#searching for sycorax

[beast-towers]

Final of Clashing Worlds.

From the last post and now we are on part two and final of my comic. Thank you all for the read!

Previous Part of Clashing Worlds

Warning: Some Blood and brighter colors will be shown, I do apologize about that.

Wish to continue? Alrighty then!

Hunter’s Report:

Time: 8:36 AM

Region: England

Area of Sighting: Alton Towers

As I explained before in the beginning of my last report of Uri’s sighting, Uri and her fellow Guardians felt an uneasy sensation in the air, and she has found one of the pieces. It was hard to believe that whatever this was, it has placed a Twisted “Blessing” onto Otsana Risa, Guardian Beast of The Smiler. Uri had done everything in her power to at least weaken Otsana and bring her to be purified… I’m afraid that was proven to be a difficult task.

As I and Alton discuss this situation, we’ve heard an explosion created by Uri. With no hesitation, I ran to the location, as a grandmother, I do worry for my grandchildren… but with this Darkness looming over the land, I didn’t want it to take another victim.

I thankfully reached my granddaughter in time before whatever was watching can make a move… I know it’s not Melanthios… the very demon I defeated so long ago. This is different, but not in the same threat level as him… well, it’s close enough unfortunately. Which it is concerning enough for Alton and the beasts. Whatever or whoever this was, he fears it still has enough power to do the very same to the other beasts… just like the poor Werewolf.

I have sent a band of hunters to track down Otsana’s blood trail and her whereabouts… This was my mistake. This darkness didn’t leave, and since it didn’t get their claws on my granddaughter’s soul, I’m afraid it grabbed them instead… UNFORGIVABLE. I and my family went out to search for them… nothing. Except claw marks and a scent of Otsana’s blood, and… unknown smell of someone and a horrible chemical smell. I’m not sure it was this dark energy or her…. My only prayer now is that the hunters are alive and fighting to escape…

Unfortunately, I will need further proof and an identification to launch a full hunt, capture, and rescue. I will be sending close Allies, my fellow Huntress, and my Grandson: Sycorax, Edric, Calypso, and Zyran to aid Alton with the beasts’ worries, while in the hopes to capture Otsana… if my and my dear friend’s Sight is correct and played right, perhaps one of them can help Otsana see through this polluted darkness, and return her to the light.

End of Report.

-Wolf Van Helsing, Lady of the Abyss Watchers.

—————————————————————

Thank you all so much for reading! This has been very interesting experience for me, and I hope I’ll get better at it in time ^^;

So! What really inspired me to make this? Once a fucking again, Darbi. Mostly Season 3 Ep. 42 Clensing (IV) or #117. (If wrong let me know so I can edit this) I HIGHLY recommend reading it! While it was on hiatus, I decided to read Season 3 and I forgot all about that scene of Dolla fighting Darbi, and it didn’t leave my mind until I finally caved in and created this! Was it fun? Yes. HOWEVER; my only mistake here is this: I should of planned it better. This all came into mind and that alone, so hopefully next time if I ever thought of this again, I’m grabbing my Note Book to write for ideas….

And lastly! And I’m still gonna thank you for this again! @twistedtowers for the incredible redesigning of Otsana! (And I’m sorry she didn’t get a W ;w; but the two got a tie… I know, still not a W ;-;) I wanted to experiment and have of the idea of “Otsana wants and has to prove she can Control the park, but there are those who would step up and forbid her from doing that.” A.K.A, Uri and perhaps now some future characters.

Okay, off to what was going on with the two having glowing lines! Welp, that’s not only a self regeneration, but also a way to charge up their attacks. Example: Otsana’s Flash attack. (Welp, looks like it’s been powered up now… thanks Regan.) with enough energy she can unleash it to an whole group, but pretty sure after this scuffle… she may want some training 😬 but she felt a bit proud for forcing Uri back into human form while stunning her.

As for Uri, why did her eyes changed? Welp, if pushed WAAAY in her limit, a deep Primal Instinct will be awakened. Her grandmother calls it: Primal Spirit. Basically it boosts up the power of the individual, and they are easily set off into a rage. But don’t be fooled, just because the person is mega angry, doesn’t mean they’re fully blinded, this will make them more focused and unleash their rage on the weak spot. Downside however, it will drain the person HEAVILY, causing them to be knocked out for awhile as seen from Uri.

Finally, Wolf Van Helsing herself. What or who is she? Well, for short. She is Uri’s Grandmother, and a Shiftwalker woman who survived a horrific war and carnage from a demon named, Melanthios, The Dark Flower who Blooms in One’s Heart. And that massive star like shape on her chest…. That’s a scar. Girl took in a deadly hit just to seal Melas away for 150 years. While dying, her allies and deceased old friend separated Melas’s life energy, and transferred it to her. Reborn as a being of Light, Creation, and Life. And to make things complicated for Melanthios, she transferred the same Energy to her children, and they passed it on to their children… like Uri. Explains why her transformation looks like a piece of an orange nebula. (Look man, I love space.)

Extras: Who are Sycorax, Edric, Zyran, and Calypso?? Two out of the four are my old ocs that I decided to bring back for fun! That being: Sycorax a battle scarred man and user of Alchemy Magic and a wolf side that might surprise Otsana, and Edric the adopted son of an Ice Queen (she belongs to a close bro of mine) and a man with a secret identity (Hint: he is NOT human.) he also uses Ice and Space magic as well for combat, but it’s the Black Ice that should be concerning IF pushed to his limits.

Zyran is Uri’s big brother (like 4 years older) and pretty sure after this incident… yeah home boi will unleash his thunder. As for Calypso, a fierce huntress well known in the Hunters World, but what role is she gonna play here? ;3

[denimbex1986]

'After more than 13 years off our screens, one of the Doctor's most beloved companions is returning to Doctor Who - Donna Noble, as played by Catherine Tate.

Donna first appeared in the 2006 episode Doomsday, and went on to become a fan favourite, before having one of the most tragic fates of any of the Doctor's companions.

She is now set to return in The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle, three specials to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary, which also see David Tennant returning, this time as the Fourteenth Doctor.

But just what did happen during Donna's previous tenure on the show? How did she come into the Doctor's life and how was she so cruelly snatched away from it?

Read on for everything you need to know about what has happened to Donna Noble in Doctor Who thus far.

How did Donna first meet the Doctor?

Catherine Tate's Donna Noble first appeared at the end of Doctor Who's season 2 finale, Doomsday, when she suddenly appeared in the TARDIS wearing a wedding dress.

In The Runaway Bride, we found out that the temp from Chiswick had been getting married on Christmas Day, to man called Lance, who she'd met six months ago at work.

Together, the Doctor and Donna discovered that she had been drawn to the TARDIS because of a chemical reaction in her body, caused by Huon particles she had unwittingly ingested in liquid form.

She was being poisoned by her Lance, who was working with the Empress of the Racnoss. A ship full of her Racnoss children was buried at the centre of the Earth, after the planet formed around them Millenia ago.

The particles were intended to set them free, but the Doctor flooded the pit, stopping the Empress's plans. Donna saved him when it seemed he wouldn't leave, and would be trapped inside and drowned. Lance, meanwhile, was killed by the Empress.

The Doctor offered Donna the opportunity to travel with him, but she said that she couldn't live his life of danger and adventure. She planned to travel the world, and the two thought they would never see each other again. How wrong they were...

How did Donna and the Doctor reunite?

Over a year later, in the episode Partners in Crime, we learned that Donna had never properly travelled the world, and had instead spent a lot of her time searching for the Doctor, looking to take him up on his offer.

Through a series of coincidences (and a mystery to solve) the pair were reunited to stop Miss Foster's plans to use the Earth as an Adipose breeding ground.

Donna told the Doctor she had changed her mind and off they went, travelling through time and space.

Throughout their following adventures, the Doctor would notice a host of coincidences which seemed to be drawing the pair together. He overlooked them, but they would soon pay off in a big way.

Why did Donna stop travelling in the TARDIS?

In Journey's End, the season 4 finale, things seemed hopeless. The Earth had been stolen by the Daleks and placed in a pattern with 16 other planets to create a Reality Bomb, which cancelled out the electrical field binding atoms, destroying anything in its path. Davros planned to use it destroy the entire universe.

A Dalek had also shot the Doctor, causing him to begin the regeneration process. However, after healing himself entirely but before changing his appearance, he had siphoned the remaining energy off into his spare hand, which had been cut off by the leader of the Sycorax during a battle on Christmas Day years before (as seen in The Christmas Invasion).

He had grown another hand at the time, as he was still recovering from his previous regeneration, and the spare hand had been collected by Captain Jack Harkness.

In the aftermath of the half-regeneration, the Daleks captured the TARDIS, containing the Doctor, Donna, Rose Tyler and Captain Jack, and brought it aboard their ship.

As they exited the TARDIS, Donna found herself momentarily drawn back into it by the sound of a heartbeat. Then, the doors slammed shut.

The Daleks then plummeted the TARDIS into the heart of their ship, The Crucible, intending to destroy it, with Donna left inside.

However, when all seemed lost, Donna found herself drawn to the Doctor's spare hand. She touched it and a regeneration light enveloped both her and it. The hand burst from its cage and out of it grew another Doctor! The new Doctor transported the TARDIS to safety, but the others thought it destroyed.

The new Doctor revealed that when Donna had touched his hand, she had created a biological metacrisis, from which he had grown. He was also influenced by Donna, picking up some of her voice, and only had one heart, revealing him to be half human, half Time Lord. The Doctor theorised this had been somehow destined from the beginning.

Later, the new Doctor and Donna revealed themselves to the others, and Donna was zapped with electrical energy by Davros. This unlocked regeneration energy, which had fed back into her and made Donna half human, half Time Lord as well - the DoctorDonna.

She now had some of the Doctor's voice and his intelligence, and using her own human initiative and newfound smarts was able to stop Davros and the Daleks' plans.

It was revealed that this had all been influenced by Dalek Caan, a rogue Dalek who had saved Davros but had since become disillusioned with him and the entire Dalek race. He had therefore manipulated the timelines to ensure Donna was always in the right place at the right time for this to happen.

With the Daleks stopped, the Doctor and Donna returned the planets to their rightful places and dropped all of his friends back home. They also left the new Doctor in a parallel world, with Rose.

Then, tragedy struck. As Donna started to repeat her words and struggle to get her thoughts together, the Doctor revealed the truth - that the reason there had never been a human-Time Lord metacrisis before was because it wasn't possible. The information inside her head was too much and it was burning her up.

In order to save her life, the Doctor had to wipe Donna's memories; not just of the metacrisis, but of himself, the TARDIS and all of their adventures together.

The Doctor dropped her back at home with her grandad Wilf and her mum Sylvia, and told them that they had to stop her from remembering at all costs - if she ever remembered him or anything they did together, her mind would burn and she would die.

He said goodbye to Donna as he left, but she didn't have any sense of who he was.

When did we last see Donna?

We picked up again with Donna some time later, in the Tenth Doctor's swan song, The End of Time Parts 1 and 2.

In those episodes, Wilf was being plagued by visions, and so set up a group of friends to search for the Doctor, while Donna was planning for her second wedding, this time to a man named Shaun Temple.

Wilf managed to find the Doctor, but he warned again that Donna must not remember. Wilf went on to aid the Doctor in a new fight against the Master.

As the Master set his plan into motion to turn every human into him, Donna, along with Wilf, was one of the only ones who didn't, but she started to remember her adventures.

Her mind started to overload, but it turned out the Doctor had left her with a defence mechanism, which allowed her to wipe out some of the Masters in close range and then fall asleep, forgetting all that she had started to remember.

After facing off against the Time Lords and the Master, and seeing the human race reverted back to normal, Wilf signalled the Doctor's demise with four knocks.

The Doctor saved Wilf from a radiation chamber which was about to get flooded, but in doing so took it on himself, meaning he would soon die.

However, he took the opportunity for a series of goodbyes, including visiting Donna and Shaun's wedding. There, out of sight from Donna, he gifted her, via Sylvia and Wilf, with a lottery ticket he had bought in the past, using money given to him by Donna's late father.

With a final salute from Wilf, the Doctor left, and never saw Donna again. That is, until The Star Beast...'

[projectorpheus]

WELCOME TO PROJECT ORPHEUS, MIMZ! YOU HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED AS SYCORAX

"The first time she gets into a fight⁠—like, a real fight, outside of the Room⁠—she sprains her shoulder. She knows she should heal it, but she finds she likes the shock of pain that jolts down her spine every time she moves her arm. It’s real, it screams.

This is something that happened. It’s not that WarTag isn’t real. WarTag’s always real, sometimes to the point of feeling like the only thing that’s real, these days. But it’s a different type of real than the realness of the underground clubs. There’s a lushness to the clubs that the grid-sharp edges of the Room can’t quite replicate, something surreal in the way the skyline bleeds into the boozy veil of the night sky, shimmering at the edges and studded with lavish handfuls of lights you’ve taken to pretending are stars. You can’t predict the clubs⁠—or the fights⁠—the way you can predict WT matches, and even though you deal and you thrive in inevitabilities, there’s something thrilling about the unpredictability of it all.

It’s like, maybe you underestimated the parameters of reality. Of living."

What is grief if not love everlasting? But Sycorax's story isn't all about grief, is it? It's about identity — who are you without WarTag? Who are you if not a sibling? Your application, Mimz, is an eulogy to her sense of self. It wouldn't exist without her sport and brother. She desperately tries to search for Spencer, desperately tries to keep him alive. Replays the accident, again and again. Brother. WarTag. Snatch it all away, and what do you get? Only a blank document, blinking cursor staring back at you. You ask, who will I be tomorrow? But have you considered if you even know who you are today?

An invite to the group's discord will be sent to you shortly. Please join and complete the onboarding tasks at your earliest convenience.

[dwellordream]

“Contemporary horror fiction is a space in which deep-seated human anxieties can be given free reign because we are often defined by that which terrifies us. Our cultures and our lives are founded upon preventing a confrontation with our terrors. We create governments and prisons to civilize ourselves and abate our fear of anarchy and mankind’s potential for savagery. We throw money at science to ameliorate our disease, with the hegemony operating on the assumption that science can and will solve everything - disease, famine, war, and so forth.

The Western hegemony loves binaries - the world is defined by what is good and evil, living or dead, black or white, male or female. Yet postmodern horror is a world in which there is an ‘absolute blurring of boundaries between good AND evil, real AND unreal’. ...Institutions are questioned and the master status of the universal (read male, white, moneyed, heterosexual) subject deteriorates.

...the final characteristic of postmodern horror is that the genre questions rationality. The science of the Western world is diminished and is often the cause of the dangers that zombification presents to humanity. The characters that survive these fictions adapt quickly, relying on human ingenuity and intuition paired with preindustrial weapons such as machetes, baseball bats, hammers, katanas, and revolvers.”

- Kinitra Brooks, Searching for Sycorax

[fatelesschild]

Rose Tyler introspection in Christmas Invasion??

*Deep breath*

We meet Rose as a working class girl who labours in a shop all day to earn money to take home in order to exist. She tolerates it, and even when we meet her in episode one aged 19-years-old she’s already tired of it. However, she’s clearly accepted that her life is and will always be a monotonous existence where all she does is go to work, go home, eat chips, and there’s literally nothing she can do about it. She’s not got any ambitions conducive to societal standards, she’s not got the means (ie. money, connections) to change her life, and she’s not even got any A-Levels. There’s nothing and no one to recognise her as anything but a member of the 'workforce', which is a national insurance number and threats from the Department of Work and Pensions if she doesn't stick at a job.

One day, she’s thrown into something she’s only ever seen in films and on TV - a strange man wrapped up in a weird world, which culminates in her job being blown up … and it intrigues her because 1. it's a mystery she wants to solve and 2. it's so different from her repetitive life. She pursues it - she searches up this strange, fun, exciting alien man called the Doctor, and she eventually ends up being his companion.

She goes on the absolute journey of her life across time and space. It’s anti-everything she has ever experienced before. She’s now living in a world where money doesn’t matter; where every day is new. She’s travelling with a man she has slowly but surely fallen in love with who treats her as an equal, experiencing an existence that Shareen and the girls she clubbed back in the day with will never, ever understand. There's good and there's bad, but mostly there's the threat of what life would be like without him.

Then, he dies. The strange, alluring man whom she absolutely adores who has given her so much dies. It’s easy to forget how odd the concept of regeneration is to someone who’s never seen it. Her best friend gabbled slightly about changing and went up in a whirl of gold, to be replaced by a strange thin man who claims to BE her best friend, and she has absolutely no idea what to make of it.

Either way, that new life in time and space is suddenly over. She had an escape there from her tedious existence, but suddenly it got yanked out from under her. However, before they can get any form of resolution, he falls extremely ill. There's a weird man in her mum's bed in a coma who may or may not be the man she loves, and she can't talk to ANYONE about her real feelings.

Things get worse. In the midst of Rose trying to process this utter mess of emotion, the aliens are now invading.

She decides to tackle it, but what choice does she have? She's seen enough of the Doctor’s absurd life to know how serious the Sycorax threat is, and also that she - as the Doctor's ‘apprentice’ - is the only person who can save planet Earth, because he’s dead. Staring up at the Sycorax ship in the sky, she suddenly understands that. She gets it. So she decides she’s going to fight for Earth, like she’s seen the Doctor so so many times before, mistakenly throwing out phrases she’s heard in her travels to try and sound impressive - ‘with all the authority of the Slitheen parliament of … Raxacoricofallapatorius!’

Then, she sees her best friend in the new man. She watches as he does exactly what the man she adored used to do - dispensing with the Sycorax with a few well-placed words. He’s the same man, she runs back to him because he’s the one she's loved the most and a better shout than a 'boring' life with Mickey Smith. And I'm not saying that's nice, I'm saying that's pretty human.

The truth is, Rose is ridiculously clever, but this is never, ever something that will ever come to light, purely because of where she’s from. She never had the opportunity or the encouragement to make anything of herself or do anything beyond what society expects someone of her background to do.

Rose is not perfect and that’s what makes her encapsulating. Universal travel and world destruction aside, she’s a 19-year-old girl when she starts - she’s far in advance of her age in so many ways, but she’s still got a slight twinge of the teenager about her. She’s smart, she’s good, and she’s absolutely fucking beautiful. One person, removed from human society, saw her potential - and his name is the Doctor.

In contrast, the Doctor was born into the highest possible social class of an elite alien race and he threw it all away, and ended up travelling the universe with a working class girl called Rose Tyler, because he knew and understood that she was far more brilliant than anyone appreciated.

[nyxshadowhawk]

Names for Witches

An updated version of an earlier list! Good and evil witches alike:

Acrasia: A witch in The Faerie Queene who tempts and bewitches people, controlling their minds. Means "lacking command."

Agatha: Means "good." A disproportionately common name for witches in media, including the Enchantress from Beauty and the Beast, Aggie Prenderghast from ParaNorman, and Aggie Cromwell from Halloweentown.

Aglaonice: A Thessalian witch from the writings of Plutarch, who could draw the moon down from the sky (probably referring to an eclipse). She might just have been an astronomer!

Akantha: A Greek name meaning "thorn."

Akitophis: The name of an unkown goddess mentioned in the PGM. Possibly a name or epithet of Ereshkigal.

Alcina: An evil sorceress and seductress from Orlando furioso, and the title character of a series of operas. Meaning uncertain.

Alcmene: The mother of Heracles. Means “moon strength.”

Aradia: The title character of Charles Geoffrey Leland's book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. A moon goddess and basically the witch version of Jesus, at least in that book.

Arcana: Latin word meaning “secret” (literally “to shut in a chest”), also a word for the two groups of cards in a tarot deck.

Argante: The Queen of Avalon in one Arthurian text, a version of Morgan le Fay. Might be related to argenta (“silver”).

Arianrhod: A Welsh goddess, associated with the moon, stars, fertility, and the passage of time. Means “silver wheel.”

Armida: The name of the witch/seductress in Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, meaning uncertain.

Asteria: A Titaness and the mother of Hecate, the goddess of falling stars, prophecy, astrology, and oneiromancy. Means “starry.”

Asterope: The mother of Circe in one telling. Means either “lightning” or “star-faced.” (Also the name of one of the Pleiades.)

Autumn: The season containing Halloween/Samhain.

Belladonna: Deadly nightshade, a poisonous herb. Means "beautiful woman."

Briar: Refers to thorny bushes. Could be associated with evil enchantments, beautiful roses, or both.

Brigid: Celtic fire goddess. Means either "strength, virtue" or "exalted one."

Cassandra: A Greek prophetess whom Apollo cursed so no one would believe her. Means "she who entangles men." Could be shortened to "Cassie."

Cerridwen: Welsh enchantress goddess associated with the sacred cauldron of divine inspiration. Means "white poet."

Circe: A sorceress in Greek mythology who turned men into animals and who was a priestess of Hecate. Means "hoop-round."

Despoina: A daughter of Demeter and Poseidon associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries. Means “the mistress.” Also an epithet of Hecate and Persephone.

Diana: Roman name of the goddess Artemis, the virgin goddess of the moon and the hunt. Associated with Dianic Wicca, a modern cult centered around this goddess.

Edana: Celtic, means “little fire.”

Elergia/Annowre: An evil sorceress in Arthurian legend who tries to seduce Arthur.

Endora: The Witch of Endor was a sorceress in the Bible.

Empusa: Female monsters that served Hecate. Means “one-legged.”

Erichtho: A horrifying, evil hag from Lucan’s Pharsalia. Meaning uncertain.

Esmeralda: The name of Granny Weatherwax (from Discworld), means "emerald."

Freya: Norse goddess of love, beauty, sex, and war, means "lady."

Ganeida: An Arthurian sorceress, a sister of Merlin.

Grimhilde: The name given to the Evil Queen in Disney's Snow White. Good for fairy-tale-esque witches, could also work for a kinda Gothy heroic character. Means “masked battle.”

Gwendolyn: A Welsh name meaning "white bow" or "white ring."

Habundia/Habonde: "Abundance," a name for the queen of witches or fairies, associated with Diana, Mab, Nicnevin, and Hecate.

Hazel: Witch-hazel is a shrub with yellow flowers, associated with witches because of its name and its medicinal properties. Actual hazel is an all-purpose wood for magic wands.

Hecate: The goddess of witchcraft, necromancy, the night, and the crossroads in Greek mythology. Means "worker from afar.”

Hecuba: The Queen of Troy, mother of Cassandra. Uncertain etymology, possibly related to "Hecate." She turned into a dog and became one of Hecate’s familiars.

Hellawes: An evil sorceress in Arthurian legend, who seeks to kill Lancelot so she can embalm his corpse and kiss it every day to spite Guinevere. Creepy.

Hellebore: A poisonous herb.

Ianira: A name of several nymphs in Greek mythology, possibly meaning "enchantress."

Ingrid: A Norse name combining the name of a fertility god and the word for "beautiful."

Ivy: A plant thought to drive out evil spirits.

Lamia: A vampire-like monster from Greek mythology that eats children. Name of the witch in the film version of Stardust.

Lilith: The Queen of Demons in Hebrew folklore, means "of the night,” referring to a screech owl.

Lilura: Basque name meaning "enchantment."

Louhi: An evil witch queen in Finnish mythology. Means "trance."

Luna: Roman goddess of the moon.

Maeve: Based on Irish Gaelic, means "intoxicating." Possibly related to Queen Mab.

Medea: Means "cunning," a sorceress in Greek mythology who helped Jason steal the Golden Fleece. Took violent revenge when he left her for another woman.

Melissa: An apprentice of Merlin, who rescues the victims of Alcina. Means “honeybee.”

Morana/Marzanna: The Slavic goddess of death and winter, means "death."

Morgana: Name of the famous sorceress Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legend. Means “sea circle.”

Morrigan: Irish goddess of death, war, and ravens, means “great queen” or “phantom queen.”

Morwenna: A Welsh name meaning “maiden,” the name of the witch in the book version of Stardust.

Nepenthe: A magical drug from the Odyssey that cures sorrow and causes forgetfulness.

Nicnevan: Queen of the Fairies in Scottish folklore, and the witch queen of Samhain. Means "daughter of the divine." Identified with Hecate.

Nimue: A name for the Lady of the Lake, and/or the sorceress who encased Merlin in a tree with his own magic. Might be related to a Greek word meaning "memory."

Nyx: The Greek primordial goddess of and personification of the night.

Orenda: Iriquois name meaning "magical power."

Persephone: Greek goddess of flowers and Queen of the Underworld. Means either "wheat-thresher" or alternatively "destroyer."

Ragana: Lithuanian Crone goddess of witchcraft.

Raven: The bird, associated with death, magic, and prophecy in multiple mythologies.

Sage: Unisex, a cleansing herb used in many magic spells. From Latin, “healing plant.”

Selene: The Greek goddess and personification of the moon.

Sibyl: Greek, “prophetess,” a word for an oracle.

Strega/Striga: "Strega" is the Italian word for witch (and a word for Italian neopaganism). "Striga" is the Latin word for witch and means "screech owl" (owls are in the order "strigiforms") and a genus of flower called "witchweed."

Sycorax: The name of the witch in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, who is probably based on Medea. Uncertain etymology.

Taika: Finnish, "magic spell."

Vervain: An herb with magical and medicinal properties.

Venefica: A Latin word that simply means “woman who poisons,” referring to a woman who works magic by means of potion-making.

Vivian: A name for the Lady of the Lake, means "lively."

Willow: A tree associated with witches and spirits

And, because I don’t want to neglect the men, here’s a few for male witches (I haven’t been able to find nearly as many!):

Abdecian: Means “to get by asking,” as in a magic spell. (Disclaimer: I have no idea where I got this name. I had it written in my notes, and I remember finding it somewhere, but when I searched it I got mainly my own content on various websites. So… idk.)

Abraxas: A magic word found throughout Greek magic spells as a name of power. The name of the “Great Archon” in Gnosticism, also the name of one of the horses of the Sun. Etymology uncertain. Also spelled Abrasax.

Alaric: Germanic, “all-powerful.”

Alistair: Scottish variant on Alexander, meaning “defender of mankind.” Similar to the chosen name of a certain famous occultist.

Altair: The brightest star in Aquila. Means “eagle.”

Amergin: A druid in Irish mythology, “born of song.”

Aspen: A white tree, associated with fairies. Its leaves turn golden in the fall, and they appear to “shimmer” in the breeze.

Arawn: The Welsh lord of the Otherworld and the dead, and leader of the Wild Hunt. Etymology uncertain; might be a variant of the Hebrew Aaron, “exaulted.”

Aurelius: Latin, “golden.”

Belenus: Pan-Celtic god of light and healing identified with Apollo, who gave his name to Beltane. Means “shining one.”

Briar: Refers to thorny bushes. Same fairy-tale associations.

Eliphas: Hebrew, “God is agile.” The pen name of the famous occultist Alphonse Constant.

Gwydion: Means “born of trees,” a magician and trickster god in Welsh mythology.

Hemlock: A poisonous herb used in spells.

Hunter: Self-explanatory. Modern witchcraft tends to involve the worship of forest gods associated with hunting.

Mabon: Welsh, “divine son,” a figure in Arthurian legend. His name was given to the autumn equinox in modern paganism.

Maddock: Welsh, “fortunate.”

Melchior: One of the Biblical magi, “king of light.”

Merle: A unisex name, from Latin, meaning “blackbird.”

Raven: The bird, associated with death, magic, and prophecy in multiple mythologies.

Rowan: Irish, “little red one,” the name of a tree with the ability to ward off evil.

Simon: Greek, from Hebrew, “hearkening.” The name of an ancient sorcerer, Simon Magus, who founded Gnosticism in early Christianity.

Soma: A name with various mystical meanings in different languages. In Greek, it means “body.” In Sanskrit it means “distill, extract” and refers to the drink of the gods, as well as being another name for the Hindu moon god, Chandra. In Finnish, it means “pretty.”

Tanwyn: Welsh, “white fire.”

Taliesin: A legendary bard in Welsh folklore, the son of Cerridwen. Means “shining brow.”

Valerian: A medicinal herb, used to induce sleep. “Health, vitality.”

[awindylife-writes]

The Storm (Some Pirates and a Chest pt. 4)

Relationship: 10th Doctor x reader

Summary: there's a pirate ship with a peculiar chest on board. Something powerful lays sleeping in it, but what happens when it's opened? (Established relationship)

Warnings: none

Author's notes: this is the one where the reader has powers (like, all of them. I went crazy.). The reader first appears in the second chapter and the Doctor first appears in the last.

During dinner that evening you told the crew your story. You told them how you had come to sleep in the Eternal Chamber, and then that inevitably led to you explaining what you did in life. You told them a little about your travels, the numerous planets and adventures you had had on each of them. You told them about your Doctor, how clever and strong and kind he was. You could have talked about him forever. You told them how much he did for the universe, how you both helped wherever you could.

It was hard, talking about him while you thought of how he must have felt then, alone. You knew how he could be, when you were in danger, you'd seen it before, not only with you but with Rose, and Martha and Donna. You missed him so much it ached in your chest.

"So now you all know he's searching for me," you concluded the story. "And l want to prepare you for when he comes. He's not dangerous, don't think that," you assured them. "It's just that... he'll be worried. So if l'm not there when he comes, just tell him l'm alive and send someone for me. Don't panic." You looked around the table. You felt silly telling them that, of course they wouldn't panic - they were pirates. But better safe than sorry.

The Captain nodded, thoughtful, "We won't."

"Good," you nodded in turn.

"Tell us again about the Sycorax and the Christmas invasion?" Yaski pleaded.

~

The ship was rocking like a bad cradle.

You had been preparing to go to sleep. A sickbed in the med bay waited for you, it was yours for the next few days. Then the howling wind and thunder had come.

You were currently clinging to the wall and screaming over the noise outside, trying to communicate with Philliasen. But you knew what was going on - a storm had come, and a bad one at that. You could feel its force radiate in your bones. It fillled you with rushing power, but apprehension as well.

"I'm going up! You stay here!" Philliasen yelled and headed for the door. Cole was already outside. Everyone was.

You stopped for a second and tried to catch your breath. Then you were thrown to the opposite wall and that hurt.

Luckily, the ship's interior was prepared for such circumstances. All delicate objects were locked in specifically furnished cabinets and would stay safe. The rest was tied down or put in crates that were fixed to the floor.

You tried to stand up but another wave came. You had to use your Power to not crash into the wall again.

You could hear worried yells outside over the howling wind and the crashing of the waves, but what scared you the most was the fear surrounding Fala. When you reached out to check on the crew, you could feel it coil around her like a snake, tightening with every passing minute. From the short time you'd known her, you could tell she was no stranger to the dangers of the sea. She had lived on it all her life and knew just about everything about it. For her to react this way could only mean one thing, the same thing your senses were telling you.

The storm was deadly.

And you had had enough. Since waking up you had hidden the Power, but now it was time. They would know, but that was a price you were willing to pay; you weren't about to let your friends be harmed when you could help.

You let go. You let your light fill every inch of your body and swirl out around you. It felt good, like your skin finally fit you, like you were your own now, untethered and free, like you could finally breathe. The world which had been tilted now righted itself into the orderly chaos you Saw.

You anchored yourself to now. You let yourself See the sea, the sky, the planet in its entirety. The storm was just one part, but you were everything. You were the ocean, and you were the sky, and you were the ship. Then you let yourself grow.

It calmed you. You were infinite and absolute, but tiny at the same time. You saw how the universe changed and you would influence it.

You were the universe.

You let your light sink back into your skin. You could move freely now, knowing exactly when and how the waves would strike. Balance was easy.

You walked up the stairs and found the door. You made the heavy wood open with a pull of one hand and stepped outside into chaos.

You could feel the storm around you, the force of heat, cold and water bound together into something resembling rage. As you stepped outside, you were drenched in seconds. You knew it was cold but the light in you warmed you, protected you from it. The soft glow of your skin reflected off the wet floorboards.

The searchlights were lit, but still the rain blurred everything. When the lighting struck, it was suddenly so bright you went blind, it was of no use. If you hadn't had your Sight you would have been lost, but you could feel where everything was with your mind. The floor, the sails, the crew's glowing souls were all still there.

You turned suddenly and caught the figure that had run to you."What the hell are you doing???" Cole demanded with a scream from beneath his wet hood. "Get back inside!!!"

Don't worry, l'm going to help, you whispered at the edge of his mind. You weren't about to invade his consciousness.

He simply stood there, shocked to immobility as you smiled a little and turned away.

You gracefully walked to the centre of the deck and stood there. Spreading your hands out, you let yourself grow again. You encompassed the storm with your mind, mingled with its force, but you did not let yourself get lost.

When you held its entirety, you cut it off from its power source, the warm water beneath. Then, to drain it faster, you started taking its energy into yourself. It was messy, the storm's might beating into you. It hurt, but you held it firmly and made it change.

The winds gradually slowed, the lightning ceased. The rain stopped lashing down and turned into a drizzle. The waves calmed so the ship stopped rocking. The cacophony of noise was gone now, everything that was heard was the sea nuzzling the ship and the drizzle of rain falling on wood.

You stood there and felt the soft patter of raindrops on your skin. You breathed in the scent of rain and sea, feeling alive and free.

Everything stood still. You smiled.

When you opened your eyes you realized your skin was glowing, like it always did when you were happy. You looked around and saw the dazed faces of your friends. They stood not far away, scattered across the deck. Tir had taken off his hat and now held it in front of his chest.

"It's alright," you said into the silence, smiling still. "I mean you no harm." The irony wasn't lost on you.

They slowly walked closer, some in wonder, some still frightened. Fala was the first to stand in front of you. Her black eyes were full of awe and joy as she smiled with you.

"They'd said we could have been as powerful as the wind and sea," she said to you as much as to her crew. "Now we know what they had meant."

The crowd around you grew larger.

"May l?" Fala carefully asked with a hand above your naked arm. You remembered you had walked out in a t-shirt.

"It's alright," you nodded calmly. She softly lay her palm on your forearm and gasped in wonder. Your golden light swirled out, lightly touching her skin.

"Who are you?" Yaski asked from your left, grey-green eyes wide.

You grinned. "I am Y/N S/N."

~

(The crew's perspective)

Y/N was supposed to stay inside, where she was safe.

She walks out the door and they are caught in a breathless moment, because she is a part of the storm. It is her home, she knows it intimately. The soft glow of her skin is brighter than the lantern lights and her image changes in the flashes of lighting - it grows.

She walks in perfect sync with the wind and the waves, never once faltering. Her grace and serenity are off-putting, because nothing in the universe should be able to move like that.

Still, Cole tries to stop her. Later he will tell the others of her gentle voice and the humm of her vast mind by his own, of what it felt like to be touched by the universe.

She walks to the centre of the deck with a purpose. She is meant to be there.

She stretches out her hands and the air grows fuller, thicker. Every breath takes effort as each hair on every person's neck stands on end. There is ringing in their ears and every eye is fixed on her and then-

The storm moves.

Little by little, the tendrils of clowded darkness begin to spin as the beating magnitude of the cyclone acquires a fixed point, a centre - her. The mass of clouds and wind and rain circles around her, is pulled in. The storm's earth-shattering power starts to change, starts to fade as the pull lying in her strenghtens.

The air is charged, tingling as it swirls against their shin. The whole of the storm is suddenly alive and they are very, very afraid. Every person on the ship can feel the Power of her thrum in their bones as she pulls them towards her with undeniable might. She is gravity, she is what binds this world together.

Then, as if soothed by a song, the storm calms. The searing wind that had lashed them with rain slows into a soft breeze. With it, the towering waves are gone as the downpour eases into a drizzle. The clowds fade from a mass of darkness into gentle puffs of air.

Then the stars come out. They litter the rain-washed sky with twinkling light. The only thing that is heard is the soft patter of raindrops on the deck as starlight caresses their souls.

She stands there, arms still stretched out and face angled upwards, to the stars shining above her.

She is brighter. She glows in the darkness, a soft, golden light under her skin.

The crew are breathless. What, and how and why and a million other things mingle in their minds but like the storm, all that is left is calm.

After a moment, or an eternity, she turns around. She looks at each of them, smiling softly. "It's alright," her clear, gentle voice rings out in the silence. "I mean you no harm."

Tir doesn't know whether to laugh or cry or sing.

The crew start to move now, as if finally coming to themselves. The braver ones slowly stumble closer to Y/N and Fala is the first to reach her. Tir isn't surprised when he sees his first mate smile at the miracle standing in front of her.

"They said we could've been as powerful as the wind and sea," she reminds her family. "Now we know what they meant."

There are more and more people gathered around Y/N and Fala. Tir himself steps forward.

Then he can hear his first mate's voice ask, "May l?" and he knows what she is after.

"It's alright." He can see her nod through a gap between Kkar and Naaska.

As Fala gently lays her hand on Y/N's and the golden light swirls from under her skin, Tir can feel his heart stop. The universe will never cease to amaze him.

"Who are you?" Yaski asks with absolute awe in his voice. He stands somewhere in the crowd where Tir can't see him, but he can imagine the expression on the mechanic's face. It is mirrored in his own.

He can see you grin. "I am Y/N Y/S."

[whittakerjodie]

Safety (13th Doctor X Reader)

Requested by @supermegapauselouca​ , prompts 59 and 63 from the prompt list

Words: 1.7k 

Authors Note: Hi love, I chose one of your requests as I’m quite busy with the holidays and didn’t want to leave you waiting too long. Thank you to everyone who requested for this batch and I hope you have all enjoyed! Requests will open back up after the special 

also, more angst than 13 but she comforts at least! Sorry about that haha. 

Warnings: Violence, near-death experience, ANGST 

Your heart pounded in the same rhythm as your feet as you sprinted across the pavement. Running was something you’d become accustomed to, travelling on the TARDIS, but this time was different. This wasn’t your usual ‘Run-for-your-life’ scenario. Usually during those you had better chances. Not this time. The sycorax warrior was hot on your tail, far too close for your liking. It would take a miracle to create enough distance to not be as terrified as you were. Several times it lunged for you and you could feel its fingers briefly make contact.

Your own fingers were clenched around a flashdrive, which needed to be inserted into the ship's mainframe to cause a power outage strong enough to shut everything down. It was quite odd technology for the Sycorax, but you were sure the Doctor was defeating whatever other aliens they had teamed up with this time around. She was the one meant to take care of the flash drive business. However, during the chase and all the confusion and panic that came with it, the flash drive had ended up passed around from companion to companion, until the it and the responsibility accompanying it, rested in your hands.

The mainframe was right up ahead, only a few steps- You shoved the flash drive into the socket as soon as you could, nearly knocking yourself out from the impact against the wall. The sycorax warrior decided to take matters into their own hands, tugging at your shoulder and throwing you to the ground. You yelped, trying to kick them away. It didn’t seem to do much; their alien form towered over you, arms poised for the kill. In that moment, you were nothing but prey, without protection, without chance, without hope.

Then the lights went out.

Before you could even register the darkness in your mind, which screamed for you to move, connected with the rest of yourself and you rolled out from underneath the Sycorax. It’s fists collided with the floor, causing it to hiss in pain. While you processed this you continued to urge your body to move faster, but everything was dark. Your hands seemed to slip against the wall, your balance wobbly, unable to find your way to safety. The only thing keeping you going was the idea that there was some mysterious combination you could work your way towards solving that would save your life.

After several minutes of fumbling, you could hear a familiar voice: the Doctor. She was shouting, directing the other companions. It seemed to be getting closer- she was looking for you. The Sycorax was as well, but they too were restricted by the darkness you’d entombed yourself in.

“Y/N!” you heard Yaz shout. Knowing you couldn’t respond without alerting your foe, you did your best to work your way towards her. The Sycorax would follow, you knew, but you were mainly hoping that it would be too late for them to do anything by that point.

Suddenly, it felt like hands were on you. Instinctively you shrieked, jumping back, but more arms caught you. It was your friends.

“Shh, it’s us” Ryan whispered. “That was crazy, what you did, yeah? Totally amazing…”

His voice trailed off in your mind as you felt another pair of arms, this time supporting your wait by shifting it onto her shoulder. The Doctor’s scent filled your nose, and you breathed it in for comfort. Everything seemed much too fluid, the adrenaline that kept you going beginning to crash now that you were in safe hands. Despite the comfort though, it felt wrong. But why? As your friends dragged you off back to the TARDIS, your mind began to recap everything that had just taken place, making notes and critiques- and some uncomfortable realizations.

It had been hours since you’d buried yourself underneath the blankets of your large bed on the TARDIS. There seemed to be more of them- and pillows, too. Almost as if the time machine could sense every branch of distress you seemed to be growing and was determined to cut them off at the root. While she didn’t succeed in doing it, it helped a little to have such a comfortable environment to return to. The air seemed too cold, so you pulled one of the blankets over your head, submerging yourself in darkness.

Suddenly, you were back there. Reaching into the black, trying to make your way through to the other side before you were dragged under. You could still feel the coldness of the wall and could still hear the frustrated growls of the sycorax as they tried to capture you in their claws. Despite knowing such an instance never occurred, you could feel the sycorax succeeding, pulling you backwards and-

You shot up in bed, throwing the blankets off to avoid the scene you’d conjured. That never happened, you asserted. You got away, you saved the day, you’re on the TARDIS, in bed safe and sound. Yet, as you told yourself these things, you couldn’t properly grasp onto the relief and happiness you sought to provide with them. Why not? You saved the day. But at the same time, you’d come within an inch of not doing so.

Mind still in turmoil over the battling emotions, you climbed out of the safety of your bedroom. Perhaps the TARDIS would have more surprises in store for you as you explored. It wasn’t exactly exploring, though. You were searching for someone, which presented another dilemma. You imagined that finding the Doctor to talk to was the best option, as she experienced these near-death situations far more often than any of you. However, one of the other companions seemed like a nice option, too. They were human. Frequent near-death situations or not, they knew what the finality of them actually felt like.

When you reached Yaz’s room, though, you found that she was fast asleep. Knowing Ryan and Graham likely were as well, you sought out your favorite timelord. It wasn’t hard to tell if she was awake or not; you could hear the various clanging and thuds from her activities through the walls. Chuckling a little at the odd noises, you became fully aware of just how heavy your shoulders felt. Even raising your hand to knock on the Doctor’s door hurt.

She answered promptly, grinning. You spotted a multitude of tools and odd metal shapes and pieces all across the room when you cast your eyes downward.

“Y/N! How are you feeling?” She asked, posture shrinking slightly to your level.

“Uh..” Your voice trailed off, blocked by the lump in your throat. Another sign of tension and upset that you hadn't realized in your search for the timelord. It was soon joined by a puddle of tears that began to pool in the corner of both of your eyes. Before any of them could fall, the Doctor’s arms wrapped around you.

Moments later, when she had found you a comfortable spot on the edge of her bed, she asked: “What’s wrong? Is it about what happened today?”

You nodded, inhaling shakily. After wiping your tears away, you managed “I know everything turned out alright, but I can’t help but think about how close I was to... well, not having everything go alright. Now it’s like all I can think about is that possibility, of me failing, and that’s making me think of every other time I came close to-”

“Here, slow down a bit,” The Doctor encouraged. Her hand rubbed your back in comforting circles. You leaned into the touch, and into her, nodding and working on keeping your breathing in check.

“ It’s hard to explain… I’m safe here with you. Everything went okay and everyone’s safe. I know I should be happy…I did well…I always do well…so why can’t I believe in myself?”

The Doctor thought for a moment, considering your words and feelings with great care. You imagined she had to deal with issues like these often, considering how many companions she took on great adventures. But the way she looked at you, you knew there was no repetition or normalcy involved. She was treating your case as if it were its own unique event, working with words that she knew would mean the most to you especially.

She moved from your side onto the floor, kneeling in front of you so she could properly look into your eyes. It felt nice to not have to lift your head to embrace her. You didn’t imagine you could handle the weight of it all.

“I want you to be proud of yourself. I want you to believe that you’re good enough because you are. You’re so amazing.” She stressed, her hand moving upward to rest against your cheek. If you couldn’t handle the weight, she would take some of it on for you. “We can’t help or avoid those risks and what-ifs that come up when we run like we do. What we can do, though, is tackle what happens after they appear.”

As she continued to talk, she stood from her spot on the floor. Giving you a plethora of tips and good wishes for your recovery from the day's events, she would occasionally pause to squeeze your hand. Then, she began working on the bed behind you. Eventually you turned, curious. The TARDIS had supplied extra pillows and blankets again, all of them lightweight to ensure that you wouldn’t feel trapped.

The Doctor, noticing you were watching, smiled softly. She patted the pillow next to her and you crawled up the mattress, joining her. She pulled you into her arms, wrapping several blankets around you. You surrendered to the warmth.

This time, the darkness was not a frightening what-if but a comforting certainty. There was safety in the Doctor’s arms. Before you allowed yourself to stop running from the darkness, you felt a warm kiss against your forehead to send you off. 

[disneytva]

February 2021 Programming Highlights

Monday, Feb. 1

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney XD

Big Hero 6 The Series “The MiSFIT/Return to Sycorax”

(7:30-8:00 p.m. EST)

“The MiSFIT” – In order to recruit child prodigy Rishi Patel, Professor Granville enlists Hiro to give him a tour of SFIT.

“Return to Sycorax” – When Krei is lost in the old Sycorax building, the heroes must search the abandoned monster factory to find him.

TV-Y7

Saturday, Feb. 6

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Big City Greens “Mages & Mazes/Okay Karaoke”

(9:00-9:30 a.m. EST)

“Mages & Mazes” – When the kids play a role-playing game at Remy’s, his rules lead to conflict.

“Okay Karaoke” – When the Greens go out for karaoke, Tilly struggles to decide what genre of music will best express her true self.

*Singer-songwriter Macy Gray and Aaron Barrett (“Reel Big Fish”) guest star as Kara Karaoke and Ska Guy, respectively.

TV-Y7

Saturday, Feb. 13

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Big City Greens “Date Night/The Room”

(9:00-9:30 a.m. EST)

“Date Night” – Bill chaperones Cricket and Gabriella’s first date.

“The Room” – Tilly closes up Cricket’s secret escape hole in their room, sparking a conflict that leads to them splitting the room down the middle.

TV-Y7

Friday, Feb. 19

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Junior

Mira, Royal Detective “A Royal Detective Mystery/The Mystery of the Missing Crown”

(7:30-8:00 p.m. EST)

“A Royal Detective Mystery” – When the former royal detective comes to town, Mira asks for his help with a cold case.

*Iqbal Theba (“Glee”) guest stars as Detective Gupta.

“The Mystery of the Missing Crown” –Mira must find the royal crown when it goes missing.

TV-Y

Monday, Feb. 22

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney XD

DuckTales “Beaks in the Shell!”

(7:00–7:30 p.m. EST)

Huey struggles to keep Fenton and Gandra’s top-secret experiment (and their relationship) hidden from the world. But, Mark Beaks is desperate for one last gizmo to steal.

*Lin-Manuel Miranda (Broadway’s “Hamilton”) returns as Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera/Gizmoduck, Jameela Jamil (“The Good Place”) returns as Gandra, Selenis Leyva (“Orange Is the New Black”) returns as Officer Cabrera/M’Ma, and Josh Brener (“Silicon Valley”) returns Mark Beaks.

TV-Y7

Friday, Feb. 26

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Puppy Dog Pals “Pups of the Dance/Fantastic Pet Force Gems”

(10:00-10:30 a.m. EST)

“Pups of the Dance” – Bob wants to take a traditional Irish dance class while visiting Ireland, but when the instructor goes missing, Bingo and Rolly set out on a mission to find him.

“Fantastic Pet Force Gem” – Bob and Ana enter a costume contest as a superhero duo, but when they realize they’re missing special gems to complete their costumes, Bingo and Rolly go on a mission to find them.

TV-Y

[arctimon]

So I did watch the last two episodes, “The MiSFIT” and “Return to Sycorax”.  Figured that I had to if I wanted to get my story done. Also to figure out what the heck everyone was talking about.

And I am...conflicted about them.

Let’s start with “The MiSFIT”.

I don’t like Rishi.  At all.

I understand the parallel they were trying to go with here, with Hiro trying to fulfill the mentor role to try to get this kid genius to attend SFIT.  But to me, it doesn’t work.

Rishi is eleven.  Hiro is fourteen (probably 15 at this point).  While Hiro has shown some level of immaturity in his past, we’ve seen his grow out of it (for the most part), in no thanks due to his friends and school.  There’s immaturity, and then there’s just being a jerk for being a jerk’s sake.

And that’s how I see Rishi.

Fourteen is at least high school age.  You’ve grown a considerable amount at that point.  Eleven...that’s middle school.  Kids have no idea how they want to be when they’re at that age.  And that may be ironic coming from Old Man Arct here, but I didn’t see Rishi as someone who needed to be mentored.  I saw him as someone who needed to be kicked off of his scooter/Segway thing.

Balance board?  What is it called?

Anyway.

Hiro tried his best, and so did I as a viewer.  But Rishi didn’t do it for me.  And it doubly hurts because I know for a fact that we’re not going to see him again.

Speaking of that...”Return to Sycorax”.

I actually really liked the first...ten minutes of the episode.  Fred, Hiro, Baymax and Wasabi have to go rescue Krei from the old Sycorax building.  It had Krei.  It had Judy (whom I adore).  It had action.  It had...weird food monsters.

It was a hoot.

And then Fred woke up.

I don’t really know why I continue to do this to myself.  We’re now only a few days away from the series finale, and I’m still searching for some sort of semblance of plot when I know that there’s not going to be any.

We are probably never going to know fully what happened to Sycorax.  The only thing that we may know, based off of the episode, is that the old building near campus is abandoned.  Was it shut down?  Was it cleared out?  Is the company still up?  Where is Liv?  Where is Di?  Where is Karmi?

That was part of the reason why I wrote what I did for Continuity (which you should totally go read, BTW).  I prefer having the arcs and the overarching plots to the show, not the one-off comedy-driven ones that we’re currently having.

Not to say that I don’t like the season.  I do.  And maybe the weird feeling that I have after watching these last two is talking more than it normally would, but the decision to reformat the show is still confusing to me. I hope that the next few episodes can turn that around for me.  I don’t want to be the guy who whines about getting new episodes.  Because we could have not had a Season 3 at all.

Maybe I’m just old.  That could also be it.

[marypickfords]

hey! do you have any specific recs for books about women & horror? i'm reading kier la-janisse's house of psychotic women and really into it

i’m reading it too! and yes, here are some i have read/want to:

House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films by Kier-la Janisse

Horror by Brigid Cherry

Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover

The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis by Barbara Creed

Cutting Edge: Art-Horror and the Horrific Avant-garde by Joan Hawkins

Female Masochism in Film: Sexuality, Ethics and Aesthetics by Ruth McPhee

Gender and the Nuclear Family in Twenty-First-Century Horror by Kimberly Jackson

Killing Women: The Visual Culture Of Gender And Violence by Susan Lord

Mastering Fear: Women, Emotions, and Contemporary Horror by Rikke Schubart

Maternal Horror Film: Melodrama and Motherhood by Sarah Arnold

Misfit Sisters: Screen Horror as Female Rites of Passage by Sue Short

Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing by Isabel Cristina Pinedo

Representations of Femininity in American Genre Cinema: The Woman’s Film, Film Noir, and Modern Horror by David Greven

Revisionist Rape-Revenge: Redefining a Film Genre by Claire Henry

Searching for Sycorax: Black Women’s Hauntings of Contemporary Horror by Kinitra D. Brooks

The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film by Barry Keith Grant

The Women of Hammer Horror: A Biographical Dictionary and Filmography by Robert Michael Bobb Cotter

The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory by Tania Modleski

Women of Blaxploitation: How the Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture by Yvonne D. Sims

Women, Monstrosity and Horror Film: Gynaehorror by Erin Harrington

Suspiria by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva

Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by J. Jack Halberstam

Ms. 45 by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle: Final Girls and a New Hollywood Formula by Alexandra West

Women in Horror Films, 1940s by Gregory William Mank

The Monstrous-Feminine in Contemporary Japanese Popular Culture by Raechel Dumas

Offensive Films: Toward An Anthropology Of Cinéma Vomitif by Mikita Brottman

[scifiandscary]

Searching for Sycorax by Kinitra D. Brooks #BookReview

Tracy @tracy_reads79 reviews the horror #nonfic Searching for Sycorax by Kinitra D. Brooks in today's #BookReview on Sci-Fi & Scary

Searching for Sycorax highlights the unique position of Black women in horror as both characters and creators. Kinitra D. Brooks creates a racially gendered critical analysis of African diasporic women. She challenges the horror genre’s historic themes and interrogating forms of literature that have often been ignored by Black feminist theory. Brooks examines the works of women across the…

[wheres-the-pool-ladder]

The Sycorax Killed and Saved the Time Lords, and Also Killed Clara

The title is mostly a joke, but hear me out.

Warning: Major Spoilers for a number of series finales.

Literally every New Who Master episode wouldn’t have happened if Ten hadn’t lost his hand in the sword fight against the Sycorax. Hell, a lot of New Who would be changed. There are several points in the timeline where the Doctor might have just straight up died.

Because Jack found the Doctor’s severed hand, and used it to track him. Jack finally catching up to the Doctor caused the Tardis to fly all the way to the end of the universe just to shake him off. This wouldn’t have happened had there been no hand to find. Which means they never would have come across Professor Yana, who wouldn’t have opened the chameleon arch and become the Master and then steal the Doctor’s Tardis. So the entirety of the three-part series 3 finally wouldn’t have happened, since the Master’s still stuck as a human at the end of the universe. (As an aside, The Lazarus Experiment wouldn’t have happened either, since Tish only got the job working for Lazarus because of Saxon. So she wouldn’t have ended up on the news, thus never prompting Francine to call Martha about it.)

Martha likely continued traveling with the Doctor, since she had left to be there with her family after the trauma they endured during the Year That Never Was. They may or may not run into Donna, since without the metacrisis, Dalek Caan doesn’t need to manipulate events surrounding her. Let’s say they do. Turn Left doesn’t happen since events aren’t converging on Donna. But all of reality’s at stake, so Rose would have to find another way of warning the Doctor.

Now, the show could’ve likely ended at series 4, since the metacrisis wouldn’t have happened without the hand, so the whole of reality could’ve ended up destroyed. But let’s assume they find a way to save reality since A) Dalek Caan had set the whole thing up to betray the Daleks anyway, and B) without the hand Ten would’ve regenerated into Eleven, who had managed to save the Earth from the Atraxi in 20 minutes without his sonic or Tardis while dealing with post-regenerative trauma, so he’d probably figure out how to stop Davros. Since there’s no TenToo, the Doctor probably wouldn’t leave Rose at Bad Wolf Bay, so she may end up traveling with him again. This may prompt Martha to leave since she might feel like the third wheel now that the man she fancies has reunited with the woman he loves. Donna would likely stay, since she doesn’t need to have her memory erased.

So we move onto The End of Time, which wouldn’t have happened. Plain and simple. The Master’s still stuck at the end of the universe, so the whole reviving him wouldn’t have happened. The Doctor doesn’t need to stall for time after The Waters of Mars (which probably wouldn’t have ended the way it did, as he’s likely still traveling with Donna and Rose), so he never marries Elizabeth I, so the very end of the Shakespeare Code doesn’t happen either. Liz One still remains the Virgin Queen, and the Doctor doesn’t regenerate, but they’re already Eleven, so...

Since the Tardis doesn’t get completely obliterated by the Doctor regenerating, he doesn’t crash into Amelia Pond’s garden and then end up returning 12 years later due to the Tardis repairing. Maybe different circumstances cause Amy and Rory to become companions, maybe not. If not, then River wouldn’t exist, so Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead never occurs.

Gonna skip series 6 for a minute and move onto Clara. Since the Master’s still stuck at the end of the universe, Missy isn’t able to give Clara the Doctor’s number. So Clara never travels with the Doctor and jumps into his time stream, becoming Oswin and Victorian Clara, so the Doctor never tries to find her in the first place. She also never ends up dying in the Trap Street. So the Sycorax started the chain of events that led to Clara’s death. The Doctor may have ended up dying in the Dalek Asylum if he hadn’t met Oswin. If he survives, the lack of Amy and Rory means he doesn’t end up in the Victorian period to mourn them, so he doesn’t meet the Great Intelligence. This would also end up changing Classic Who a tiny bit, since Eleven accidentally gave the GI the idea that the London Underground is a “key strategic weakness”, which they use in The Web of Fear. So The Bells of Saint John doesn’t happen either. Neither the GI nor the Doctor have any reason to be there. The Name of the Doctor doesn’t happen either, since the GI doesn’t try to enter the Doctor’s time stream, which means Clara would have no reason to enter it. Paradoxes are confusing.

Even if the Doctor had met the GI in Victorian London, this might mean the GI succeeds at rewriting the Doctor’s timeline. Let’s say he and whoever his companion is manages to find a way and move on.

If TNotD doesn’t happen, or they stop the GI, The Day of the Doctor might still happen. If it doesn’t, then the Time Lords are dead, so we can thank the Sycorax for the Time Lords being alive for a while. It would happen without Ten though, since in canon Ten is somewhere between The Water’s of Mars and The End of Time, so Journey’s End has already happened, and he’s regenerated in this universe. So we have 33% less bickering. Current Companion may still inspire the Doctor to try to save Gallifrey. If that does happen, then the Time Lords would still try to come through the cracks in time, prompting the Silence to try to kill the Doctor, and trying to blow up the Tardis would cause those very cracks in time. Paradoxes are still confusing. They probably wouldn’t be able to kill him at Lake Silencio, since River might not exist if the Doctor hasn’t met Amy. If he has, then that likely goes the same way as canon. If he hasn’t, maybe they would have succeeded in blowing up the Tardis, since the Doctor only noticed the cracks because he met Amy. So the Silence cause the universe to never exist, while simultaneous causing another paradox by preventing the very events that led to them blowing up the Tardis.

If they don’t succeed in erasing the universe, the Doctor would likely stay on Trenzalore longer than he had in canon, since he doesn’t need (or rather, doesn’t think he needs) more regenerations yet. He still thinks he’s got one left. He may end up regenerating into Twelve while on Trenzalore, which may end up triggering the whole gifting-the-Doctor-more-regenerations thing at some point down the line. So then we end up with Thirteen.

Post-Trenzalore, the Doctor doesn’t meet Missy. The Master’s still stuck at the end of the universe, and even if they weren’t, the Doctor doesn’t know Clara, so Danny’s death (if it even happens) doesn’t cause them to search for the afterlife.

Assuming DotD happens, since the Master’s still stuck at the end of the universe, Simm!Master wouldn’t have been able to leave Gallifrey, and never got stuck on the Monasian ship where he encountered the Doctor and Missy. So he never regenerates into Missy, and the Doctor never goes to the Mondasian ship to test Missy’s ability to be good. The Doctor Falls never happens, and Bill never gets turned into a Cyberman. This also means she never gets turned into a Pilot by Heather, so she never gets to go on adventures with her space girlfriend. The Doctor might have never even met Bill, since they’re not guarding the vault at St. Luke’s University. The Doctor doesn’t regenerate, but she’s already Thirteen, so...

Since they don’t regenerate, the Doctor doesn’t fall out of the Tardis and meet the Fam. Series 11 doesn’t happen.

Since the Master was never on the Mondasian ship, they never regenerate into the Dhawan!Master. So they never go back to Gallifrey and hack into the Matrix, learning about the Timeless Child. The Master doesn’t kill the Time Lords. So the Sycorax started the chain of events that led to the Time Lord’s death. The Doctor may or may not find out later, depending on whether the Time Lords keep “granting” them more regenerations just to keep the secret.

TL;DR: The Sycorax are responsible for every bad thing that’s happened to the Doctor from series 3 onward, paradoxes are super confusing, and the Doctor needs to up their sword fighting skills.

To quote Mabel Pines: “Time travel, man! Why you gotta be so complicated?”

[naberiie]

4, 5, and 11!

4. Favourite non-fiction book?

Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century was SO entertaining; I had no idea how chaotic this century was and it was so fun to listen to this polite British lady describe the utter chaos of the times in all its horribleness. Women Warriors by Pamela Toler is a close second! I went to see her speak about her research in the Before Times and annotated the hell out of that one ☺🤗

5. Which books did you start and not finish?

Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir, Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz, Searching for Sycorax by Kinitra D. Brooks and Books of Blood Vol 1-3  by Clive Barker are all sitting on my bedside table, sadly forlorn because I keep putting them off 😔 but I WILL finish them.... eventually...

11. A book that was completely out of your reading comfort zone?

OOH The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin! I’d never really given hard sci-fi a chance before but surprise - I loved it! Another one was Horrorstör, a horror-comedy by Grady Hendrix that actually ending up having more scary bits than I had anticipated. I went in expecting more comedy that horror but some of the stuff in there still freaks me out

Ask me about the books I read in 2020 📚

[drkineildwicks]

Watching the episode “Lie Detector”....

Okay we’re back with my thoughts on Lie Detector!

First off yeah of course that was Fred IT WAS KENTUCKY KAIJU

And Chris, my dude

I added the soy latte gag from Sonic the Hedgehog to at least ONE of my BH6 fics because I love that gag but holy habaneros that is EXACTLY Chris and Amara’s dynamic holy bleep.

And from what I’ve read about the name Amara the gold thing is another big gag

Because hey?  You know the company Sycorax?  Turns out that’s the name of a witch from Shakespeare’s The Tempest--you know the play Orso Knox was quoting in Season One?

So love the foreshadowing there, even if it goes over everyone’s heads and I only figured it out from a completely unrelated search

And when I did find it I started screaming at my computer

Now I don’t feel so bad about my own research and making everything on the nose but in other languages and with obscure versions of the word

Two truths and a lie--these kids have been on Tumblr

Speaking of Tumblr the big twist hinted at in this episode I already know because like a dunce I didn’t avoid the BH6 tags oh well I keep trying

So the whole lie detector thing with Baymax actually ends up playing out like the episode “Fibber” from Lilo and Stitch: The Series

Gogo with her blunt truth approach

Now see, me, personally, I would have told Fred he looked like he was getting ready to play golf--IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN A LIE

Ugh Mr. Sparkle

Love that even monsterfied High Voltage can’t stand the dude either

Does ANYONE like this guy?  Like even his own mother?

Also I’m firmly of the opinion that Chris is a genetically engineered boy-toy I mean we learned that in Muira-Horror but still

I also think these two have that Yzma/Kronk relation

Chris please don’t wrestle a bear

Also EW

Wait

NO GET YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF BESSIE

Also Aunt Cass ew

Real talk when Hiro brought that dish to school I was legit expecting Fred to rock up and love it

And Hiro WHY YOU MAKE ME SQUIRM YOU’RE A BOY GENIUS WHY DID YOU BE SO OBVIOUS TAILING LIV AMARA

Baymax pulling a fast one on Bear-Bessie was awesome though

And the fact that Granville has a “No Baymax” sign in her class

And pulling that fast one on snooty-boy Sydney

Also HOLY CRUD

Also Liv have you learned nothing from Jeremy Irons you could have totally done it like Die Hard With A Vengeance

Oh wait that was more Obake’s speed

I MISS OBAKE *sob*

Also the way Disney aired this and TiVo taped this ticks me off because the very end runs into the next half-hour slot and the TiVo only tapes from the start of the half-hour block to the end

CURSE YOU DISNEY

[ours-is-the-fury]

By The Moons I Honour Thee

Contains: SWEARING, VIOLENCE, POSSIBLE NSFW CONTENT

CHAPTER 3...

10 years ago,

Jules had to move faster.

It was only a matter of time before he would be detected. The lack of security cameras was a plus however; he had done harder jobs than this before. Even so, infiltrating a Sycorax ship was not his idea of fun, and he wanted to get this job done as soon as possible. Jules peered around the corner and spied two walking towards him. They were armed only with swords and seemingly engrossed in conversation. Jules fitted a silencer module to his Alpha Meson blaster and strode around the corner. The Sycorax’s masks gave no emotion but the tilt of the head was one of surprise, right before two silent red laser bolts burned holes between their eyes. Jules moved swiftly past the smoking corpses and toward the far door, which according to his holomap was the entrance to the prison cells. The door slid open with a press of the big red button and revealed the mass of slaved being transported. The guards turned towards the opened door but were gunned down by more precise laser bolts before they could draw their swords. Looking out over the sea of prisoners he could see numerous different species: Humans, Raxacoricofallapatorians, the bug-like Uvodni and even an Ice Warrior.

              “Computer, you listening?” Jules asked.

“Always Captain. What do you require?”

              He crouched down, searching the Sycorax bodies for keys. “There are over two hundred prisoners here and we can’t transport that many.”

“I will send out an alert to the Church. Perhaps they can send a cruiser to assist.” Her flat voice was hardly reassuring.

              “Knock yourself out, I’ll do what I can here.”

“Knock myself out…do you mean I should shut down Capt-”

              “No, Computer! It’s a figure of speech.” Jules sighed, and began unlocking the cells.

“Okay Captain…I shall send that alert now.” The far door opened and two Sycorax marched in. They drew their swords, but too late, as they fell under a mass of shouting bodies. The ex-prisoners were spilling out into all the corridors and hallways of the ship. Jules noticed an Ice Warrior still sat at the back of the cell and ran over to her.

              “Come on, we need to get moving before they get the riot under control,” he said to the Ice Warrior. “What’s your name?”

“Rakara…” she said after a few moments pause. “It’ssss too hot in here. And my cooling ssssystem wassss damaged when they captured me.”

              “Hold on one sec.” Jules rummaged around in his coat pockets. After a minute he pulled out a sonic probe, “This should fix the circuitry.” The probe was about fifteen centimetres long with a forked end and the tips of the forks glowed green when activated. Jules had traded it for an old love letter the last time he was at the Rings of Akhaten’s market, although he had to admit it wasn’t his love letter, but one he’d liberated for just that sort of eventuality. The only thing Jules really cared about was his ship and his sword. Two things he could not part with.

              “Is that better?” Jules asked, pocketing the probe.

“Muchssss, thank you.” She stood up, a little unsteady, “What isss your name?”

              “I’m Jules, now please take my hand.”

“Whhhy, I can walk fine.”

              Jules laughed, “It’s not about walking. We need to teleport off this ship onto mine and I’ve only got one relay. So please…” he held out his hand, “trust me.” Rakara stared at him through the deep red lenses on her mask, before reaching out and taking his hand.

              The familiar metallic tang filled his mouth and they were back on the Selene. Rakara was looking around, her head tilted to the right. She’d probably have a confused expression if he could see her face.

              “How…how are we following the Ssssycorax sssship? It’s at warp.” she enquired eventually.

“This ship has a powerful tractor beam, but in this instance, I’m using it as a tow rope, keeping us anchored to the ship. It jumped to warp and we followed.”  She nodded and sat down, looking out the window into the blue streaks of the warp field.

              “Why me?” she queried, “why ressscue me?”

“Because I was asked to. Your mother reported you missing and the Empress usually gets her way. But I won’t take you back if you don’t want me to.” He sighed and sat in the pilot seat, “While I was tracking you down, I realised you wanted to get away. You joined this life of excitement and adventure to escape from the boredom of court life and being the daughter of the Empress. Not that the life of a royal Ice Warrior could be entirely boring. I imagine you’ve seen battle before.”

              Rakara’s head dipped a little. “Not exactly. My mother hassss made usss a pacifissstic race. We no longer ssseek bloodshed, we no longer write poemssss of war.” She made a noise which Jules took to be a sigh. “All I wass able to do assss a Shsurr was sssing and entertain.” She took off her mask, revealing her beetle-like crimson eyes and dreadlocks draped over her shoulders.

“Then I won’t take you back.” Jules said after a moment pause. “You don’t want that life and I can give you a way out that doesn’t involve Sycorax slavers.”  

              “But if you do not return me to my mother, will sssshe not be angry?”

“I imagine so…would she send her own soldiers after us?”

              A nod. “Mossst likely. Do you fancy ssspending the ressst of your life looking over your ssshoulder?”

Jules smirked. “Do you?”

              It was then that he witnessed a smile from her – likely her first true one in a long time. “Sssounds like fun, I will join you. Ssso where ssshall we go firsssst?”

“Woman Wept is nice this time of year...” Jules offered

              Rakara walked over to the controls, “We sssshould probably disssconect the tractor beam.”

Smart. “That switch there.” Jules pointed to a switch above the windows, Rakara smiled again and flicked it.

The Selene dropped out of warp with nothing to latch onto anymore, did a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree flip and leaped straight into a slipstream tunnel…

 *****

 Present day…

The Selene dodged and dived through the laser fire, chased by two Cyberfighters. The Chula Warship skimmed the surface of a Sontaran command ship, flying up through the claw-like arrangement at the top of the ship. The Selene pulled a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree flip and opened fire with its triple cannons, shredding the Cyberfighters.

              “Computer, how isss Julessss’ condition?” Rakara questioned, swinging the Selene round the back of a Sontaran ship, out of the line of fire.

“His condition seems stable; analysis shows he suffered from a severe panic attack.”

              “A panic attack? What causssed it?” Rakara hurried over to her bunk in the cockpit where Jules was lying, muttering and shaking. “Could it be the Cybermen? Ssssome sssort of reawakened memory?”

              The cool, formless voice replied, “It is possible. He may still have a connection to the hive mind. If so, being in this close proximity could have reactivated it. Recommendation: vacate the area immediately.” The Computer shut off. Rakara got back into the pilot seat and flicked the switches to begin the Slipstream engine spooling up sequence.

 *****

 Meanwhile in Jules subconscious…  

              This was a memory, it had to be, Jules thought to himself. He wasn’t back here, he couldn’t be. The shiny silver interior of the spaceship was spotted with blood as the Cybermen rushed to upgrade people captured mid-battle. Jules was trapped in a line of people waiting to be converted. The ship was one big factory for conversion; it would loiter at the edge of a battle and latch onto the damaged ships with a tractor beam before teleporting everyone onto the Cybership to await conversion.

If this is a memory, can’t I just break out?

              “Jules!” he froze, the monotone, lifeless voice of the cyberman stopped him mid thought. “You must re-join the Legions! We do not give up what was ours. Join us. Join us. Join us…”

 *****

 Back in reality…

Jules awoke on the floor of the Selene in the midde of Rakara throwing the ship into all manner of evasive manoeuvres.

              “What is going on, Shsurr?” Jules shouted to be heard over the sound of the engines at full throttle.

“Cyberfighterssss!” She hissed back. “I think they decided we were a better target than the Sontaranssss.”

              Great. “Computer!” Jules yelled.

“Yes Captain?”

              “Remind me to install rear-facing weapons.” Jules walked as best he could over to the cockpit. Out of the window was pure destruction - the wrecked hulks of star ships littered the battlefield and the few remaining ships were trading shots through the thick wreckage. “Rakara, fly past the front of the nearest Sontaran ship. Try and get its flank guns to take out our pest problem.” Rakara nodded and weaved the Selene through the debris field, towards the remaining Sontaran ship. Jules jumped down to the cargo hold, ran over to the cloaking device and began his attempt to fix the system.

The Selene sped through the floating remnants of ship, scattered armour plating and dead crewmembers, all the while dodging the Cyberfighters’ laser bolts. Rakara threw the ship into a dive to port down through the remains of a Cyber Carrier’s hangar bay. The Cyberfighters tried following but one lost control, slamming into a wall and exploding, taking a second with it. The final fighter stuck to the Selene like tar until it followed the Chula warship past the Sontaran ship and a stray laser bolt cut it in two. With a hum, the cloaking device came to life and the Selene faded from view.

              “Rakara, take us above the battlefield.” Jules commanded, ascending back up to the Cockpit.

“Of coursssse. Are we cloaked?”

              “From all sensors and visual receptors, yes. Now let’s see who wins thi-”

“Captain!” The computer’s electronic voice cut over him. “There is a new ship leaving FTL.”

Between the remains of the Sontaran and Cyber fleets a ship emerged from a blinding streak of light. The ship opened fire in both directions and the two fleets exploded.

              “That can’t be.” Jules gasped, turning white.

“What issss it?” asked Rakara, confused.

              “It’s the SS Pentallian…”