reader you are straight resolving them and also their situation and not just writing a generic article to the general people.

Yet there's another side to this. I must describe myself as well. My objective is to convey an individual feel to this article. It's me chatting with you? So it's just natural that I would refer to myself as well.

4. Describe what the article is about.

The factor of an intro is exactly that: to introduce the material that will exist in an article.

I can not tell you the variety of times online posts left me also puzzled me after reviewing a few of their paragraphs.

I could not inform whether the writers were educating me on how to run effective Facebook advertisements or telling me an unusual tale concerning their childhood.

Take a few sentences, and plainly explain what the article is most likely to cover without handing out also much information.

This will build suspense around the subject issue while still allowing your target market to understand what they might be in for.

A terrific example of this originates from the Buffer blog. Notification of how the intro positions an inquiry and also after that suggests responding to that concern.

Your curiosity stays high, but the intro sets the phase.

5. Explain the relevance of the article.

It's currently time to clarify why people should care when you've clarified what the article is.

Every person on the net approaches every new item of info with a simple inquiry: "What's in it for me?".

If you desire to create introductions that hook the viewers and aid your web content go viral, you need to master the art of describing what the reader stands to gain from the info you are sharing - the advantages.

How will it profit your visitors' lives? How will it resolve the trouble they are encountering? Just how will it treat a discomfort they are feeling?

You'll maintain your readers glued to your article till the last word if you understand how to quickly and efficiently answer these concerns.

Verdict.

A couple of things can make or damage your article as quickly as an introduction.

Suppose you can grasp the art of an initial couple of paragraphs. In that case, you'll have the ability to enhance reader involvement, improve sales, and also gain a track record as an incredible writer.

It's not an easy ability to master, yet like many Internet marketing points, it's relatively simple.

#article #article writing #content writing #content #content marketing #web content #web 2.0 #guest post

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ofstormsandwolves · 7 years

Text

Generation 5000 (4/5)

Catch up here

Written for @doctorroseprompts for this week’s ‘reunions’ prompt.

10/Rose, Donna Noble, Jenny, Martha Jones, original character(s).

The Doctor’s Daughter rewrite- Canon Divergence.

A changed Rose lands on a strange planet while trying to find her way back to the Doctor, and finds herself being ‘processed’ by a group of soldiers who want help winning a war. Is it just a distraction, or will it help lead her back to the Doctor?

Read on AO3 (account needed)| Whofic

“So, you travel together, but you’re not together?”

Jenny was walking down the corridor side by side with Donna, with Peter in front of them and the Doctor and Rose behind them.

“What?” Donna asked before laughing. “No, no. Have you seen those two together?” She gave a significant look behind them at the Doctor and Rose, who were walking along hand in hand, their heads bowed together as they talked quietly and shared small smiles.

“Ok,” Jenny conceded after a glance behind her, “I see your point. But hadn’t he and Rose been separated?”

Donna nodded. “I don’t know the whole story,” she told the younger woman, “but it was hard for your dad. I reckon it was hard for Rose, too. But me and your dad? We’re just friends, that’s all.”

“And Dad and Rose?” Jenny asked. “Are they together?”

Peter must have overheard them then, even as the Doctor and Rose seemed too preoccupied to do so. He spared a glance at his mum and the Doctor before dropping back to walk with Jenny and Donna.

“I don’t know,” Donna said again. “You’d have to ask them.”

“When Mum told me about the Doctor earlier, she didn’t say they were together,” Peter told Jenny quietly. “But I know they were best friends.”

Jenny took a few moments to mull that over, before turning back to Donna.

“And what’s it like, the travelling?”

Donna smiled a little at that. “Oh, never a dull moment. It can be terrifying, brilliant and funny, sometimes all at the same time. I’ve seen some amazing things though. Whole new worlds.”

Both Peter and Jenny beamed at that.

“Mum was telling me earlier,” Peter admitted. “Sounds amazing.”

Jenny nodded in agreement. “I’d love to see new worlds!”

“You will,” Donna told them with a smile. “You both will. Won’t they, Doctor?”

They turned to look at the Doctor and Rose then, who both looked a little startled at having been dragged into a conversation. Clearly, they’d been worlds away.

“Hmm?” the Doctor asked with a small frown.

“Do you suppose Jenny and Peter will see any new worlds?” Donna prompted with a knowing smile.

The Doctor shared a slightly doe-eyed look with Rose then, who beamed back with a tongue-touched smile. “I suppose so,” the Doctor admitted after a moment.

Jenny blinked. “You, you mean you’ll take me with you?”

“Well,” the Doctor responded with a grin, “we can’t leave you or Peter here, can we?”

Rose was beaming at them too, clinging to the Doctor’s arm happily as her cheek rested on his shoulder.

“Oh, thank you!” Jenny gushed happily. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She bounded over and hugged first her dad, then Rose.

Peter hung back a little even as Jenny bounced away down the corridor ahead of them.

“I... Are you sure?” Peter asked a little more hesitantly.

“Of course we are, sweetheart,” Rose responded quickly, the term of endearment slipping out even without her realising.

Slowly, a grin spread across his face, and Peter beamed happily.

Suddenly, Jenny reappeared beside him, and was pulling on his arm. “They’ve said yes. Come on, let’s get a move on.” She tugged Peter away down the corridor then, and Donna fell into step with the Doctor and Rose.

“Careful you two,” he called after them. “There might be traps.”

“Oh, leave them,” Rose grinned happily. “They’ll be fine. I survived bein’ with you at nineteen, they’ll be alright.”

“Blimey, you don’t do things by halves, do you?” Donna asked the Doctor teasingly as they continued down the corridor.

He gave her a questioning look and she grinned at him.

“Well,” she pointed out calmly, “this morning it was just me and you, and Martha for a quick trip. Now you’ve got Rose back and the pair of you have two kids in tow!”

The Doctor blinked at that. The slight calm that had washed over him seemed to dissipate almost immediately at Donna’s words, and Rose squeezed his hand in reassurance.

“Oh,” Donna blinked at the sudden change of mood, “I know that look. I see it a lot round our way. Blokes with pushchairs and frowns. You’ve got dad-shock.”

“Dad-shock?” the Doctor echoed even as Rose sniggered into his arm.

Donna nodded knowingly. “Sudden unexpected fatherhood. Takes a bit of getting used to.”

The Doctor let out a sigh then, and Rose rubbed his arm gently. “No, it’s not that.”

“Well what is it then?” Donna demanded. “Having Jenny and Peter in the TARDIS, is that it? What, they’re gonna cramp your style? Like you’ve got a sports car and they’re going to turn it into a people-carrier? Rose is alright with it, aren’t you?”

“Donna, it’s not that,” Rose began gently.

“I’ve been a father before.”

Donna blinked, and stared down the corridor where Peter and Jenny were still bounding on ahead.

“Oh,” she managed, and glanced over at Rose.

“I lost all that a long time ago, along with everything else,” the Doctor continued quietly. “And Rose helped with that, somewhat. But this is still... Unexpected. It’s what Rose and I were discussing, while you were talking with Jenny and Peter. It’s... It’s a lot to take in. I’ve lost my people, Rose is now an entire universe away from her parents...” He shrugged. “Like I said, it’s a lot to take in.”

“But this is what you want?” Donna asked nervously.

Rose gave her a small smile. “It’s gonna be tough,” she admitted slowly, “on all four of us. But we agreed, we couldn’t leave them here. And not just because they’re Time Lords. They’re...” Rose paused, looked towards the Doctor for a moment. “They’re our kids. We couldn’t leave them behind.”

The sound of gunfire ripped through the air then, and Jenny and Peter came running back.

“It’s Cobb,” Peter told them, wide-eyed.

“They’ve blasted through the beams,” Jenny added. “Time to run again? Love the running, yeah?”

The Doctor grinned, tightening his grip on Rose’s hand. “Love the running!”

And together, all five of them ran.

~0~0~

They’d reached a dead end.

“We’re trapped,” Donna pointed out, almost needlessly.

“Can’t be,” the Doctor countered. “This must be the Temple. This is a door.”

There were more numbers above the door, too. 60120712. Donna blinked up at the numbers even as the Doctor worked on opening the door.

“And again,” she said as she processed the numbers. “We’re down to one-two now.”

But before she could make any more headway on the numbers, the Doctor had found the door mechanism.

“I can hear them,” Jenny told them, torn between nervousness and excitement.

“Is it normal to feel this excited?” Peter asked his mum in confusion.

Rose just grinned. “It’s the adrenaline,” she told him.

Donna was still frowning at the numbers, though. It simply didn’t make sense to her. “These can’t be a cataloguing system,” she said, although no one seemed to be listening. Whatever it was, it seemed to be at the back of her mind, like when you were trying to recognise a song but you can’t place it.

“They’re getting closer,” Jenny piped up from where she’d taken up a post at the end of the corridor to look out for Cobb.

The Doctor looked over at her. “Then get back here.”

“You’d be better back here, sweetheart,” Rose added. “Don’t want to give your dad a heart attack.”

“They’re too similar,” Donna was saying again. “Too familiar.” On the tip of her tongue...

The door slid open then and the Doctor bundled them all through before Donna could finish processing the numbers.

“They’re coming,” Jenny told them eagerly as she cleared the entrance. “Close the door.”

The Doctor did as he was told, and the door slid back into place behind them. Jenny grinned, but was a little out of breath.

“Oh, that was close,” she said.

“No fun otherwise,” the Doctor told her, although Rose could tell he was a little shaken by Jenny putting herself in danger.

She reached across and squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry,” she told him quietly, “I feel the same.”

The Doctor gave her a tight smile in return. “At least Peter doesn’t seem to have inherited your propensity to wander off.”

“It’s not what I’d call a temple,” Donna said, drawing the attention back to the room.

It was large, but not any sort of old ruin they might have been expecting.

“It’s not that old, is it,” Peter noted suddenly.

Jenny nodded in agreement. “It looks more like-”

“Fusion drive transport,” the Doctor concluded. “It’s a spaceship.”

Donna blinked. “What, the original one? The one the first colonists arrived in?”

“And then they built their civilisation around it?” Rose asked. “But like Peter said, it’s not that old.”

“No,” the Doctor agreed, “it’s still powered up and functioning. The power cells would have run down after all that time, if it was the original. Come on.”

He led them up a flight of stairs then, but stopped short as sparks flew from a door. Someone was cutting through it.

“It’s the Hath,” both Peter and Jenny said in unison, before sharing a look.

“That door’s not going to last much longer,” Jenny added. “And if General Cobb gets through down there, war’s going to break out.”

The Doctor had crossed to a computer screen by then, and Rose followed him quickly.

“Ship’s log?” Rose asked.

The Doctor nodded. “Yep,” he responded. He tapped on the screen to bring up more information. “First wave of Human/Hath co-colonisation of planet Messaline.” He read aloud the information then, and Peter, Jenny and Donna all drifted closer.

Jenny frowned when he finished speaking. “So it is the original ship?”

“What happened?” Donna questioned.

“Phase one, construction,” the Doctor repeated. “They used robot drones to build the city.”

“Is the war mentioned, though?” Rose asked, leaning over to get a better look at the screen. She scrolled down the page.

“And how is this ship still running if it’s the original?” Peter broke in.

“Final entry,” the Doctor once more read aloud. “Mission commander dead. Still no agreement on who should assume leadership. Hath and humans have divided into factions.” He blinked. “That must be it. A power vacuum. The crew divided into two factions and turned on each other. Start using the progenation machines, suddenly you’ve got two armies fighting a never-ending war.”

“Two armies,” Jenny pointed out gravely, “who are now both outside.”

“Look at that,” Donna said suddenly, and pointed at the string of numbers above a screen that displayed the whole of Messaline. 60120724.

“It’s like the numbers in the tunnel,” the Doctor noted.

“No, no, no,” Donna smiled, shaking her head, “but listen, I spent six months working as a temp in Hounslow Library, and I mastered the Dewey Decimal System in two days flat. I’m good with numbers. It’s staring us in the face!”

“Not my face,” Peter mumbled.

Met with blank looks, Donna grinned. “It’s the date,” she explained. “Assuming the first two numbers are some big old space date, then you’ve got year, month, day. It’s the other way round, like it is in America.”

The Doctor blinked, and then grinned. “Oh! It’s the New Byzantine Calendar!”

Peter blinked, and looked at his mum. “Is that supposed to mean something?” he asked on a whisper.

“The codes are completion dates for each section,” Donna realised, eyes going wide. “They finish it, they stamp the date on. So the numbers aren’t counting down, they’re going out from here, day by day, as the city got built.”

The Doctor grinned. “Yes. Oh, good work, Donna!”

“So it’s a flatpack city? Like a giant Ikea.” Rose established with a grin. “They build it one section at a time, and instead of keeping a manual record of when each section is completed, they record the date on the actual structure.”

“Yeah,” Donna nodded, “but you’re still not getting it. The first number I saw back there, was sixty twelve oh seven seventeen. Well, look at the date today.”

Everyone did.

“Oh seven twenty-four,” the Doctor read aloud.

Rose blinked. “That’s...” she began, before trailing off and blinking at the Doctor.

But Peter and Jenny just looked confused. “That’s what?” Peter prompted his mum.

“What does it mean?” Jenny asked.

The Doctor seemed to be staring at nothing as he spoke, his gaze far off as everything slotted into place in his big Time Lord brain. “Seven days.”

Beside him, Donna nodded. “That’s it. Seven days.”

“Just seven days,” Rose added. “To build all this.”

“You mean,” Peter began slowly, “that the whole of the city was built in seven days? But why is that important?”

The Doctor swallowed, and looked at Peter and Jenny carefully before speaking. “It’s important,” he told them with a breath, “because it means it’s only been seven days since the war broke out.”

“This war,” Donna continued, “started seven days ago. Just a week. A week!”

But Jenny was shaking her head. It couldn’t be right. Everything she’d learned, everything she knew since being born... What she was hearing couldn’t be right. She looked to Peter, and was slightly relieved to see that he was still looking a little confused too. Despite the fact that Peter had evidently inherited something extra from Rose which deterred him from following the pre-programmed route of being a soldier, he’d still been born with the same knowledge as Jenny, and at least he’d be able to back her up.

“They said years,” Jenny protested, still looking at Peter, who was staring at their parents. “Didn’t they, Peter? All the information we were born with, the war’s been going on years!”

Peter swallowed, tearing his gaze from their parents to look at Jenny and nod slowly. “Yeah,” he agreed, and the words seemed to stick in his dry throat.

“Did they really?” Rose interrupted gently, a wary and concerned expression on her face. “Were those the words they used?”

Peter and Jenny looked at each other again.

“I... No,” Peter admitted at long last.

“They said generations,” Donna piped up. “And if they’re all like you two, and they’re products of those machines-”

But before she could finish, Rose was taking over. “There’s nothing to even say that you two are the same generation.” She looked to the Doctor. “Peter and I were in that cell for what was probably a couple of hours before you were brought in. How many more people had been ‘processed’ in between me and you? Peter could be five, six, seven generations older than Jenny.”

The Doctor shook his head. “When we arrived, they said they hadn’t processed anyone since the issue that morning. I’m guessing that was you and Peter. No one was processed between Peter and Jenny, they’re most likely the same generation.”

“Generation 5000,” Peter and Jenny both said in unison, before looking at one another.

The Doctor nodded then. “See?” he told Rose. “Same generation.”

“But that’s only because they thought I’d broken their machine,” Rose pointed out. “If I hadn’t arrived, they could have done half a dozen rounds of processing by the time you got here. On a normal day, how many times do people get processed? Morning shift could produce eight, nine, ten generations between morning and lunch, and then the same in the afternoon...”

“They could have twenty generations in a day,” the Doctor realised, blinking as he processed just what Donna and Rose were hinting at. “Each generation gets killed in the war, passes on the legend.” He looked from Rose, to Donna, and back again, grinning. “Oh, you two are geniuses!”

“But,” Jenny broke in in confusion, “all the buildings, the encampments. They’re in ruins.”

The Doctor shook his head. “No, they’re not ruined,” he countered. “They’re just empty.”

Rose wrinkled her nose. “What, waitin’ for more people to be bred?”

“They’ve mythologised their entire history,” the Doctor nodded. “The Source must be part of that too. Come on.”

~0~0~

The Doctor led them further into the ship, and no one was quite sure he actually knew where they were going, but it wasn’t long before they bumped into a familiar face.

“Doctor!” Martha grinned when she saw him.

“Martha! Oh, I should have known you wouldn’t stay away from the excitement,” the Doctor told her with a grin.

Still grinning, Martha turned to Donna, greeting her with a smile too. “Donna.”

Donna grinned back, but eyed Martha’s clothes as she did so. “You’re filthy! What happened?”

Martha shrugged then. “I, er, took the surface route,” she admitted, before her eyes finally alighted on Rose and Peter. “These your friends you mentioned on the phone, Doctor? Thought you only said ‘friend’, I must have misheard.”

The Doctor just stood there, blinking, and Rose rolled her eyes, before giving Martha a smile. “I’m Rose,” she said. “Rose Tyler.”

Martha blinked. “Oh my god,” she whispered, so quietly Rose barely heard. “He found you.”

Rose was a little taken aback by the look on Martha’s face- a look that, if she didn’t know better, she’d describe as ‘devastation’. Donna snorted at Martha’s words.

“More like she found him,” she said, oblivious to the look on Martha’s face. “Well, she was locked in a cell, but still.”

Peter blinked, and looked between his mum and Martha, before deciding he should probably introduce himself too.

“I’m Peter,” he said. “Rose’s son.”

Martha looked at him, and if possible she looked even more baffled than before.

“I... I came out of the machine,” he added, and Martha nodded mutely.

Giving a tight smile to Rose and Peter, and clearly still trying to process what was happening, she turned to the Doctor. “Looks like you’ve been busy while I’ve been dealing with the Hath, then.”

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck a little sheepishly then. “Well...”

But before he could say anything more, they could hear Cobb’s voice in the distance.

“Positions!”

“That’s the General,” the Doctor announced. “We haven’t got much time.”

“But we don’t even know what we’re looking for,” Donna protested as Martha looked around.

With a slight frown, Martha caught Rose’s eye as she registered something. “Is it me, or can you smell flowers?” she asked, glancing at the other woman.

Rose nodded slowly. “Thought I was imaginin’ it,” she admitted, “but now you mention it... Doctor?”

In the distance, Cobb called out another order.

“Yes,” the Doctor nodded as both Martha and Rose turned to him. “Bougainvillea. I say we follow our nose...”

#ficandchips #Generation 5000 fic #10th doctor #rose tyler #Donna Noble

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nuttyrabbit · 7 years

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Miles Tails Prower In... High School! -The Destruction Of Knothole- Sth Issue #175 Rewrite

Note: Well Nutty, you asked me if I could do a rewrite of Sth issue #175, but with Mobius Prime #0. We talked about this for a while on what the heck I’m supposed to do here and there. Heroes-of-magi helped too. So credit for this horrible story goes out to them too.

Cover Art: Shows a defeated Tails, lying in a pool of blood at a destroyed Knothole while Eggman is laughing in the background, faded away.

Rare Cover Art: Shows Tails and Eggman (inside the Egg Beater) charging at eachother in a destroyed Knothole.

Super Rare Cover Art: Shows Eggman holding up a defeated Tails, who is chained up. (A reference to Sonic the hedgehog issue #175 cover)

Ultra Rare Cover: Shows Tails and Eggman charging at each other in a faded background while Knothole City is shown being destroyed by the Egg Fleet.

Written by: Bladeque, Nuttyrabbit, and heroes-of-magi

It was a warm Friday afternoon at Knothole City. Kids were leaving out for school, the traffic was busy thanks to school traffic, and… everyone was doing their business.

-Meanwhile…-

“We’re in position sir.” Said a Egg Pawn.

“Then let us deploy. It is time that we end this little war. They never saw this coming… OHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!”

-At Freedom HQ…-

“Oh boy! I’m gonna REKT YOU!!!” Shouted Bean as he was playing Sonic the fighters against Tails.

“ Not if you get rekt first! ” Responded Tails as he was mashing buttons.

Everyone else was either watching Tails and Bean playing, doing their homework, or just chilling.

Knuckles was sleep on the couch, with a comic book on his face. Sally was doing Amy’s hair, Sonic was in his dorm room playing his guitar, Mighty was meditating along with Ray, Charmy and Cream were chasing Cheese, and Big was just staring at the static television in the kitchen, and everyone else was doing something that I don’t know about because I am too lazy to type and don’t want to drag this out.

“*DONG*” Ringed the bell on the TV.

“ EURIKA!!!!!!! ” Shouted Bean as he slammed the controller down on the floor. “You just got REKT SON!!!” Bean began to hump the air, doing his victory dance.

“You win…” Said Tails as he frowned. “ So… what’s the bet? ”

Bean grabbed Tails and smooshed his face against his. “We’re gonna streak around Knothole!!!”

“ Porque? ” Responded Tails in Spanish.

“What’s that matter? I mean you got fur and I got feathers, so it wouldn’t matter if we wore clothes or not.”

Tails raised his finger, about to respond to Bean’s stupidness, but was interrupted by the ceiling rumbling. Everyone looked up and saw the roof lift up. It was Snively in his Snively Beater.

Music: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tPC55RVN9Mg (Sonic 06 Boss Vs Character)

“Knock knock my friends!” Snively crushed the roof with the Beater’s hands.

Knuckles, awakened by this got up. “HEY! IT’S KNOCK KNOCK ITS KNUCKLES! NOT KNOCK KNOCK MY FRIENDS!” Knuckles charged at him but was deflected by a hit to the face. “Oh no!” He said as he crashed into crates.

Snively zapped Sally, Big, and the majority of the people in this building with a yellow beam. “This is too easy!” Said Snively.

“ MIGHTY!!!! ” Cried Ray as he was vanishing into thin air.

“RAY!” Mighty tried to run and grab Ray, but he was too late. “Ray…” He fell to his knees, looking down trying so hard not to tear up.

“Tails!” Shouted Bean. “ Bye! I won’t forget to write! ” Said Bean as he was tearing up. Then, he vanished.

“ Bean! ” Shouted Tails as he held his hand out.

“TAILS!!!!!” Screamed Sally as she vanished before thin air. Tails ran to Sally, tearing up, but once again, he was too late.

“I’m enjoying this– WOAH!” Snively’s mech was pushed back by a punch from Mighty.

“ WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BROTHER?!?!?! ” Shouted a raging Mighty. He ripped off the mech’s arm and swung it at Snively, knocking him back.

Panicking, Snively blasted a laser at Mighty and vanished him into thin air.

Knuckles got up and saw what was happening to his friends. “Julie?” He looked around and saw that she was gone. Knuckles became furious and charged at him. He punched tje mech, heavily denting it and knocking back the mech.

“ Why did he made my mech so weak?! ” Asked a panicked Snively as he was mashing buttons in the cockpit. He shot a laser at Knuckles and vanished him.

“Knux!” Shouted Sonic as he dashed out of his room.

“ What took you so long! ” Asked a distraught Tails as he was taking cover under the coffee table.

“Guitar and headphones!” Replied Sonic as he spin dashed towards Snively. he successfully hit Snively, breaking the glass to the cockpit.

“EEP!” Ducked Snively, he once again started to mash buttons.

“Amy! Hot me while I’m charging for a spin dash!” He began to charge up. * VREE VREE VREE*

“I’m on it!” She responded as she took out her Piko piko Hammer and ran to Sonic, hitting him with all she got.

Sonic took off fast and hit Snively hard. Causing him to fall back and slide. The mech slid back, but it didn’t stopped him from zapping both Sonic and Amy.

“SONIC! AMY!” Cried Tails.

“ Tails! I’m scared! ” Cried Cream as she was hiding behind the couch. She then got zapped.

“Chao!” Cried Cheese as he got zapped along Cream.

Tails knew that he had to do something. So he ran towards Snively to stop him.

“Looks like my time is up–” The Snively Beater began to transform into a shuttle. “– bye bye Miles. I’ve distracted you and your friends long enough. My uncle wants me to save you for his self.” He flew off and bombed Freedom HQ.

-BLAM BLAM BLAM!!!-

Music: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xeJEOsO3qgE (Militant Missionary Boss Egg Walker and Egg Viper)

Freedom HQ was in ruins. All that was left was Tails.

Tails got up and looked up. He saw Snively flying off. But that wasn’t all he saw. He saw the Egg Fleet in the now red cloudy sky.

He climbed out of the rubble and saw that majority of the forest was gone. He tried to twist his tails, but he forgot that they were still healing from those gunshot wounds that Nack gave him.

“*Grunts* Darn it! Guess I have to do it Sonic style.” He started running through the forest as the trees wooshed.

‘Gotta to go save mom and dad! Gotta go save mom and dad!’ Tails stopped as his mouth gaped open. Knothole City, the city that began poor, but became a bustling overpopulated metropolis was now no more. Tails continued to run through the ruined city.

“Everything is ruined… Uncle Chuck’s Diner… The Lake of Rings… Knothole City High… even my… house…” Tails was now standing in front of his own house, in ruins. He fell to his knees and started to cry. “ Mom… D-dad… T-Pup… ” He then came into realization. “Wait! They might be at the City Hall!” Tails start running. “I bet that Mayor Maxamillian has everyone safe and needs me to hold off the invasion!”

He finally made it to city hall, but then…

*KA-BLAM!!!!!!*

… the city hall was blown to bits.

Music: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FlkMETvrnqk (Sonic Triple Trouble - Atomic Destroyer Zone [Hip-Hop/Trap] 「DJ SonicFreak」(Keep putting it on loop until the next music)

“NO!” Shouted Tails as he shielded his self.

“Well, look who took his precious time to show up. It’s about time, Miles.” Said Eggman as he was inside his Egg Beater. The Egg Beater was walking out of the explosion.

“Robotnik… everyone I cared for… my friends, my family… S-S-Sally.. ” He began to choke up. “They’re…”

“Captured. They have been teleported inside my Egg Grapes. There I will absorb their nutrients so that they can power up the Death Egg II. There, everything will end.”

“ Tough luck buddy but I’ll save them, I always do! ”

“Foolish child…” The Egg Beater was preparating to fire. “ this is your "Endgame”!“ Dozens of missiles launched. Tails dodged while performing a spin jump and charged at Eggman. "I am surprised that you are still kicking, even with all your failures. Didn’t you forget what happened to Tommy Turtle and your grandfather?”

Tails ignored his insults and continued to dodge whatever Eggman was throwing at him.

“You never cured your friends and family and yet your father is still suffering with NIDS.”

Tails, gritting his teeth continued to dodge the missles.

“Miles Tails Prower, the two-tailed manipulative freak who was never accepted by the community. Until he made a heroic sacrifice against the Xorda. Then was forgotten until his return… two years later!” He swung the checker-wrecker-ball flail at Tails, successfully slamming him into the ground. Tails, weakly got up and kept running, looking for a weak spot.

Tails jumped on a missile and began to ride it towards Eggman.

“How’s your love life eh? Mina, Barbara, Fiona, Sally, and Sonia! So… how come you are forever alone?”

“STOP!” Tails performed a homing attack at the Egg Beater, but he pulled up his shield, which cause a powerful bounce at Tails. “ Oof! My love life is none of your business! ” He shouted as he got up.

“Really? That’s all you got? I want our final battle to have some spice to it.”

“You think this is a game?” He performed a Tails swipe at the Egg Beater’s leg, but it hurted Tails, wounded tails. “AAAAARRRGGGH!!!!!!!” Tails was rolling around in pain as he was holding his tails.

“ This is a completely different robot. This isn’t Egg Walker. ” He kicked Tails. “Did you seriously thought that your little resistance could go against me? During your absence, I made the world bow down to me.” He slammed the checker-wrecker-ball flail towards Tails, but he dodged just in time. “Me and Julian allowed you guys to continue existing. We destroyed so many multiverses, the Archieverse. Your pitiful comic book adaptation that exaggerates your day-to-day life, but only with Sonic being the star. The X Universe. That version of that hedgehog was so annoying, he was more bark than bite. And many many more universes!”

“Woah!” Dodged Tails “Mmnph– liar!” Tails got knocked back, having a couple of teeth leaving his mouth. He got back up and performed a spin dash. “ Right after Julian was killed, me and my friends had restored the multiverses! ” Tails bounced back and start running.

“I will give you props for killing my annoying cousin. But that doesn’t make Mobius any more free. You still have me, and other baddies– not as great as me– around. There will never be any freedom, you and I know that. You minus well forget about it.” He fired more missles.

“No! Me and the kingdom of Acorn will keep fighting! With the help of me and my friends, we can restore freedom to Mobius!”

“That is why King Maxamillian’s attempt to fight my empire backfired. They knew if they called you for help, the results would’ve be the same. I would come out on top.” He started to fire bullets at Tails. “The kingdom and your friends knew that you are powerless, that’s why they never bothered with calling you for help or even warning you about my return!” He swung the checker-wrecker-ball flail at Tails, hitting him far.

Music: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2BLudtv81o

He continued to slam the ball on Tails.

“AAAAAUGH!!!!!” Screamed Tails in pain.

“Get up two tailed freak. I’m not done with you yet.” He was walking slowly towards Tails. Tails, dizzily got up and performed a homing attack at Eggman.

“HAHAHAHA!!!! Oh you never cease to amuse me Miles. Your puny attacks are no match for my superior creation. You just can’t win, give up!”

“Mmnph! Be the big man doc. I’m through with you.” He landed, almost falling. The Egg Beater charged at Tails and began to rapidly punch Tails.

“You were finished from the start. The day you were born. This suit was specifically designed to out match you.” He kicked Tails in the air. “The only reason why you can take such a beating is thanks to you absorbing all those power sources. All the rings at The Lake of Rings, The Master Emerald, the Chaos Rubies from Thoraxia, and the implant that the D'Novelons gave you during your surgery. I can toy with you for as long as I like.” He slammed Tails to the ground. “Julian and I had studied you all our lives, we’ve finally reached your limit.” Tails slowly looked up at Robotnik insanely. “It’s honestly disappointing that you are weak, I bet that hedgehog friend of yours is more of a challenge than–”

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!*

Eggman was interrupted by Tails taking off. Tails ran so fast that it caused a the planet to rotate backwards for a moment. He ran from Knothole, all the way to Emerald Coast.

Tails grabbed the ground, fighting the pain, he twisted his tails and began to run in place so fast that his feet looked like the number “8”. Many of the passersbys at the beach saw Tails and were stunned.

“ L-limit?! I’LL GIVE YOU YOUR LIMIT!!!!!!! ” He shouted as his nose, eyes, and ears were bleeding. *FWOOOOOOMMPPPSSSSHHHHH* He took off, extremely fast that Eggman didn’t had time to ask Snively what happened. While he was running, he closed his eyes and went faster. He was going so fast that sparkles was following behind him. He was close to time warping, but…

*BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

He rammed headfirst into the Egg Beater, causing it to fall back and managed to make Eggman’s Egg Beater crumble. Eggman fell to the ground and saw a furious Tails walking towards him.

“EGAD!!! SNIVELY HELP!!!” Cried Eggman as he was crawling back from Tails.

Tails was about to grab Tails. But he collapsed. Eggman, shaking in his pants got up and pressed his watch to call his Egg Mobile. Before he left he looked back at Tails. “I’m not playing with you freak. Go on, find a new batch of Freedom Fighters. Go around the world and recruit new Freedom Fighters, you will find no one. Never forget this day. OHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!” He flew away to the sky and the Egg Fleet followed.

A almost lifeless Tails just laid there, couldn’t move, couldn’t do nothing but shed tears. All he could think about is that he couldn’t save Knothole, his friends, his family, and everyone. He just laid there. He thought about Sally and her screaming, everyone he knew, screaming and deteriorating inside the Egg Grapes.

"S…Sally–….“ He blacked out.

To be continued…

*AAAAAAAAAH NUTTY!!!! WHY DID YOU WANTED ME TO RIP OFF ISSUE #175. I feel so unoriginal now. ;_;. Well guys I hope you liked my version of Sth Issue #175. Next up, .. um… a part two of that Knuckles X Lien-Da story, or a continuation of this train wreck I wrote!*

#submission #Bladeque

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hydrus · 4 years

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Version 405

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I had a good week. 'system:number of tags' now supports namespace filtering.

number of tags

The 'system:number of tags' predicate now lets you attach a namespace, so you can search for 'files with two character tags' or 'files with more than one creator', or any other combination you can think of. Also, all 'number of tags' queries have been optimised, and are now typically much faster, particularly when mixed with other tags. They are also quickly cancellable, so if you do enter a very slow one, it should respond fairly quickly if you hit the 'stop search' button that appears after a delay.

I updated a bunch of the database code here to support new types of search. With the namespace searching, you can enter a blank namespace to search for 'unnamespaced' tags, and if you have a very specific need, you can now enter a wildcard namespace, like 'crea*', perhaps to help search for typos.

Unfortunately, I am removing 'system:number of tags' from the 'default system predicates' options panel. EDIT: I am hiding the whole panel now. This horrid stack of UI runs on ancient and difficult-to-update code, so rather than wrestle with it more, I plan to retire it and replace it with a clean system that also allows for editing search predicates in place (e.g. right-clicking an active search predicate and changing the >2 to >3 or similar).

I am really happy with how namespace counting turned out, and I have wanted it myself for a long time. Let me know how it works for you.

duplicate subscription queries

I believe the subscription data storage rewrite introduced a bug where when you paste queries into a sub and it says 'x y z are already in the sub and will not be added', they were being added anyway!

I fixed it. If you paste into subs a lot and get this message regularly, please check your subs for dupes! Now we have faster and more flexible subs, some users have also asked for broader de-duping tech that spans across multiple subs or does upper/lower case deduping, so I also expect to write buttons to do this in the near future, so you may also just want to wait for that.

ptr parents

Please note that the public tag repository is turning off tag parent submissions for regular users for a bit. If you haven't seen it already, the 'ptr' tab in manage tag parents will disappear in a few days. The task of cleaning up old and ongoing mistakes is proving too awkward with the current tools, so it is halted until I have a 'virtual parents' rework done, which will allow for more cleanly undoable parents (and hence less contagious bad ones). If you have seen 'shadow the hedgehog' or other bizarre tags appearing in odd places, this is what we hope to fix.

I have scheduled my next 'medium-size' job week, 408, to be for a 'presentation' tag cache, which will allow fast and accurate searching and loading of the tags you actually see on the front end. It will start with siblings, extend to tag filtering/censorship, and then parents will be made virtual and moved to it as well. This was a priority at the end of last year, before Qt and 2020's fun appeared, so I would now like to focus on it again.

full list

tag search:

system:number of tags now supports namespaces, for example 'find files with two character tags'! (issue #280)

it also supports wildcard namespaces, as now do regular namespace search predicates. both run faster. "crea*:anything" is now possible

system:number of tags has been optimised, and in many cases is now ten to a hundred times faster

system:number of tags still does not support siblings, something I hope to start correcting as of v408

both tag existence (numtags =0 or greater than 0) and tag count database routines now respond quickly to 'cancel search' commands, so if you do run a slow query (a bare 'has creator tag' search on 'all known files' on the PTR, for instance), you can now back out quickly after the 'stop' button appears

note that 'system:number of character tags greater than 0' and '= 0' are equivalent to +/-character:anything, which will be swapped in if you enter these. also, +/-unnamespaced:anything can now appear

the program is a bit better about determining =0 and greater than 0 and less than 1 being 'none' and 'any but none', when it needs to determine optimisations and special labels

unfortunately, I am taking away the default value for system:num tags in the options page (edit: I am killing the whole panel now). this old ugly mess of stacked predicate edit panels works on ancient, difficult to update code, so I will retire it and replace it with a unified system that is easy to use, supports in-search system predicate editing, and keeps up with changes automatically

system:number of tags is now comfortable with redundancies--if you add >2 and >4, it now knows that >4 is the true lower bound (previously, the one used was random)

boring code changes here:

updated tag existence and tag count searches to take advantage of the tag cache when in a specific file domain (which is pretty much all the time), which should speed them up significantly

updated tag existence and tag count searches to more carefully plan their queries, speeding them up both in advantageous and difficult situations

cleaned up tag existence and tag count code significantly

updated all edit system predicate panels to return full predicate objects, a step towards decoupling them and allowing in-place system predicate editing

wrote a new number test object to hold and help with number range test values. num tags now uses it, and eventually all range predicates will too

the namespace existence search code ('anything' queries) is now folded into the new generalised tag existence search code

streamlined how the search context propagates through all database tag searching--now, most queries do not know or care about domain or current/pending status--they just iterate over n tables as determined by a specialised routine

added a handful of unit tests for the new namespace num tag searching

database repair:

the database menu has a new entry, 'repopulate truncated mappings tables', under the newly renamed 'check and repair' submenu, which will try its best to 'fix' a client.mappings.db file that has been truncated due to hard drive fault by repopulating from the local-file-only tag cache. do not run this unless you know you need to

the 'help my db is broke.txt' document has a full update pass. the language is clearer, common issues and questions are better addressed, two new recovery routines are added, a section on the stages after boot recovery (like the new repopulate job above) is added, and I added my stock 'now become a backup patrician' nag at the end

the debug routine to clear cached service info numbers is now moved to the 'regenerate' database menu. this thing fixes hanging incorrect 'pending' counts until I can fix it properly

the rest:

fixed an issue where when you pasted queries into a subscription, those that were already in the sub (and got the dialog saying so), were being added anyway! I believe this bug came in the last few weeks, after the data storage rewrite. please check your pasted-into subs for dupes

fixed tab double middle-click behaviour (so you can spam page close), which I thought I had fixed last week but actually messed up completely right at the end (issue #314)

cleaned up some more of the page tab event code--it was a mess all around. should all be on Qt now, no wx hacks

network jobs will no longer wait for and consume bandwidth start tokens while all network traffic is paused. all bandwidth competition now halts. (previously, they would continue to consume tokens according to current rules and then all rush to start as soon as traffic was resumed)

fixed some client booru/client api requests to correctly 404 on missing file results, rather than 500

cleaned up some file sort code and fixed the sort string conversion, which was rendering the opposite sort direction (asc/desc) in summary labels (e.g. on manage favourite searches)

cleaned up some ui layout stretching code, including some borked tag import options expand sizing

improved some button and padding layout definitions, and improved, slightly, the way the top-right media viewer hover window lays itself out and changes its size on media change

improved some review services layout. should be fewer weird heights and widths in unusual situations, and the new multi-column list fits better

the manage subs dialog now saves its changes to db more cleanly and atomically

updated the default derpibooru parser to pull species tags. ten points if you can guess what that is most of the time

next week

Next week is cleanup. I did some layout/sizing work this week, and it was nice to clear out some cobwebs, so I'll keep pushing on that. I'd like to bring back system predicate defaults as well, with a cleaner system.

#release

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megadoctornews · 7 years

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Shoukhrat Mitalipov is an American biologist who heads the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. He is known for discovering a controversial genetic therapy that may be a way to prevent mitochondrial diseases, as well as a new way of creating human stem cells from skin cells.

A U.S. research team has reportedly edited the DNA of a human embryo just as a sperm fertilizes an egg, well before its eight-cell stage. alxpin/iStockphoto

Jessica Newell was born with Leigh Syndrome, a form of mitochondrial disease.

The research targeted a hard defect, but experts say in the future the same approach can potentially prevent a whole list of inheritable diseases

By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez

As originally published by Mega Doctor News in its newsprint edition August 2017

For the first time, in decades scientists in the United States have edited the DNA of human embryos to prevent a fatal disease. An American researcher, of Russian descendants, has successfully done this with animals.

Genes cause the disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In other words, if you inherit a gene with a mutation on it, you’re going to make some of the proteins in your heart in an imperfect way, it’s just something you were born with.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is very common and can affect people of any age. It affects men and women equally. It is a common cause of sudden cardiac arrest in young people, including young athletes.

With this disease, it is impossible to know when your heart might fail you, never knowing if today is the day when it might go off. Some have said that it’s like you’re just walking around every day with a gun pointed at your head.

The researcher behind this breakthrough is Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., heads the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland Oregon. He grew up in the Soviet Union when Kazakhstan used to be of the Soviet Union; he is also an accomplished blues guitarist.

He became interested in studying the cells in embryos when he was in school in Moscow. As soon as he graduated, he came to the United States and started to work with a mentor, Dr. Keith Campbell, the scientist that helped to create the first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep/ The sheep may not be the monster imagined in a science-fiction fantasy. It is important to note that, many scientists doubted it could ever be done.

Mitalipov’s medical breakthrough is of epic proportions. Today, the United States law may block this type of medicine prevention, leaving people never knowing when their hearts will fail.

Last week a group of scientists led by Mitalipov published a breakthrough that could do just that: edit and rewrite the gene that causes this heart condition. TV commentators said, “Genetic engineering yesterday was science fiction, and today it’s reality.”

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy occurs if heart muscle cells enlarge and cause the walls of the ventricles (usually the left ventricle) to thicken. The ventricle size often remains normal, but the thickening may block blood flow out of the ventricle. If this happens, the condition is called obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Sometimes the septum, the wall that divides the left and right sides of the heart, thickens and bulges into the left ventricle. This can block blood flow out of the left ventricle. Then the ventricle must work hard to pump blood. Symptoms can include chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, or fainting.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy also can affect the heart’s mitral valve, causing blood to leak backward through the valve. Sometimes, the thickened heart muscle doesn’t block blood flow out of the left ventricle. This is referred to as non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The entire ventricle may thicken, or the thickening may happen only at the bottom of the heart. The right ventricle also may be affected.

In both obstructive and non-obstructive HCM, the thickened muscle makes the inside of the left ventricle smaller, so it holds less blood. The walls of the ventricle may stiffen, and as a result, the ventricle is less able to relax and fill with blood.

But how exactly does one edit a gene to fix that problem? According to the scientists, this recent breakthrough is an application of a new kind of tool for rewriting DNA called CRISPR, which allows for quick and easy genome editing.

CRISPR is the only complete genome editing solution designed to expedite research.

What scientists did was they created an embryo that had Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy disease, in other words, one copy of a gene from a heart protein that was faulty. They added in molecules to this embryo, which was able to zero in on the part of the gene where this mutation was that causes this disease.

Carl Zimmer is an award-winning science writer. He’s a columnist for the New York Times and the author of 13 books about science. His comments about editing the human embryo are interesting and timely. “It’s like they’re paging through an incredibly long encyclopedia until they get to a particular page. On that particular page, they get to a particular paragraph, and in that particular paragraph, they get to a particular word. They can zero in with that kind of incredible accuracy, and then they cut a section of the DNA, where scientists can insert a new piece of DNA to take its place.” This technique repairs the DNA, and in the process, it turned that gene into a normal version that lets us have regular beating hearts.

Michael Barbaro, the conductor of The Daily of the New York Times, said, “So, they’re removing a word in this deep well of language, and they’re replacing with another one.”

Zimmer pointed out that if this embryo would ever become a fully formed human, it would be a human without this terrible disease. In essence, it just would be eradicated from the biology of the baby and the adult. The scientist Dr. Mitalipov also said, “I was really shocked, so this is kind of a big moment for me to understand that we have more power in manipulating nature than we think.”

The United States has been opposed to genetic modifications in human embryos for quite a long time; they have made it very clear that they’re not going to approve clinical trials for Mitalipov’s project.

In 2016 Congress inserted a little line into the budget saying that the FDA cannot even consider an application to mitochondrial replacement therapy. Because of that, Dr. Mitalipov stated, “It’s frustrating because, you know, the goal of my career it’s to bring new revolutionary treatments. We invested so much into the science and accomplished so much progress, and now all of a sudden the FDA has told us not to pursue this work.”

For Dr. Mitalipov was important that this could be a way to cure genetic diseases. He initially became famous for all he did in research at what came to be known as three-parent-babies.

It’s an idea that bends the mind as well as the established laws of nature, one baby, with three genetic parents. As an example, 13-month-old Jessica Newels suffers from a mitochondrial disease passed down from her mother and doctors say things will get progressively worse.

It is known that we only inherit mitochondria from our mothers and if there’s mutation on one of those genes it can cause really severe diseases. Scientists combined the DNA of 2 parents with a healthy mitochondria DNA of a female donor, and that’s where you get a three-parent-baby.

So, the question is, what happened with that research of this three-parent-baby concept? It worked on mice, and so then Mitalipov moved onto monkeys which are closer to humans. Two baby monkeys were born and cured of their mitochondrial disease.

The success of his research gave him and others a certain boost to say, “okay let’s go to government agencies and ask for permission to apply this technology in humans.” In the United States, it’s just a very different story, the answer to that was a big NO. The United Kingdom opened its doors, and they have gone forth with approving it and moving forward with this, full steam ahead with lots of regulations.

Dr. Mitalipov said, “I understand that you need to draw a line, what’s permissible what’s not. We don’t want a neglected use, but what we’re asking is let us test it. It needs to be tested in clinical settings.”

Zimmer said, “Even the scientists themselves have been stunned by how fast they’ve been hitting these successes and scientists are making an effort to try and make the rest of us aware of what CRISPR is and what the potential benefits and ethical issues are.”

Dr. Mitalipov also said, “I don’t think, you know, this technology can’t be stopped at this stage, and I believe this is going to be the future, and an initial interest of every country, the United States has just to reconsider their policies.”

Zimmer said, “It’s really hard for me to look into the future on this one, because when you look at our past experiences, sometimes things go from being really shocking and hard to find them normal.” He continued, “Vitro Fertilization in the 1960’s was considered very scandalous, and most people were against it.” Today, he pointed out it’s extremely common, regulated, it’s licensed in the US, and it’s just a familiar part of life. “So, the question is will CRISPR become a familiar part of life 50 years from now? I really don’t know,” Zimmer said.

Barbaro said, “So, you say this is truly revolutionary in the world of science and medicine. Why is it such a big deal?

Zimmer responded, “For decades, the scientists wanted to do this. To be able to fix genetic diseases by manipulating embryos. In other words, it’s possible that if you took one of these embryos, and implanted it in a surrogate mother, the embryo will develop into a normal human being, healthy despite having edited DNA, and, in fact will not carry the disease that they have inherited, and not only that, but will not pass it down to their descendants.”

Also, Dr. Mitalipov said, “I know in the future this kind of treatments will become routine probably a million children will be cured of these inheritable conditions and that’s what nature is every day.” He continued, “I didn’t want to be just a scientist or be the best of the best, I wanted to be number 1, and then hopefully show everybody that they’re wrong. 100 years from now they’re going to remember “Yeah that’s Mitalipov, he developed it.”

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report notes that many inherited diseases can be prevented by selecting healthy embryos for in-vitro fertilization, and that embryo editing might only be justified if it presents the only option for a couple to have a healthy biological child. Congress has meanwhile prohibited the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from reviewing applications for clinical trials involving embryo editing.

Scientists Successfully Eliminated a Genetic Disease from Human Embryos The research targeted a hard defect, but experts say in the future the same approach can potentially prevent a whole list of inheritable diseases…

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saiilorstars · 4 years

Text

Metamorphosis

Ch. 1: A New Beginning

Current Masterlist // Previous Story //

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: 11th Doctor x Female OC

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel

[If you would like to be added to this specific OC’s taglist, let me know!]

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Author's Note: Hello! Welcome to my 3rd OC/Doctor pairing story. This is the second story of the 'Home Saga' involving my Time Lady OC Renata and the (now) 11th Doctor. I recommend that you go back to the first story "The Beginning of Everything" listed on my porfile for a better understanding of Renata's history and her story with the Doctor. Now this story will be a rewrite of Season 5 and some canon Doctor Who comic stories as well as my own original chapters. This story will also feature a canon Latinx Doctor Who comic companion, Gabby Gonzalez. She is NOT my creation.

Couple of fun things: Renata's and the Doctor's main theme song is "Home" by Gabrielle Aplin. Renata's personal theme song is Butterfly by Luna Mae. (There's a specific playlist for them on my profile)

Chapter summary: Renata and the newly regenerated Doctor have crash landed into a little girl’s backyard where they dive headfirst into another adventure.

Renata had never seen a more disastrous regeneration unfold. Of course only the Doctor could make that happen. She shouldn't even be surprised. It was only a matter of time until one of his regenerations caused the TARDIS to nearly explode. She furiously ran around the console, trying to calm the box without getting her hands burned in the process. Parts of the console room were still in flames and where was the culprit!?

"DOCTOR!" Renata's yell could almost go above the thuds and sparks from the lit console.

"Busy!" the newly regenerated Doctor called back only to have Renata snap.

"No you're not! You're…" she trailed off after poking her head around the console to see the Doctor pulling himself back inside the box.

"You left me dangling out there!" He exclaimed, flapping a hand at the open doors. The TARDIS had lurched to the side, throwing him out like a ragdoll.

Renata's dark eyes widened indignantly. She huffed and stepped away — or stumbled away because of the bouncy ride — from the console. "I did not! I'm trying to fix your mess! You can't even regenerate properly!"

Now it was the Doctor's turn to be offended. "What!? Excuse me for not dying the right way!"

Renata stalked over to him, intending on pulling him away from the doors that he irresponsibly left open as well. "The TARDIS needs to land so it can properly repair itself but I can't do that because—oh no!" She had gasped at something past him out the door. The Doctor whirled around to see them about to hit Big Ben. He used his sonic screwdriver to pull them to the side, a rather harsh turn that sent them both flying.

Only this time it sent the Doctor away from the doors and Renata out the doors.

"Renata!" the Doctor panicked. Oh, if he killed her, she would definitely kill him.

Like him, Renata had managed to hold onto the edge of the entrance. Now she dangled and was terrified for her lives. "GET ME UP! I HATE HEIGHTS!" she cried.

The Doctor scrambled to the doorway and looked down at her. He felt absolutely terrible because this wasn't the first time she was in this situation. She had her eyes screwed shut and her hands gripping the TARDIS as much as she could.

"You need to stop doing this to me!" she shouted when she felt his hands grab her arms. Last time she dangled from a terribly high height was on the first day she met Donna Noble in the Adipose building, and just like then she screamed for help now.

"Up you go!" the Doctor pulled her up and into the TARDIS. She was far too terrified and wrapped her arms around his neck as if he would stop her from falling again. Despite her clinging to him, the Doctor managed to shut the doors behind them.

The TARDIS continued to spin and lurch, throwing the two against the door. Renata's back hit the door with a thud and because she still held onto the Doctor, she brought him with her. Now she was locked between him and the door.

Despite their situation, the Doctor still found time to smile at her. "Hello," he greeted her for the first time since regenerating.

She was right, he hadn't regenerated properly. All the physical injuries he sustained in his previous incarnation carried over and it meant that the regeneration process had to work twice as hard to heal everything. The poor TARDIS never stood a chance and Renata had to work hard to keep them alive. There'd been no time to say hello and make sure she was alright. He would take these few seconds to do at least one of those two things.

Renata froze under that new gaze of his; she swallowed out of nervousness. Though he had a younger face, his emerald green eyes still held all the love and intensity he confessed before regenerating. It was still enough to calm her in the midst of a scary situation. But the TARDIS shook them again, reminding her pilots that she needed help or else they were all goners. The pair headed — a bit zig-zag from all the lurches — towards the console. They had to stop it before somebody got hurt. As it was, there was somebody below them who was asking for help from a higher power...the only higher power a seven year old could think of.

Little Amelia Pond didn't know what else to do with the ugly crack on her bedroom wall. It didn't look right and it didn't sound right either. Cracks shouldn't be making sounds. That's why she was scared of it. If it was a normal crack like her aunt Sharon told her it was, then she wouldn't hear noises from it.

Santa Claus had to help. She was just so sorry that she was waking him up during Easter. But just as she was once again asking for his help, she heard a crash in her backyard yard. Her ginger hair whipped to the side when she made the quick turn. She dashed to her window and looked below to see a dark blue box on the ground. She didn't understand power a lot, but she thought if Santa sent them then it must mean it was good enough to help her with the crack. Now she just had to be brave enough to go see it up close.

She grabbed her red jacket and the first shoes she saw - a pair of wellies - then ran out of her room. She ran as fast as she could down the stairs, thinking if she delayed then the box would disappear and she would be back to step one with the crack. She had just made it into the yard when the doors of the box flung open. The grappling hook that was thrown out and latched onto her lawn roller stopped her for a moment. What kind of box did that? Then she saw hands grabbing onto the edge of the box. A man's head popped out first, revealing incredibly wet hair.

"Can I have an apple?" he asked as soon as he met the girl's gaze. That was the first thing that his mind had thought of after such a ride. It was odd what regeneration did. "All I can think about - apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new - never had cravings before!"

Amelia swore she heard somebody screaming from inside the box. She was sure when the man flinched and looked below to respond to whatever had spoken inside the box.

"Sorry, love," he climbed out of the box then reached for something inside — somebody inside.

Amelia blinked when he pulled out a dark-haired woman from the box. Like him, she was soaking wet. "Are you okay?" the question blurted from Amelia's mouth.

"No! I am not!" Renata answered without even looking at the girl. She didn't even register that the Doctor hadn't been the one to ask the question. She wouldn't straddle the TARDIS like the Doctor was, she wanted to step on actual ground. She wanted to confirm that she was no longer dangling in the air.

"It is freezing out here! Where are we!?" Renata hugged herself wet body and began to look around. With such a landing, she didn't have the opportunity to see where the TARDIS had deposited them in. All she saw was water from the swimming pool.

They were in a garden, probably a backyard, that could honestly use some work. The grass was unkempt which meant somebody had neglected to give it a proper mowing. There were abandoned tools to one side — she winced when she realized that they had inadvertently smashed the shed — and then a park bench that could use some cleaning. Finally, she saw a swing set…

Oh. Renata glanced at the girl, eyes wide when she finally realized there was a child present. A child had asked her if she was alright and she'd been so rude. "So sorry," she quickly apologized. "Uh...bit off my rocker thanks to…" she threw a sharp look at the Doctor who couldn't seem bothered. His grin was a sign alright.

Amelia looked between them and wondered how Santa thought they were capable of helping her. Then again, if they were this strange then perhaps they were the right ones to handle a strange crack with noise. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"We just had a fall," the Doctor said, patting the TARDIS under him. "All the way down there, right to the library. Hell of a climb back up."

"Yes, my library is ruined now," Renata came back to the box and peered inside, though as soon as she did she pulled away. It was an outright mess in there. "And Gabriella's going to be furious that her art room is basically nonexistent."

The Doctor winced. Up until now, their companion Gabriella Gonzalez hadn't ever been properly angry with him, so he was really hoping that he could keep that streak when they went back to pick her up.

Amelia hadn't understood what they were saying, but she could still make sense of what she saw. "You're soaking wet."

"Yes, we are," Renata glared at the Doctor again. She hugged herself and cursed the dress she wore.

"Yeah, you are," the Doctor repeated but he wasn't so upset like she was. He was staring at her with a growing smirk.

Renata blinked when she finally caught on to the fact he was checking her out. Her pretty flower-patterned dress was hugging her body in just the right way. He was loving the fact he could see her curves, her new curves that she would otherwise probably never show.

Her face went mad red, probably almost the shade of Amelia's hair. She turned away in an attempt to focus on Amelia, but there was a tingling feeling running up her backside. You are not going to do that right here, she scolded herself. But she may have sneaked a glance at the Doctor. He was still staring at her appreciatively.

Renata bit her lower lip and forced herself to pay attention to Amelia for real this time. "I am so sorry for the mess we've made here. I, uh, can tell that you've worked hard to keep this...garden clean…"

Amelia smiled in amusement when Renata had to practically force herself to finish that sentence after checking out the garden again. "Nobody takes care of the garden. But how come you're wet?"

"We were, uh, in the swimming pool," Renata walked back to the TARDIS, discreetly pinching the Doctor's arm. When the man yelped she smiled sweetly at him. He needed a good snap back to reality.

"You said you were in the library," Amelia reminded after she herself thought over the last statements the pair had made.

"That's because my library is now ruined as well because the swimming pool is inside it," Renata folded her arms again.

"Are you police?"

That question was enough to reel the pair in. They stared at the little girl who shifted on her feet, anxiously waiting for their answer.

"Why? Did you call the police?" the Doctor asked her.

"Not exactly, but I did want help. Did you come about the crack in my wall?"

"A crack?" Renata repeated, giving the girl a strange look for her question when suddenly the Doctor yelped in pain, falling to the ground.

"Agh!" the Doctor pulled himself up but was only able to kneel in the meantime.

Renata was at his side in a second, trying to ease his lingering pain. "You haven't regenerated properly thanks to the little old flight we had."

"Are you all right, mister?" Amelia asked, staying right where she was. Usually adults didn't want kids around when one of them was sick. Plus, the dark haired woman seemed to be on it.

"No, I'm fine, it's OK. This is all perfectly norm…" the Doctor trailed off and had the urge to open his mouth. When he did, regeneration energy drifted out.

Renata sighed. "Yup, definitely wrong. You'll need to rest."

"Did you?" the Doctor asked. By his calculations, it'd been about two days since she regenerated and he didn't see her taking a rest. She rolled her eyes at his weak attempt to argue.

"Who are you?" Amelia couldn't help herself from asking. They were so strange, especially the man.

"By the time we finish explaining, you'd be an adult," Renata offered the girl a soft smile.

"And to be fair, I'm still cooking," the Doctor was proud to announce. That was the one good thing he could remember from each regeneration: the thought of who this incarnation would turn out to be. What would he like? What wouldn't he like? What would his personality be like?

"Are you afraid?" Renata asked the child.

"No, it just looks a bit weird…" Amelia's gaze lingered on the Doctor as if he would release more energy.

"Well, that's good to hear, but I was talking about the crack you mentioned."

The answer was evident before Amelia even answered. She looked over her shoulder up to her bedroom. "Yes."

The Doctor jumped from the ground, missing Renata worriedly trying to stop him from doing anything else. "Well, then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor, this is Renata. Do everything we tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off."

"Doctor…" Renata tried stopping him again but she was too late. He'd walked straight into a tree. She gasped at the terrible smack she heard. That's the last thing he needed!

The Doctor had fallen to the ground on his back, a terrible headache soon to come. When he opened his eyes, he saw Renata already with him while Amelia stood behind his head. "Early days. Steering's a bit off," he excused himself but winced with Renata's scoff.

"Think it's more than just early days," she mumbled as she helped him stand up. Though before she completely let him go, she grabbed his head and pulled him closer to inspect any scratches or cuts on his face. She ignored - or rather did her best to ignore - the Doctor's following eyes on her.

"What's your verdict, my nurse?" he asked her quietly.

She blushed and let him go. "You're fine. But do me a favor and try not to crash into anything else. I will need you when I go back for Gabriella. Don't want to explain to her how you died once more by running into a door."

The Doctor grinned. "Yes, ma'am."

~0~

Amelia had brought the pair into her house, an action that Renata wasn't sure how to feel about. Did nobody teach this child never let strangers into her house? Amelia came into the kitchen with two towels for them to dry up. Renata gratefully took hers while the Doctor practically snatched his distractedly. He was busy studying the solitary kitchen.

"If you're a doctor, why does your box say "Police"?" Amelia asked him before glancing at Renata. "Are you a policewoman?"

"More like his caretaker," Renata dried her hair and flashed a smirk at the frowning Doctor.

"Lies," he promptly said. "Where's my apple?"

Amelia went off to the fridge and hid her smile when Renata scolded him for not saying 'please'. She came back with an apple in hand but once the Doctor took only one bite, he spit out in disgust.

"That's disgusting. What is that?" he wiped the lingering remains off apple from his lips.

Renata was frowning at him for that bit. "You've been asking nonstop for an apple - what do you think she gave you?"

The Doctor heard her, he did, but he also heard his taste buds and they did not approve. "Apples are rubbish. I hate apples."

Amelia could not understand how easily he could change his mind. "You said you loved them."

"No, no, I love yogurt! Yogurt's my favorite. Give me yogurt!" the Doctor rubbed his hands together at the thought of creamy yogurt.

Beside him, Renata watched Amelia run back to the fridge to get the yogurt. Just like before, Amelia returned with what the Doctor asked.

"Thank you," Renata was about to take the container so Amelia could get a cup but neither ever got the chance. The Doctor snatched the container from Amelia's hand and ripped the container off to pour a massive amount into his mouth.

Renata gaped that it almost looked like her mouth would hit the floor. "Doctor!"

The Doctor spit the yogurt out as well. "Ugh! I hate yogurt, it's just stuff with bits in!"

"You said it was your favorite!" Amelia frowned. Some of the yogurt was on her wellies!

"Doctor, you are being very rude right now!" Renata was so close to smacking him. This was too much, even for him!

"What? New mouth, new rules!" He sloppily wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Renata shuddered.

Amelia chuckled. Renata looked incredibly funny right now.

"It's like eating after cleaning your teeth, everything tastes wro—agh!" the Doctor insisted but Renata grabbed him by the tie of his shirt and pulled him up to her.

"Stop making up stupid excuses and—" But the Doctor had another fit, ending whatever threat she'd been about to make. Renata let him go with a gasp. "Are you okay!?"

"What's wrong with him?" Amelia watched Renata lean the Doctor against the cabinets behind them. One moment he was arguing and the next he was sick? That didn't make sense.

"Oh, he, uh, just has—" Renata meant to construct a good reason that wouldn't scare Amelia off, but the Doctor had a very different idea in mind.

"Wrong with me? It's not my fault!" the Doctor exclaimed as he got off the wall. "Why can't you give me decent food? You're Scottish - fry something!"

"Doctor!" Renata scolded him while Amelia once again went to the fridge. "You don't have to, sweetheart!" she quickly told the girl but she was already pulling out a pan.

Amelia was a quick cook and in five minutes she presented the Doctor with two strips of bacon.

"Ah! Bacon!" the Doctor, to his credit, did look excited about this one.

However Renata wasn't very fond of the scent she got from it. I guess this incarnation won't like bacon, she concluded.

The Doctor agreed. He took one bite from a strip and spit it right out. "That's bacon. Are you trying to poison me?" he shot an accusing look at Amelia.

This time the girl took it a challenge. There had to be something this man would like and she would find out.

Meanwhile, Renata was close to steaming. "You are being incredibly rude!" she hissed at the Doctor as Amelia brought baked beans to them. "She's a child making food for you!"

"Well let's see if this is it!" the Doctor said. "Plus, you need to eat as well. When's the last time you ate since you regenerated?"

Renata rolled her eyes. Truth be told she didn't remember when she last ate. Things had escalated pretty fast after returning to Earth and finding the Master.

"Ah, you see, beans!" the Doctor happily exclaimed when Amelia came around with a plate. He took a spoonful of it and immediately decided she'd gotten it wrong again. He spit it back out on the plate and marched to the sink to throw it all away. "Beans are evil. Bad, bad beans!"

Amelia made a face and glanced at Renata. "What does he like?"

"At this point...not living!" Because with the glare she had on the Doctor, he might have just met his end.

Amelia sucked in a sharp breath and marched towards the cabinet. Her next attempt was simple. Maybe he was a simple man who liked simple food.

"Bread and butter. Now you're talking!" the Doctor rubbed his hands together as he prepared to eat.

This time, he thought it was so bad that the contents shouldn't even stay inside the house. He stormed towards the backdoor and threw the plate out. "And stay out!" he yelled as if it would really come back.

Amelia was frowning by this point.

"You are about to die again," Renata warned him when he returned. "She's done making food for you!"

"I just need something!" the Doctor argued as he went for the fridge.

Amelia followed him, offering other things she had in the fridge. "We've got some carrots?"

The Doctor scoffed. "Carrots? Are you insane? No, wait, hang on!" He flung open the freezer and searched through the contents. "I know what I need. I need... I need... I need…" He concluded that he needed two items that, if it wasn't for him, would never see each other. "Fish fingers and custard."

Both Renata and Amelia crinkled their noses with disgust. The Doctor happily went ahead with his odd creation.

"This time I get to make dinner for you," he proudly said to Renata when they sat down.

Renata tried her best not to look so disgusted at the bright yellow liquid inside the bowl. "Um...thanks?" Part of her laughed because he was actually trying to make dinner for her, but he'd chosen such a wrong combination. "You're so proud, aren't you?"

The Doctor dipped his fish finger into the bowl, eyes practically dazzling as he saw the gooey custard spill back into the bowl. He took a big bite and hummed with approval. "Good!"

Amelia chuckled from her spot. She'd chosen ice cream as her midnight meal.

"Oh, you are leaving quite an impression," Renata propped an elbow on the table to rest her cheek against her hand. The Doctor smiled proudly. He thought he was making a good one.

"Have some," he picked up a fish finger for her.

"Look Doctor, I appreciate your intention but...that does not look appetizing," Renata chuckled at it.

"But it's good!"

"Fish fingers and custard? I don't think so," Renata playfully rolled her eyes. The Doctor dipped the fish finger into the custard bowl as she went on. "I think I'll just grab an apple or something but you will not have me trying—" the Doctor had popped a fish finger into her mouth. Her eyes widened in alarm, quickly flashing anger at him. "Doc…"

"Ah! Chew!" the Doctor pointed at her with a wagging finger. "You always say you chew your food and swallow before talking at the table."

"That's what aunt Sharon says," Amelia said.

"See, Renata is very fond of routines and rules so I hope she wouldn't break them because it's her," the Doctor set a very smug smile on the Time Lady.

She returned the gesture with a sarcastic smile, but she started to chew to get rid of the foul combination. And then suddenly...she cocked her head and began chewing slower. When it came time to swallow, it wasn't forced at all.

"Well?" the Doctor asked, even though he had already assumed her opinion changed on the meal.

"Uuh...that was...that was actually kind of good," Renata said slowly as she was still trying to wrap her head around the fact. "That can't be right. It shouldn't work!"

"The oddest things sometimes work," the Doctor reached over with a thumb to clear off a lingering spot of custard on her lips. "Sound familiar?"

Renata blushed. "You think you're so smart, don't you?"

"I like to think I'm a genius," the Doctor said as he returned to his bowl.

"You are so modest," Renata sighed and reached for another fish finger, completely ignoring the Doctor's smug smile widening. She wouldn't hear the end of this one, she knew! She checked on the little girl who, up until now, hadn't shown any trauma from everything they'd put her through. "What's your name, sweetheart?" she asked when she realized they hadn't even asked her yet. They were there, sitting at her table, eating her food, and they didn't even bother asking her what her name was!

"Amelia Pond," the girl said.

"Ah, that's a brilliant name. Amelia Pond, like a name in a fairy tale," the Doctor said, making the girl smile a bit wider. Everyone always seemed to pick on her for her odd name, but what could she do about it?

"Are we in Scotland, Amelia?" Renata asked. She didn't even know where they were because of the TARDIS' crashing.

"No. We had to move to England. It's rubbish," Amelia crinkled her nose as if she'd only just moved in yesterday.

"So what about your mum and dad, then? Are they upstairs?" the Doctor leaned a bit in his chair to catch sight of the stairs. Up until now, no one had come down to check on them. "Thought we'd have woken them by now."

"Oh, what would make you think that?" Renata sarcastically asked him. "You screaming at a plate of beans? Or how about the big old box crashing in the garden?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her. "Oh, we'll fix that for them."

"The least we could do," Renata mumbled.

"I don't actually have a mum and dad. Just an aunt," Amelia answered when she thought they were done bickering again.

"We don't even have an aunt," the Doctor said, giving her a wink.

"You're lucky!"

Renata gave an odd look at the girl. "Why would you say something like that? Is your aunt not nice?"

Amelia didn't answer right away, but Renata could tell the girl was upset by something. "She's nice, but...she's not here, is she?"

Renata hummed as she looked around. "Right. Of course she wouldn't be here. She really leaves you alone?"

"I'm not scared," Amelia raised her head up high, making the pair of Time Lords smile.

"Ooh, we know," the Doctor said. "You're not scared of anything! Box falls out of the sky, man and woman fall out of box, man and woman eat fish custard, and look at you, just sitting there. So you know what I think?"

"What?"

"Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wall."

Renata agreed with a silent nod. And if she was guessing, Amelia must have told her aunt about this crack but the aunt hadn't listened. Amelia must be terrified and yet the aunt still left her alone!?

~ 0 ~

Amelia brought the Doctor up to her bedroom when they were done with dinner. Renata had insisted on washing everything before she could join them. How could they have dinner in someone else's home and not clean up after themselves? So, the Doctor began examining the crack on the wall by himself. At first glance, it did look like any ordinary crack. He might have even turned away if he'd only looked at it for a few seconds.

"You've had some cowboys in here. Not actual cowboys, though that can happen," he murmured as he worked along the crack.

"How are we doing?" Renata walked in a few minutes later and dropped an apple into Amelia's hand. "No seven year old should have ice cream at midnight. Have one."

Amelia scrunched her face at the apple she now held, though she did smile when she saw a carving of a butterfly on it. "How'd you do that?"

Renata smiled secretively as she bent down in front of the girl. "You want to know a secret? I'm like the Mother of butterflies." She turned her palm around and let golden energy rise from her skin, gently swirling until they formed miniature butterflies."

Amelia's green eyes expanded to the point of bulging from her head. She was enchanted with the butterflies flying around her. "That's so cool!"

Renata chuckled. "You think so? You want to know another secret?" Amelia nodded excitedly. Renata leaned a little closer and whispered, "I just learned how to do that downstairs."

The Doctor looked from the crack to see the sight. He smiled softly at the two. Renata was just so good with children, with people in general, that it seemed like no matter what incarnation she was in, this was a part of her core personality.

Renata straightened up on her feet and turned to the Doctor, catching him in his act of staring. She raised an eyebrow at him, questioning why he was wasting time, but he just continued to smile at her. Before she could blush again - she was beginning to think that this body would be doing that a lot easier now - Renata cleared her throat and walked up to the wall. "So, have we got anything on this menacing crack?"

"Uh, sort of…" the Doctor gave the crack all of his attention now. "This wall is solid and the crack doesn't go all the way through it. So here's a thing - where's the drought coming from?"

"Let's find out," Renata reached for her sonic screwdriver in her dress' pocket and aimed it at the wall. The Doctor took the chance to scoot closer to her, letting his chin rest on her shoulder while she took in the readings. Renata concentrated really hard on the sonic and not the sensation she was feeling from his closeness. "Interesting…"

"What?" Amelia wanted to get closer but she still was kind of afraid of the crack.

"Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey!" the Doctor thought that was the perfect explanation. He moved away from Renata and stopped at the start of the crack. "You know what the crack is? It's a crack, clearly." He began to run his fingers along the crack, bringing him back to where Renata stood. "I'll tell you something funny. If you knocked this wall down, the crack would stay put, 'cos the crack isn't in the wall."

"Where is it, then?" Amelia made a face. Half of his words weren't making sense, but she was pretty sure that the thing on her wall looked like a crack.

"It's everywhere," Renata said quietly, her face growing more grim by the second. "In everything. It's a split in the skin of the world. And that is not right. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together...right here in the wall of your bedroom. How could that happen?" she glanced at the Doctor for some ideas, not that she didn't have her own.

Her first assumption was that this was a direct consequence of the Master and the Time Lords breaking out of the Time Lock. There was too much tampering with that time period, from both sides, that perhaps Time itself finally had enough.

"Sometimes, can you hear…" the Doctor actually meant to think this but since he said out loud, Amelia quickly jumped in with the answer.

"A voice!? Yes!"

Both aliens paused to look back at the anxious girl. It was clear that she'd been waiting for somebody to believe her.

The Doctor reached for a glass of water on the nightstand. He chucked the water to the side and pressed its rim against the wall. Soon as he put his ear against the end of the glass, he heard an echoing voice on the other side.

'Prisoner Zero has escaped'

The Doctor stepped away, nose crinkling as he repeated what he heard. "Prisoner Zero?"

Amelia once again jumped in. "Prisoner Zero has escaped. That's what I heard!" She wasn't the only one hearing the voices now! If they believed it then it meant things would finally get fixed. "What does it mean?"

"Be subtle," Renata whispered to the Doctor. This was still a child they were dealing with and they shouldn't terrify her.

Of course that's what Renata thought, because despite her warning the Doctor still went ahead and answered with the blunt truth. "It means that, on the other side of this wall, there's a prison and they've lost a prisoner." Renata rubbed her forehead wearily. So that incarnation also had a loud mouth. Great. "You might need a better wall," the Doctor concluded as he went for the desk nearby. He pulled it away so that the wall was free of any furniture. "The only way to close the breach is to open it all the way. The forces will invert and it'll snap itself shut. Or…" Renata once again made an attempt to remind him Amelia was still a child. This time it seemed like he got it. "You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better?"

"Yes," Amelia nodded with a roll of her eyes. That was so annoying.

"Everything's going to be fine."

Amelia's face fell flat.

Renata shut her eyes for a moment, wondering which one of his lines was worse.

"Renée?" the Doctor called to her, in the process letting it be known that he would still be using that nickname for her as well. He was holding his hand out for her.

"Yeah, alright," the Time Lady moved up beside him and took his hand. Funny, it seemed to slip in so easily with his. Renata then glanced back to where Amelia stood and did the same like the Doctor. "Amelia?"

The girl grinned when Renata offered her other hand to her. She moved around the bed and took Renata's hand.

"Alright then, let's get this big, bad wall shut!" the Doctor held his sonic to the crack.

Amelia turned her head at the sonic when it started making that whirring noise. Renata's sonic hadn't made that noise, she wondered why the Doctor's did. Amelia soon forgot about that detail when a bright light started shining through the crack. It was opening! While Amelia shielded her eyes, Renata squinted hers to see prison cells on the other side. Her hand squeezed Amelia's when she realized that the child had been sleeping next to a prison, an alien prison.

'Prisoner Zero has escaped,' a voice announced on a loop. 'Prisoner Zero has escaped.'

The Doctor took a step towards the crack, hoping to end things without much trouble. "Hello?" At the second call, a giant blue eye surprised him and the others.

"What's that?" Amelia frowned at the creature. It kept swiveling its eyeball at them.

Before either Time Lord answered, a ball of light shot out from the crack and struck the Doctor. He landed against the bed just as the crack sealed up.

"Doctor, are you alright!?" Renata let go of Amelia's hand - though she ushered the girl away from the crack - and rushed to the Doctor.

He was getting back on his feet with a bit of struggle. The regeneration was still going. "There. You see, told you it would close. Good as new."

Amelia wasn't sure if she was supposed to be relieved or scared. But at least the crack was gone. "What was that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?"

"No. I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard. Whatever it was, it sent me a message." The Doctor pulled out his psychic paper from his pant's pocket. "Psychic paper, takes a lovely little message. 'Prisoner Zero has escaped.' But why tell us?"

Renata dreaded the answer as she glanced back at the wall. "Because maybe this is where he escaped through…" If the crack truly was what they thought it was, then this was a weak point in Time. Anything could get through if it tried.

"But he couldn't have. We'd know!" the Doctor argued initially. They would have noticed something like that.

"No, we wouldn't," Renata said calmly to him. "It's like you said. I just regenerated 2 days ago and I haven't slept or ate since before and you just regenerated an hour ago. We're not functioning the right way."

The Doctor would concede with that point, several points. "Brand-new me, nothing works yet," he mumbled with annoyance as he headed out of the room. "Still, I feel like there's something I'm missing…" he stopped by the staircase banister and thought, "...in the corner...of my eye." He and Renata jumped at the sound of the cloister bell ringing.

"Oh, great," Renata sighed while the Doctor broke into a race for the TARDIS. She and Amelia hurried after him into the backyard.

"We've got to get back in there!" The Doctor exclaimed as he came up to the TARDIS. "The engines are phasing, it's going to burn!"

Amelia couldn't quite see that happening since it was just a box. "But... it's just a box! How can a box have engines?"

The Doctor struggled to free the grappling hook while Renata hurried to gather the rope around them. "That's because it's not a box. It's a time machine, sweetheart," Renata explained as she returned to the Doctor's side with the role in her arms.

Amelia blinked at her then checked the box again. "What, a real one? You've got a real time machine?"

"It's his, not mine," Renata gave a nod at the Doctor. "Mine wouldn't have landed like this."

"Oh!" the Doctor stopped working altogether to frown at Renata. "It's not like I planned this! I didn't see you doing a better job!"

"What!?" Renata dropped the rope with an indignant cry. "Your spasm of regeneration didn't exactly give me the time! Honestly, I have never seen a messier regeneration!"

Amelia's head once again turned from Renata to the Doctor as each of them took their turn responding to the other's comment. She smiled, though, when Renata sprouted golden butterfly wings. It definitely halted the argument.

"So...that's a thing now?" the Doctor was just as surprised as Amelia. He eyed the admittedly beautiful golden butterfly wings that were made out of pure Vortex and Osiran power. To Amelia, it looked more like fairy dust (Renata just needed to be blonde to be like Tinkerbell!). Bright, golden sparkle dust!

Renata was mortified to see them back. She looked over her shoulder with a loud groan. "Go away!" She shouted at them as if they actually had ears.

The Doctor chuckled at her. "C'mon my beautiful butterfly," he tugged her towards him by the hand. "We really have to get the TARDIS stabilized. I think a 5 minute hop into the future should do it."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Renata forgot about the silky argument and gathered up the rope she let fall.

Amelia watched the two work together like they hadn't been arguing a minute ago. It was rather funny. They were funny. Nothing around her was ever funny. She always spent most of her time alone. Who could she be funny with? Definitely not aunt Sharon. "Can I come?" she asked the two after they'd looped the rope through the door handle.

"Not safe in here, not yet," the Doctor told her, making her hopeful smile falter.

Renata walked over to the girl with a soft smile. "Listen, it'll just be 5 minutes and then we'll be back, right Doctor?"

"Absolutely!" he gave a thumbs up in the air.

"People always say that," Amelia frowned.

The Doctor walked over as well and looked her in the eyes. "Am I people? Do I even look like people? Trust me, I'm the Doctor. And, if you want extra assurance, that's why I have Renata."

Amelia's hope returned. "Really?"

"Have you ever seen a star in outer space?" Renata asked her and couldn't help chuckle at Amelia's widened eyes. She really did have big eyes. "Start picking a constellation. We'll work out permission with your aunt after." She had quite a few words to exchange with that Aunt of hers who just left her on her own.

The Doctor led Renata back to the TARDIS. They climbed over the edge again and, with one last look at Amelia, they jumped inside.

"Geronimo!" Amelia heard the Doctor's scream before the TARDIS doors closed. A few seconds later, the box disappeared into thin air.

Amelia continued to grin and hope for their return as she ran back home to collect her things. She had no idea what she would need to see a star in outer space but she would be very prepared!

~0~

The TARDIS returned to the same spot as before, but its inhabitants wouldn't notice straightaway something truly important. Renata came out of the TARDIS first - shoved out by the Doctor - coughing from the smoke billowing out of the box.

"We've got to let her repair!" Renata said in the midst of her coughing. The Doctor could only nod for a moment as he got over his coughing. "It's day time…" Renata realized as she looked up at the clear, blue sky. "Oh my God...it's day time! We told her 5 minutes — Amelia!" She raced into the house with the Doctor right behind her.

They hollered for Amelia to get out of the house. For this one moment, Renata would forget her rules about breaking in for the sake of Amelia's well being. They went directly to the one door they couldn't catch before but this time the sonic wasn't working.

"Is she at school!?" Renata tried to guess with the most logical idea. If it were that then at least she would be safe.

The Doctor struggled with the door but stopped when he heard a loud smack behind. He spun around and barely got a second to see Renata on the floor before he too was whacked across the head.

The next time they came to, the pair found themselves handcuffed to a radiator. A female police officer in a short skirt stood off to the side, speaking into her radio.

"White male and female, mid-20s, breaking and entering. Send me some back-up, I've got them restrained." The woman shot the pair a glare. "Oi, you! Sit still."

"Cricket bat. I'm getting cricket bat!" the Doctor felt the throb where the bat had hit him, but he was more angry at the fact Renata had also gotten the hit.

"Call me crazy but I think…" Renata paused to scrunch her face at the lingering pain she felt on the back of her head, "I think that was some uncalled police brutality." She tried moving her hand and found she was handcuffed to the same handcuff the Doctor was. "Oh, really?"

The Doctor nodded over at the policewoman. "I don't carry handcuffs, love!"

"You were breaking and entering," the policewoman said in a manner that would leave clear she used the appropriate amount of force against them.

Renata gasped with offence. "I have never broken into a place! Usually he—" she pointed at the Doctor with her free hand, "—is the one that drags me into it! My record with the authorities is clean!"

The Doctor stared at her with a flat expression. "Thanks, dear. Really appreciate your defense right now." His voice suddenly turned into a shout that startled the police woman but not Renata. "I literally died 2 hours ago and some woman just hit me with a cricket bat! You're not even going to mention that fact!?"

"What do you want me to do about it!? Kiss it and make it better!?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to snap when he suddenly tilted his head with consideration of the proposal. "Actually yes, that would make it so much better." Renata rolled her eyes but she turned her head away to hide her smile.

The police woman banged a hand against the staircase banister to get their attention back. "Do you want to shut up now? I've got back-up on the way! You both broke in!"

"But what are you doing here? Where's Amelia?" the Doctor asked, or rather demanded. He doubted this was the aunt Sharon that Amelia mentioned.

The police woman tilted her head at them. "Amelia Pond?"

"Adorable little Scottish girl," Renata said. "Where is she? We promised her five minutes but the engines were phasing." She craned her head up at the window where the sun was shining was through. "I suppose we must have gone a bit far. Perhaps a day? Has something happened to her?"

The officer folded her arms, seeming like she was enjoying their momentary panic. "Amelia Pond hasn't lived here in a long time."

"How long?" the Doctor dared to ask. Renata had assumed they'd been late by a day but if turned out to be more, he wasn't sure Renata could take it.

"Six months."

Renata gasped. "No, no, no! We can't be six months late! We said five minutes. We promised!"

The police woman turned away with zero interest in their guilt.

"What happened to her? What happened to Amelia Pond?" the Doctor now demanded from her.

"Sarge, it's me again," the police woman spoke in a hurried, hushed tone into her radio "Hurry it up, this guy knows something about Amelia Pond."

"What!?" Renata fully panicked now. Why would the police woman say something like that? Had something happened to Amelia!? What if she got hurt while waiting for them to come back!? Had she wandered off into the streets on her own to search for them!?

"Renée? Calm down," the Doctor struggled to move his cuffed hand closer to hers. He could see her beginning to panic and he wanted nothing more than to ease her. His free hand was the one to finally touch her face. "This face will be easier to read." He noted her widened eyes and the way her light skin paled up a bit.

"We told her 5 minutes and now something might have happened to her," Renata whispered. She directed her eyes to the police woman. "Please, you have to tell us what happened to Amelia? Is she missing?"

The police woman seemed to shift under those soft eyes of Renata. The Time Lady was so concerned, her voice cracking as if tears would roll down her face anytime soon. "Well…"

"Look, we need to speak to whoever lives in this house now," the Doctor cut in sharply. "And I'd like some information on Amelia Pond as well."

"I live here," the police woman snapped.

"But you're the police!"

"Yes, and this is where I live. You got a problem with that?!"

"I've got a problem with the fact you're keeping your mouth shut about Amelia!" snapped Renata. "So here's a little something for you, dear, how many rooms you got in this house?"

The police woman rolled her eyes. They were just trying to have her, weren't they?

"How many rooms?" Renata repeated the question, her tone growing harder by the second. "On this floor. How many rooms on this floor? Can you count them for us?"

"Why?"

"Because it will change your life," the Doctor left it at that. She didn't know what was living next door to her and once she realized it, she'd be in for the shock of her lives.

The woman decided to humor them. So she turned around and started counting the doors. "Five. One, two, three, four, five."

"Wrong," snapped Renata, making the police woman flinch. She sounded like a teacher.

"Six," the Doctor said, softer than Renata but it wasn't like he didn't understand her current feelings.

"Six?" the woman shook her head. "What do you take me-"

"Just look!" Renata insisted.

"Look where?"

"Exactly where you don't want to look," the Doctor told her, nodding at something behind her. "Where you never want to look, the corner of your eye. Look behind you."

The police woman sighed and turned where he was pointing to. She was about to chalk them off as crazy when she finally realized they were right. There was a door right there. "That's...that is not possible. How's that possible?"

"There's a perception filter round the door," the Doctor began to explain. "Sensed it the last time I was here. Should've seen it."

"But that's a whole room. That's a whole room I've never even noticed."

"That's because the filter stops you," Renata told her. "Something came a while ago to hide. It's still hiding. You need to uncuff us now!" She yanked on the handcuffs, hissing each time the metal dug into her skin.

"I don't have the key. I lost it." Because she was walking towards the door, she missed Renata's and the Doctor's dumbfounded faces.

"How can you have lost it?!" Renata shouted in outrage. She yanked on the handcuffs again, ignoring the Doctor's cry for her to stop doing that.

"Hey you! Stay away from that door!" the Doctor shouted at the police woman who was just going straight for it. "Do not touch that door! Listen to me! Do not open that-" the woman turned the knob and effectively opened the door. "Why does no one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to?" He met Renata's gaze and saw her teasing smile. "Again?" he asked, disheartened over the problem repeating itself in a brand new incarnation.

Renata laughed. "I think that's just part of your personality, my dear."

The Doctor would've smiled more if he hadn't remembered the police woman wandering into the forbidden room at the end of the hallway. "Hey!"

"Sonic!" Renata exclaimed. "Mine must have dropped with that tumultuous TARDIS trip!"

The Doctor came up short with his own sonic. "My screwdriver, where is it?"

"Oh, great!" Renata rolled her eyes. Maybe her luck was beginning to change into something similar as his. That wasn't good at all!

"Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?" the Doctor continued searching his pockets to no avail.

"There's nothing here!" the police woman called from inside the room.

"And who told you that it would let you see it!?" Renata snapped. She tried turning her body to where she would be able to see a bit into the room, but the only thing she did was lean on the Doctor too close.

"Seriously, you could keep doing that," he wasn't at all shy to say.

Renata paused to give him a sharp look. "Well, this new you certainly has no problem flirting."

"I said I learned my lesson last time," he said, referring to his last words before regenerating. He was done wasting time with Renata and because he knew how shy she was, he would be the bold one (not that he ever had a problem with that). He would be the one to flirt with her, do the touching until she learned how to come out of her shell - or cocoon, given her butterfly abilities - and do the same. Renata was too used to hiding herself, hiding her feelings and not expressing how she felt at moments. It was the way she was raised on Gallifrey and after 11 regenerations, it would be a hard habit to break, but not impossible.

"You said silver, blue at the end?" the police woman's call cut into the pair's moment. They looked at the open doorway and saw she was way too inside.

"My screwdriver, yeah…" the Doctor said slowly.

"It's here!"

"Must have rolled under the door," Renata reasoned but the police woman said a very interesting response.

"Yeah. Must have," the policewoman said. "And then it must have jumped up on the table…"

"Get out of there!" the Doctor yelled frantically.

Renata started yanking on the cuffs again. That policewoman really was naive to think she was safe and sound in that room. She frantically pulled and pulled, feeling desperate as the Doctor vainlessly called to the woman to get out. Suddenly, her golden energy tangled around the cuffs, snapping them in two. "Ha!" Renata laughed, totally surprised but loving the fact she could do that. The Doctor was stunned but he would take whatever worked right now. Without thinking, she grabbed the cuff still around the Doctor's wrist and watched as once more the energy wrapped around it to break it.

"Loving it!" the Doctor exclaimed and scrambled up to his feet. Just as he helped Renata up, they heard the police woman scream from the room.

The police woman ran out of the room, terrified by whatever she saw in there. The Doctor marched over the rest of the space between them and snatched his sonic from her. "Give me that!" He used it to lock the bedroom door.

"Will that door hold it?" the police woman asked them, still slightly out of breath from bolting. The creature had stared her in the face!

"Oh, yeah, yeah, course! It's an inter-dimensional multi-form from outer-space - they're all terrified of wood!" the Doctor sarcastically snapped.

A bright light flashed around the edges of the door.

"What's that? What's it doing?"

"It doesn't matter, just go!" Renata ushered the woman towards the staircase. "Your back-up's coming, we'll be fine."

The woman spun around, forcing Renata back. "There is no back-up!"

"What? But we heard you on the radio, you called for back-up!"

"I was pretending. It's a pretend radio!"

"What!? Impersonating a police woman is a crime!"

The woman rolled her eyes. "I'm a kissogram!" she pulled her hat off and revealed her bright ginger hair that fell over one shoulder.

Renata was stunned but then a new thought popped in. "What's a kissogram?"

At that moment, the door of the room fell down to reveal a man in blue overalls holding a leash to a very large Rottweiler.

The ginger woman blinked at them. She had no idea how those two got into her room, but they at least seemed harmless. "But it's just…"

"No, it isn't. Look at the faces," the Doctor knew what the woman had been thinking and urged her to pay better attention.

The man was growling and barking instead of the dog.

The woman couldn't take it. "What? I'm sorry, but what!?"

"It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two! Now you really must go!" Renata tried turning the woman away, missing the way the man and the dog turned their head at them.

"Are you kidding!? I'm not leaving that there! In my house!"

"I am curious how it's pulling that psychic link if it needs a live feed," the Doctor admitted while he continued to study the man and dog. "How did you fix that?" He got a snarl as a response, followed by a threatening step towards them.

Renata yanked him back. "Please don't question the enemy when it can kill us! Am I also going to have to constantly repeat that in this regeneration!?"

"Well, I won't lie…" the Doctor swayed his head, figuring this was just another core personality trait for him.

'Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. 'The human residence is surrounded.'

The ginger woman's eyes widened in alarm. She spun around trying to find the source of the voice until Renata stopped her. Good thing she did because the woman was near dizzy. "What's that?"

'Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.'

"Okay, now we run!" the Doctor ushered Renata and the woman down the stairs. He used the sonic to lock the house door, hoping that would buy them some time.

Renata studied the woman while the Doctor made sure the door was actually locked. His sonic was acting a bit wonky. "Seriously, what's a kissogram?" She eyed the odd uniform, bobbing her head side to side. "And does it always involve short skirts?"

The ginger woman gave her a look. "Seriously?"

Renata innocently shrugged. She had only lived on Earth from 1913 to 1969 and the one year in the modern world that she spent with the Master against her will — she was mostly locked away. She didn't have a lot of time to truly get to know the humans in modern times.

"I go to parties and kiss people!"

Renata cocked her head to one side. "And you get paid for that?"

"Yes!"

Renata considered what that must be like and she soon crinkled her nose when she decided that would not be a job she would be interested in. "And the costume is from these parties?"

"You broke into my house! It was this or a French maid!"

"Makes sense," Renata concluded. The Doctor finally got some handle on the sonic and yanked her and the woman away from the house.

"What's going on? Tell me! Tell me!" the woman rightfully demanded as they crossed the yard towards the TARDIS.

"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?"

The woman flipped her head to Renata, but the Time Lady confirmed the story with a nod. "Sort of it, sorry."

The Doctor groaned at the TARDIS who wouldn't open her doors. "No, no, don't do that, not now! It's still rebuilding, not letting us in!"

"Well what'd you expect after the number we put her through?" Renata gave the TARDIS and sympathetic glance. "We'll just have to make do until she's ready."

'Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.'

The Doctor flapped an arm at the house behind them. "We need the TARDIS! How can we stop them if I don't have the TARDIS!?"

"Never stopped you before," Renata smiled at him. The Doctor stopped fussing with the TARDIS to meet her smiling gaze.

The woman groaned at them and grabbed each of the pair's arms. "Come on!"

The Doctor would've let her take them to the street had he not seen the new-looking shed on the side of the garden. "No, wait, hang on, wait, wait, wait. The shed!" he got loose from the woman's hold and rushed up to the shed. Renata blinked at the sight of it as well. "We destroyed that shed last time we were here, smashed it to pieces!"

"So there's a new one. Let's go!" the woman tried pulling Renata with her but now the Time Lady was suspicious as well. She pried the woman's hand off her wrist and studied the shed.

"It might be new but it's also old," Renata said as she noticed the darkened spots of the shed's wood. The Doctor ran a hand down the wood. "It could be—" she stopped mid-word when the Doctor licked his finger to taste the wood. Renata scrunched her face, eyes shutting close. "Doctor—"

"12 years!" the Doctor whirled around with the right answer, stunning Renata in the process. He marched back to them, specifically to the ginger woman. "We're not six months late, we're 12 years late!"

"It's been 12 years," Renata felt her stomach churn wondering how angry little Amelia must have been with them. They broke their promise to her!

Meanwhile, the woman seemed more nervous than a few seconds ago. "He's coming!" she made a nod at the house still in danger of being incinerated.

"You said six months. Why did you say six months?" Renata got right in her face, demanding to hear the truth. She knew that the woman was hiding something. She knew the way people kept secrets because that had been her main job not too long ago.

"We've got to!" the woman insisted but Renata grabbed her arm tightly. The woman knew something about Amelia, what with those big eyes—

"The big eyes…" Renata whispered with her own wide eyes.

The woman only stared at her, mildly confused, but otherwise still nervous. "Look, we've got to go!"

"Not until you tell us!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Why did you say six months?"

The woman's thin eyebrows furrowed together as pain flashed across her face. "Why did you say five minutes?!" she shouted at both of them, pulling her arm out of Renata's hold.

"What?" the Doctor practically froze in his spot, only moving his head to see Renata staring sadly at the woman.

"She has the same big eyes," she told him. "Amelia's big eyes."

The woman, who was indeed Amelia, glared at her. "They are not big! C'mon!" She led the way out of the house, figuring if they wanted to continue with the conversation they would follow her into the street.

"You're Amelia!?" the Doctor was right behind the woman, forcing her to stop just to look at her again.

"You're late!" hissed Amelia and continued to walk.

"You were a little girl," Renata did her best to keep up with Amelia's fast pace. "Amelia Pond!"

"I'm Amelia and you're late!" Amelia hissed directly at Renata's face, eyes blazing with anger. "Five minutes my a—"

"I'm so sorry!" Renata threw her arms around the woman, hugging her tight.

Amelia had been expecting anything but that. Her big, green eyes flickered all around while she awkwardly stood there being hugged. She met the Doctor's gaze who was smiling softly at Renata.

"We didn't mean to be late! I'm never late!" Renata pulled away from Amelia, looking her over one more time. She was a complete adult now! Renata sighed and brought a hand to her forehead, letting her fingers dig through her black hair. "Amelia, I am so sorry. We really did mean to come back but the TARDIS is just…" She trailed off and shook her head, deciding that Amelia probably wasn't interested in excuses. She'd been wronged and she was rightfully upset. "No excuses. We're sorry. I did think of a star for you, though. I thought the Big Dipper might have been good. It's a popular one amongst the humans. I'm sorry."

Amelia arched a confused eyebrow at the Time Lady. She looked so guilty that it made Amelia feel like she was wrong for being so angry. How did Renata make that happen!? She glanced at the Doctor and while he looked pretty guilty himself, it was nothing compared to Renata. She was horrified.

Amelia wondered for the first time in 12 years, who really are these two aliens? She spent all her life imagining them in adventures that now that she had them actually in front of her, she had to rewrite everything she knew about them. Who was the Doctor? And who was Renata?

Author's Note:

And there's our first chapter! I am SUPER excited to move onto this story (I think some of yall may have noticed before). We've already seen a glimpse of what Amy thinks of the Time Lords and how they see her, specifically Renata. Their relationship will be a little more complicated because of Ren's drive to maintain the rules buuuut we'll see how it goes ;)

#ocap #doctor who #11th doctor #dw imagine #11th doctor imagine #dw fics #11th doctor fics #oc: Renata Cartwright

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