#sylvia x po

[robyntherav3n]

DO YOU SEE MY VISION

LESBIANS????? IN MY SPY X FAMILY?????

[ausetkmt]

The 212

The grande dame of New York soul food, now run by a new generation of the Woods dynasty, has been feeding the city, and its most distinguished visitors, for six decades.

The family tradition continues at Sylvia’s restaurant in Harlem. From left: the founder Sylvia Woods’s grandson chef Marcus Woods; her grandson, and the company’s C.E.O., K. De’Sean Woods; and her son, and the business’s former C.E.O. and owner, Kenneth Woods.Credit...Chase Middleton

A look at Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem and the legacy that a grandmother left for her prosperity. To say that Sylvia’s in Harlem is a landmark would be an understatement. When the late Sylvia Woods opened her namesake restaurant in 1962, she put in motion a legacy that continues today.

From the Civil Rights movement to 9/11, Sylvia’s has served its customers as a place of community, gathering, and hope when they didn’t know where else to turn. Sylvia herself believed — and her granddaughter still believes — that comfort and healing are cooked right into their fried chicken.

Nov. 16, 2022

It’s a chilly gray Monday in New York and rain is sluicing down the front windows of the building at 328 Malcolm X Boulevard but inside there is an air of communal contentment. I’m having lunch with a couple of friends (one old, one new) at Sylvia’s, the venerable restaurant that has been at this location since 1962, and the buzz of amiable conversation that fills the space dims only — into murmurs of anticipation — when orders arrive at tables: Fried chicken, the meat tender and juicy beneath a crackly golden coat with just a hint of spice; macaroni and cheese as rich and gooey as in a child’s dream; deep green collards; tiny pale lima beans; sticky orange-gold candied yams. Just as the restaurant’s founder, Sylvia Woods, intended when she opened the place, it serves food not only to satiate hunger and please the taste buds but also satisfy the soul.

On a black awning that runs across the facade a purple logo announces, “Sylvia’s Restaurant, Queen of Soul Food.” Once just a tiny luncheonette, it now has multiple areas including three dining rooms and an enclosed terrace — enough space to seat about 400 people. The original counter — which will soon reopen as a full-service bar carrying locally produced wine and spirits — still stands, and arranged on a table nearby are copies of Woods’s two books: “Sylvia’s Soul Food,” published in 1992, and “Sylvia’s Family Soul Food Cookbook,” a 1999 collection of recipes that also serves as a culinary memoir of the South. “Hemingway, South Carolina, where my husband, Herbert, and I grew up and have our roots, probably has more great cooks per square inch than you would find in most cooking schools,” she writes in the introduction, referring to the small rural town where she spent her childhood. “We learned from our mothers and grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins and neighbors.” Hanging on the walls throughout the restaurant are photographs of just some of the celebrities who have come to Sylvia’s over the past six decades because they understood that Woods, who died in 2012, was herself one of those great cooks: Muhammad Ali, Diana Ross, Bill Clinton and every New York mayor going back to John Lindsay.

“For candidates interested in the blessing of Harlem kingmakers, Sylvia’s provides a welcome environment and legitimacy,” says one of my lunchtime companions, Curtis Archer, the president of the Harlem Community Development Corporation, an organization that supports local businesses and residents. “Before his first presidential election I saw Barack Obama having lunch with the Rev. Al Sharpton here.”

When our own orders of fried chicken and waffles appear — and are duly bathed in glistening syrup — the conversation turns to the origins of the dish. Accounts vary, but most agree it was created in 1930s Harlem, possibly by Dickie Wells at his club on West 133rd Street, and was popularized at J.T. Wells’s nearby supper club in the latter part of the decade. The story goes that jazz musicians and their audiences would leave the nearby clubs  too late for dinner and too early for breakfast, and so the filling, savory-sweet combination was exactly what they wanted.

Like so many culinary institutions of 20th-century Harlem, both Wellses’ are long gone, but Sylvia’s remains. According to Tren’ness Woods, 50, one of Woods’s 18 grandchildren and the restaurant’s senior vice president for development, it has lasted, in part, because it was “the largest minority employer in Harlem for many years, and always a safe space for the community — for everyone, rich or poor, Black or white, famous or down on their luck.” 

Later, Kenneth Woods, 69, Tren’ness’s father and the third of Sylvia Woods’s four children, stops by our table. The restaurant has always been a family affair: Fourteen members of the dynasty currently work at the company. Kenneth became C.E.O. in 2003, and last year he turned over the business to his son, K. De’Sean Woods, 35. A compact man in a dark blue quilted vest and blue-and-white checked shirt, Kenneth looks every bit the dedicated fisherman he’s been for decades, since learning to catch catfish, trout and tilefish in Hemingway, where he spent time with his grandparents as a child.

Sylvia Woods was born in Hemingway in 1926, and her father died a few days later. In 1929, her mother, Julia Pressley, left Woods, her only child, with her grandmother and other relatives, joining the Great Migration, the exodus of roughly six million Black Americans from the South to the North, West and Midwest between 1910 and 1970. Like so many people who arrived in New York, Pressley was looking for a better life for herself and her children — but she kept a plot of land in Hemingway and returned often, later building her own farm there.

At 18, Woods married Herbert Woods, whom she had known since childhood, and in the 1940s they settled in Harlem. She worked in a hat factory in Queens and as a waitress and manager at various places in Harlem — including Johnson’s Luncheonette, the tiny lunch counter that she bought, in 1962, with all her savings as well as a loan from her mother, who took out a second mortgage on her farm to help. (Woods was able to repay her mother just a year after opening.) During the restaurant’s early years, Herbert did the food shopping and the couple’s older children pitched in. Woods, who worked all hours, would put her younger children, when they were babies, in the bread warming drawers to nap.

It is sometimes said, though others disagree, that the writer Amiri Baraka (then LeRoi Jones) coined the term “soul food” in a 1962 essay of the same name. During the 1920s, because of the Great Migration — and because developers and landlords had pushed Black New Yorkers out of other neighborhoods — Harlem became the Black capital of the country, and newly arrived Southerners brought with them their recipes, and the skills required to make them. In the rural South, families like Woods’s cooked what they raised or fished or hunted or grew or picked: chicken, shrimp, venison, okra, lima beans, black-eyed peas, peaches, pecans, pears. And in Harlem — at home, and in the many cafes, restaurants and stands that sprang up in the neighborhood in the 20th century — Southerners kept their culinary traditions alive.

Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem, NYC, has been an iconic soul food restaurant and cultural institution for 57 years. We learned to cook up their famous ribs and fried chicken and waffles from the grandson of the founder herself, Sylvia Woods

“Can you imagine what it was like to be a Black woman of that era?” says my other tablemate, Musa Jackson, the editor in chief of Ambassador Digital Magazine and a co-founder of the Harlem Festival of Culture. “How hard it was to run a business?” Jackson was born in Harlem and when he was a child, a trip to Sylvia’s was a great treat. “This restaurant was always in my consciousness, even as a little boy,” he says. Jackson was also, in his words, “the first successful Black male model from Harlem.” He was discovered at Area, the 1980s-era New York nightclub, and soon found himself walking the runway for Jean Paul Gaultier and other designers in Paris. Over the years, he brought his European and downtown friends to eat at Sylvia’s.

As dessert arrives — creamy banana pudding, sweet potato pie and peach cobbler, all to share for the table and each topped with a wobbly pile of whipped cream — I think about my own attachment to the place. I love Sylvia’s because I’ve been going here most of my life. It has a profound sense of an inimitable history and I’m afraid of forgetting it. I love it, too, of course, because the chicken and cornbread are very nearly celestial. But perhaps most of all, I feel good here because of the unforced welcome. As Jackson says of his earlier pilgrimages to Sylvia’s, “I remember not just the food but Woods herself. She put her arms around you and what you felt was love and joy.”

[discoverysource]

So, um, your parents died and your brother... so that means that you...

Tomorrow is my coronation, I ran away because I wasn't ready, I'm supposed to become...

The Queen.

[dallaswinstonsleatherjacket]

MARSYLVIA

Requested by @lipsticksandcigarettes, also using rains wing au

Taglist: @lipsticksandcigarettes @hellsfanatic @rosierdoll @pepsi-and-cigarettes @frog--kingg @just-a-bisexual-demon (lmk if you want to be added)

The first time she ever cleaned her wings with me it was casual. I’m not sure if it meant as much to her as it did to me, but letting me see something so private, so sacred, made me fall even more in love with her.

They were orange and red, fire colors that made her black hair and sharp haircut stand out. The very tips were white, pale as snow, and I found myself wondering what they meant. What everything meant. What my feelings for her meant.

I watched, the first time, in awe, as she slid her shirt over her head, leaving her in just her bra. Slowly, she rubbed patience into her feathers, massaging each one as she went. I memorized her techniques, how her fingers danced across her wings, how she looked so calm, relaxed.

She looked towards me, her lips parted, and her sweet voice asked me to come help her with the back. Almost stunned by the beauty of it all, I complied. My hands looked large and clumsy next to hers, and I could have sworn I did a worse job than ever before, on myself.

I had always wondered what it would be like to do this with someone, and of course, it was her. It was always her, the things I dreamed about, the things I thought when I was alone.

She sighed to herself as I finished, I gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze before helping her stand. She looked so ethereal, the sun streamed in from the windows behind her and made her face glow.

Her eyelashes fluttered as she closed her eyes and stretched, yawning before opening then again and focusing on me. They were the color of topaz, sparkling with light and energy, and I wished I could kiss her.

She had been speaking, I hadn’t heard. Her laugh twinkled out at my dreamlike state, and I didn’t have the guts to tell her it was all because of her.

[terapsina]

My favourite moments in the newest Discovery episode in no particular order.

Michael seeing Amanda and Sarek arrive on board Discovery and the look on her face.

The utterly emotional scene between them which made me cry.

Amanda referring to her husband as impossible.

“I will accept improbable.”

The new signal bringing them to Xahea and the absolute excitement on Tilly’s face at realizing she’s gonna see Po again.

The looks on everyone else’s faces at Tilly apparently knowing a Queen.

The realization that she really never actually told anyone they had been harbouring a runaway monarch.

Captain Pike trying to be political and being utterly ignored in favor of Tilly and ice-cream.

Former Emperor Georgiou suggesting they just blow up a star.

Everyone’s (but especially Michael’s) Faces!

Michael actually IS the Red Angel.

Everyone declaring they wouldn’t let Michael go into the future alone.

Po writing complex time travel equations in thin air with an ice-cream spoon.

“I like you.”

“I like you too.”

Culber finally going to find and talk to Stamets, clearly trying to act on Reno’s advice from before and instead getting cold feet because Stamets is ‘moving forward’.

“I’m going to leave Discovery because being around you but not being with you hurts.”

“I’m going to join Enterprise and this is totally what I came here to say and not at all a reaction to you moving on.”

Translation necessary because these husbands are idiots and need help.

Michael’s face when Po said she looked taller in her photo.

The brief moment of bonding where Michael and Po mentioned their moms.

Georgiou rolling her eyes.

Georgiou trying to talk Michael out of being a martyr.

Georgiou ‘ugh-ing’ at the orange.

“I’m a Terran from your mirror universe.”

“What mirror universe?”

The wink.

[burnhamandtilly]

[discotreque]

The new episode drops in less than two hours, but I couldn’t wait.

There’s only one person it could be. Literally only one person in the galaxy has access to diplomatic channels and would use them for something as mundane as talking to Sylvia Tilly. Oh my god, Tilly thinks. It’s Po.

This fic is rated Explicit. Please read at your own discretion.

[ikuzeminna]

Gundam Wing Quiz - Casual Audience level

1. What color is Quatre's vest?

   Red

   Black

   Purple

   White

2. Who pilots the Gundam Shenlong?

   Noin

   Wufei

   Duo

   Master Long

3. What color is Dorothy's limousine?

   Gold

   Pink

   Black

   Dark blue

4. Who is this character?

   General Septem

   Colonel Bundt

   Vice Foreign Minister Darlian

   Field Marshal Noventa

5. What did Relena ask Heero for when their school held a ball/festival?

   His phone number

   A dance

   A shirt

   His answers for their homework

6. Who pilots the Tallgeese I in the series?

   Treize

   Zechs

   Noin

   Lady Une

7. What was OZ's space fortress called?

   Peacemillion

   X-18999

   Barge

   Noventa

8. How many Maguanacs are there?

   12

   40

   1001

   Over 9000

9. What color are Duo's eyes?

   Green

   Violet

   Brown

   Blue

10. Who did OZ overthrow with its coup d'état in the beginning of the series?

   The Romefeller Foundation

   The Earth Alliance

   The Cinq Kingdom

   The space colonies

11. Where does Heavyarms carry its beam gatling?

   On its right arm

   On its head

   In a suitcase

   On its left arm

12. Who is the leader of OZ?

   Zechs

   Noin

   Treize

   Une

13. Which weapon was shown to have the greatest destructive power?

   Wing Zero's buster rifle

   Libra's main cannon

   Vayeate's beam cannon

   The EA's Noventa cannon

14. What is this suit called?

    Leo

   Tragos

   Taurus

   Aries

15. In which place was Noin when she was first introduced?

   In Toronto

   At Lake Victoria

   In Siberia

   On the Bering Sea

16. Who created the Mobile Dolls?

   The Earth Alliance

   The Gundam pilots

   The White Fang

   The Romefeller Foundation

17. Who was first shown piloting Epyon?

   Treize

   Heero

   Zechs

   Quatre

18. How many Gundams descended to Earth during Operation Meteor?

   2

   3

   4

   5

19. Who kills Vice Foreign Minister Darlian in the series?

   Sally Po

   Zechs

   Heero

   Lady Une

20. Who oversaw Romefeller's Mobile Doll development and production?

   Tsubarov

   Trant

   Doctor J

   Lady Une

21. Who was first shown piloting Wing Zero?

   Heero

   Zechs

   Quatre

   Duo

22. Who is the Chief Representative of the Romefeller Foundation before Relena's appointment?

   Marshal Noventa

   Duke Dermail

   Treize Khushrenada

   Marquis Weridge

23. Where did Quatre's entry capsule land during Operation Meteor?

   In a desert

   In the sea

   On a mountain

   In a forest

24. What is this character called?

   Mike

   Sam

   Otto

   Walker

25. Who did Quate, Duo and Trowa save with their Gundams in EW?

   Heero

   Relena

   Zechs and Noin

   Wufei and Sally

26. What is the name of Marshal Noventa's granddaughter?

   Sylvia

   Relena

   Katrina

   Anne

27. Which Gundam wields two swords as its main weapon?

   Deathscythe

   Sandrock

   Epyon

   Shenlong

28. What colors are the Cinq uniforms for girls?

   White and blue

   White and pink

   White and purple

   White and green

29. Which character is of Chinese descent?

   Wufei

   Trowa

   Une

   Rashid

30. What is this Gundam called?

   Shenlong

   Sandrock

   Heavyarms

   Deathscythe

Answers:

1.1 , 2.2 , 3.1 , 4.3 , 5.2 6.2 , 7.3 , 8.2 , 9.4 , 10.2 11.4 , 12.3 , 13.2 , 14.3 , 15.2 16.4 , 17.2 , 18.4 , 19.4 , 20.1 21.3 , 22.2 , 23.1 , 24.3 , 25.3 26.1 , 27.2 , 28.2 , 29.1 , 30.4

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing (June 21-27, 2020)

We have A LOT of fantastic stuff this week in the fandom!  Be sure to send folks your love!

--Mod LAM

Gundam Wing Pride Event hosted at @wingqueero​

Fanfiction

Like Water by @gundayum

Characters: Duo, Hilde

Pairings: 2xH

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings:  bi duo, genderfluid hilde, coming out, slice of life

Summary:  A short, cute coming out story wherein Hilde reveals her gender fluid identity to Duo

Hugs Can’t Fix Things But They Do Help by @from-zero-to-my-own-heero​

Characters: Heero, Duo

Pairings: 1x2

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: pride, duo and heero have a kid, slice of life

Summary:  Heero and Duo decide to be the dads who give out free hugs to the LGBT+ youth at Pride who want and need the kind of hug only an accepting parent can give. For Duo, it’s just a nice thing to do. For Heero, it’s a lot more personal.

Is it Enough? by @2pcb 

Characters: Trowa, Wufei, Relena

Pairings: 3xR, 3x5, 1+R mentions

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings:  post-canon, post-series, mature situations, NSFW, sexual self-discovery, sexual situations, uncomfortable sexual situations, second person POV

Summary:  Trowa helps Relena understand her asexuality, and learns to come to terms with himself in the process.

Pteromyini by @tumbledrylemur​

Characters: Duo, Wufei

Pairings: 2x5

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: domestic fluff

Summary:  Wufei spars with his backyard nemesis and Duo gets the answer to a question

Respite by @lifeaftermeteor​

Characters: Sally, Noin, Une

Pairings: Sx9x11

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings:  polyamory, non-binary Noin, fluff, domestic fluff, romance, post-canon, post-series

Summary:  Noin, Po, and Une take some time away from their responsibilities and daily lives to take a much-deserved romantic retreat out into the woods.

In Perspective by @beemotionpicture​

Characters: Heero, Wufei

Pairings: Heero x Wufei

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: fluff, romance, post-canon, post-series, slice of life

Summary: Five times Heero kissed Wufei, and one time Wufei kissed back.

Beneath: Pride by @duointherain​

Characters: Heero, Duo, Relena

Pairings: 1x2, RxOC, m/m, f/f

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: BLM, Pride, handicapped Duo

Summary:  Mostly just a sweet story. The kids survive a night of terror and Duo thinks he’s done with Earth holidays forever, but Relena’s girlfriend convinces him to try Pride.

Fun Curses with Catboys by @2pcb 

Characters: Duo, Wufei

Pairings: 2x5

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings:  post-canon, post-series, magical transformations, NSFW, explicit sexual situations, size difference, minor cum inflation

Summary:  When Wufei leaves the Preventers, Duo goes snooping and finds out some things about his favorite -crush- loner. Like his hobbies in gardening, rare book collecting, and… magic? Probably shouldn’t have touched that, Duo. Good thing it’s a fun curse, and there’s a sexy wizard around to help out.

Fanart

The Courtyard (6x13) by @alexecinz

Under the Moonlight (1x2) by Stephanie (no Tumblr)

Take Out (2x5) by @drawingplastered

Red Riding Hood (Rashid) by @2pcb 

Happy Pride! (1x2) by Solice (no Tumblr)

Trans Pride (3x4) by @theboringbluecrayon

Night Out Preparations (1x2) by Kari (no Tumblr)

In the morning light (pilot pile) by @grey-sentry​

Give You the Moon (1x2) by @bettertasting​

Flower Crown (1x2) by Kari (no Tumblr)

From Sally to Noin and Noin’s Reply (Sx9) by @lemontrash​

Intimate Duet (3x4) by Stephanie (no Tumblr)

Other Fandom Works

Duo Pride Cosplay by @distracteddream​

Livestream Panel (June 27) by @sandrockskaterpaladin​

Non-Event Stuff

Fanfiction

Violet in Tooth and Claw (Ch.4/?) by @duointherain​

Characters: 5 pilots

Pairings: 1x2

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: werepossum, unpleasant surprises, Heero reads poetry

Summary: Duo had hangovers. He wasn’t familiar with the word alcoholic at this point in his life, but if he had he might have made a stupid joke about how Earth made a joke word just for him.

Beneath: Leprechauns and Clovers (Ch.5/?) by @duointherain​

Characters: Heero, Duo, Relena

Pairings: 1x2, RxOC

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: handicapped Duo, combat, cliffhanger, crossover

Summary: Heero regretted his words as soon as he looked at Duo’s tracking work.

Your Body’s Poetry (Ch.19/?) by @doctormegalomania​

Characters: 5 pilots, Relena, Hilde, Sally, Noin, Zechs

Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, 5xOC

Rating: MATURE

Tags / Warnings: past relationship(s), slice of life, post-break up, slow burn, developing relationship, implied/referenced domestic violence

Summary: Long after the wars, long after peace is established the Gundam Pilots discover one immovable fact: Relationships are hard work.

Party Night by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Characters: Heero, Duo, Hilde, Dorothy, Sylvia, reader

Pairings: 1xReader, 2xH

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: reader-insert, romance, lemon, sexual content, language, alternative universe

Summary: A shiver went down your spine at the thought of being in bed with him again. There was no denying the physical attraction and the chemistry.

Fake by @helmistress

Characters: Duo, Wufei

Pairings: 2x5

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: domestic, fluff, conspiracy theorist Duo, funny, trolling, baiting talk

Summary: Wufei loves him, but sometimes he doesn’t know why.

Fanart

Heero and Relena by @artthingymabob

Dorothy and Quatre by @yawniverse for @pineappleglazedham 

Duo and Quatre by @tatakaumono

Quatre comforting Duo by @arubees

Other Fandom Works

Gunpla and Cosplay

Duo Maxwell EW Cosplay by @bettertasting​

Wing Zero progress shot by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Livestream Gundam build by @otakublerd

Headcanons and Discussion

@lifeaftermeteor​ is looking for feedback on the kinds of posts you’d like her to do as part of her worldbuilding / character-study “Fanon Friday” series. Check out her survey post over here.

Alex and Mueller know what’s up by @cloakandfire​

Nostalgia, Nostalgia... by @cuteciboulette​

Scans, Edits, and Fun Stuff

@incorrectgundamwingquotes​ continues to make us laugh (Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, and Example 4)

Scan selection of the DJ cover for “Toki no suna” (The hourglass of time”) by Sango Show by @cuteciboulette​

Glory of the Losers scans by @disturbed02girl

Heero and Wing

Buster Rifle Sleeve Notes

Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton (in color!)

Epyon and Heero in Epyon

Wufei and Meilan

Howard and Zechs

Pictures of Swag by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Gundam Design Pages by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Wing Zero

Tallgeese

Maganac, Leo, Aries, Tragos

Pisces, Cancer, Taurus, Vayeate, Mercurius

Calendar Events

The Gundam Wing Pride event is entering its grand finale

Catch the last days over at @wingqueero​ June 28-30, 2020!

Posts will go up HOURLY between 4PM and 8PM EDT

@seasons-of-gundamwing​ is taking a poll for the summer event!

Poll is available over here.

Prompts will be posted at regular intervals later this summer around the chosen theme, topic, and/or character(s)

Gundam Wing Cocktail Friday prompts with @gwcocktailfriday​

Post your response on Friday between 3-5PM EDT

This week’s prompt is over here.

[saiilorstars]

The Beginning of Everything

Ch. 25:  Stolen Planets  

// Story Masterlist //

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: 10th Doctor x Female OC

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

Chapter summary: Renata, the Doctor and Gabby travel to the Shadow Proclamation to find out where Earth has been taken to and discover that it's not the only planet missing. Meanwhile, Donna meets the one and only Rose Tyler.

Donna felt a wicked headache when she finally came to. The hard ground was underneath her, explaining the headache, and though she wasn't fully aware yet, she could feel someone shaking her.

"Donna! Wake up! Donna!" Her mother, Sylvia, was getting more frantic as the seconds passed by.

"What? What happened?" Donna groaned and sat up, soon realizing she was on her kitchen floor. Her eyes found the window and saw the sunlight was gone - it was night. It had been daytime last time she remembered. But lots of weird things had happened to her in the past day. One thing she was sure of, though, was that she would never visit UNIT again. Some weird alien fortune teller had thrown her into a parallel world just for fun! As soon as Martha and UNIT had pulled her out of that world, Donna had demanded to go home to be as far away as possible from the building.

The parallel world, as scary as Donna was sure that it was, seemed to fade away as the hours passed by. She could barely remember it now but she knew that things had been terrible, far more terrible than what she'd already seen in her travels. Even now it gave her chills trying to remember it, but actually...

Her eyes widened suddenly. One huge detail had just come back to mind.

"I gotta call the Doctor!" She jumped from the floor, ignoring her mother's shouts for her to stay. She was just about to call when she passed the open doorway and saw something that caught her eyes.

She backtracked and slowly emerged from the house, first seeing her grandfather shouting at nothing in particular with a bat in hand, but then she saw the sky. Her mouth went dry.

There was no sun, no stars, only big planets accommodated around each other.

"It's them aliens, I'll bet my pension!" Her grandfather, Wild, raged. "You get back inside, Donna. They always want the women!"

Donna shook her head and ran back into the house. She needed to get ahold of the Doctor and Renata now!

~0~

Inside the TARDIS, each of its inhabitants were in the same state of shock and terrible confusion. The Doctor had stopped running around the console now and was immersed in the monitor in hopes of making contact with somebody on Earth. At this point, he'd settle for anyone in order to figure out what happened.

Gabby was still by the doors, staring into space - the spot where planet Earth used to be - and still couldn't believe it was gone. She did think of something that pulled her into reality after a moment. "But... if the Earth's been moved... they've lost the sun! What about my family? Cindy! Donna! They're dead!? Aren't they? They're all dead..."

Renata hurried over, her night robe flowing with her quick strides, to pull the girl away from the open doors. She shut them behind them and turned Gabby back for the console. "We don't really know what's happened…"

"But that's my whole world - it's just gone," Gabby felt like her world was spinning - well, her world was gone but she was sure it was the feeling.

"There's no readings, nothing. Not a trace," the Doctor was getting frustrated by the monitor. "Not even a whisper. Oh, that is fearsome technology. And good technology."

"Doctor, let's focus less on the quality of the technology and more on the reason someone would even build that type of technology in the first place," Renata brought Gabby to the Captain's chair in hopes that sitting her down would prevent the girl from collapsing straight to the floor.

"What are we going to do?" Gabby still held a little hope that not everything was lost. Her eyes flickered from the Doctor to Renata and vice versa. They had to know how to do something that could help them. Yes, they were still arguing but when things were this bad, they would surely put everything aside to solve the problem.

"We've...got to get help."

Renata did a double take at the Doctor, unsure if she had heard him right.

"From where?" Gabby feebly wondered. He was the Doctor - who could he ask to help him out?

"You don't actually mean…?" Renata walked over to him, her face still shocked he was openly admitting that this time - just this time - they would need to go to…

"Well Renata, seems like we're finally going to the Shadow Proclamation."

"I don't like being right this time," Renata had just enough time to say before the Doctor started the TARDIS.

~0~

Donna helplessly dialed for the TARDIS number the Doctor had given her, but it just wouldn't work! She'd tried at least a dozen times but the call wouldn't go through.

"Have you gotten ahold of him, dear?" Wilf came into the kitchen.

"No! There's no signal. This number is supposed to call anywhere in the universe! Something must be blocking it!"

"Dad! Donna!" Sylvia cried from the living room. The two ran to see if she was alright (in what fit) and saw the television on.

'Unidentified spacecraft heading for Earth' was flashing across the screen.

'We're now getting confirmed reports of spaceships. The Pentagon has issued an emergency report…'

"They're saying spaceships," Sylvia shook her head, eyes closed to tears.

"C'mon Doctor," Donna dialed her phone with new hope that maybe this time things would work out.

"Who are you calling?" Sylvia demanded when she caught Donna putting the phone over her ear.

Donna only waved her off as she turned away, walking out of the living room. She returned to the kitchen and peered out the window again. This time she saw the huge spacecraft flying over them, looking pretty menacing.

'Exterminate!'

Donna froze. Had that…?

'Exterminate!'

Donna's eyes widened in horror. She had never seen them but the Doctor and Renata had done a good job of explaining to her how monstrous a Dalek could be. They were part of the reason why their entire world was gone...and it seemed like it was Earth's turn now.

~0~

"So...so we're actually going to the police?" Gabby was holding onto the Captain's chair as the TARDIS continued jerking every which way. The Shadow Proclamation seemed to be on a bumpy road. "You mean all this time there has actually been a space police!?"

"Yes!" Renata exclaimed. She was gripping the underneath of the console so she wouldn't slip.

"So how come we never met them!?"

"Doctor, you want to take that one?"

The Doctor's face went momentarily flat at Renata. "No. I just never thought I would need them!"

When the TARDIS finally came to a stop, the Doctor was careful as he led the two women out. He warned them they might not be so welcomed considering the messes he'd made in the past. As soon as they came out of the TARDIS - or rather slid out, one by one - they were greeted by a group of armed Judoon. Each gun soon took aim on them and one by one, the trio raised their hands to show they were on neutral terms.

"Sco po tro no flow jo ko fo to to," one of the Judoon began to say. Gabby watched in terror, wondering if they were truly dead now.

"No bo ho so ko ro toe so," the Doctor responded in the same manner. It definitely grabbed Gabby's attention. "Bo-ko-do-zo-go-bo-fo-po-jo!" Whatever he said had made the Judoon lower their guns. "Ma ho." Once the Judoon began filing out, the Doctor turned to Renata and Gabby. "They know why we're here. They're getting the Shadow Architect."

"I'm in the Shadow Proclamation...in my nightie…" Renata had just realized that detail and looked terribly embarrassed. "This is not the place to be in my nightie."

"There's no time, c'mon," he made a motion for her and Gabby to follow. Gabby kept quite close to Renata as they passed several Judoons.

The Shadow Architect turned out to be a tall, Albino woman. She seemed a bit condescending and very much in disbelief of their very presence.

"Time Lords are the stuff of legend. They belong in the myths and whispers of the Higher Species," she said, eyes flickering between the pair in front of her. "You cannot possibly exist."

"And yet here we are," Renata waved one hand while the other arm kept around her waist. She'd become very self conscious now that she realized how terribly under-dressed she was.

"We've got a missing planet," the Doctor rushed to get things moving along, but the Shadow Architect sighed in annoyance.

"Then, you're not as wise as the stories would say. The picture is far bigger than you imagine. The whole universe is in outrage, Doctor - twenty-four worlds have been taken from the sky."

Gabby nearly keeled over. "How many!?" So not only was her world gone, but there were 23 others!?

"And you never thought to make this information public!?" Renata seemed almost outraged. If they had made the information known then perhaps each planet would've had a chance at surviving whatever pulled them from their orbit. "It could have given people a chance! At the very least the knowledge that they needed to be on red alert!"

The Shadow Architect did not like her actions being questioned, but Renata had a glare that nobody could win against. "I...did not think they would believe us."

"If 24 planets are missing I'm sure somebody would've believed you if you had just said something!" Renata couldn't help that her tone had turned into a loud shout. There were too many peoples' lives at stake and nobody had done a damn thing about it so far.

"Show me which planets are missing," the Doctor instructed and since the Shadow Architect had already crossed one Time Lord, she obeyed without a fight.

The group were brought to a high tech computer that held a list of all the planets they had recorded as vanished.

"The locations range far and wide. They all disappeared, leaving no trace," the Shadow Architect explained while the Doctor studied the list. The more he read, the less he understood.

"Callufrax Minor, Jahoo, Shallacatop, Woman Wept, Clom - Clom's gone?! Who'd want Clom?"

"That's rude," Renata remarked beside him. "Whole planet's gone, Doctor!"

"Right," he mumbled and went on.

"All different sizes. Some populated, some not, but all unconnected," the Shadow Architect added.

"Wait, what about Pyrovilia?" Renata found herself asking. "Remember-" she looked at the Doctor briefly, "-way back when we were in Pompeii, Lucius said Pyrovillia had gone missing. Bet nobody batted an eye at it."

"Is that an ancient planet?" Gabby wondered, but in asking she garnered a condescending response from the Shadow Architect.

"Who is the female?"

Gabby scrunched her nose. "Excuse you! I might not be 'the stuff of legends' but I'm every bit as important as Time Lords, so give me some respect. Also, my world just vanished so I demand some sympathy."

Both Renata and the Doctor smiled proudly at Gabby. They'd never seen her act so authoritative and much less that confident.

"Pyrovillia is cold case. Not relevant," one of the Judoon in the room replied.

"How do you mean, 'cold case'?" Gabby asked him.

"The planet Pyrovilia cannot be part of this, it disappeared over two-thousand years ago," the Shadow Architect said.

"Like I said, nobody batted an eye at it," Renata motioned the Doctor to scoot out of the computer's way. "I wonder how many other planets just 'disappeared' without anyone wondering why?"

"What are you doing?" the Doctor saw her switch tabs on the computer.

"Going through the planets that disappeared long ago - aha look!" she pointed suddenly. "Remember the Adipose and Miss Foster? She said their breeding planet had disappeared a long time ago!"

"Oh, brilliant! You're brilliant!" the Doctor started exclaiming once he understood the true gravity of the situation. "The planets have been taken out of time as well as space! Scoot!" He scooted her away just like she had done earlier. He re-organized the list of planets into a hologram set in the center of the room for the others to see. "There's something missing. Where else, where else, where else, lost, lost, lost, lost...? OH! The Lost Moon of Poosh!"

"The Lost Moon of what?" Gabby raised a finger and watched as a very small planet - a moon - appeared last in the string of hologram planets.

"This moon, lost ago, - Donna and I heard about it on Midnight," the Doctor said dismissively. He was arranging the planets in a specific way in the air.

"What? When you went to that luxury planet?"

"Yes, now shush!"

Gabby scrunched her face and glanced at Renata, wearing an expression akin to 'we should've gone'. Renata rolled her eyes but let it be. It wasn't her fault that neither of them got to visit the spa planet. That was the day she and Gabby had visited 52st century China in order to see a new art gallery that was having their grand opening. It had been loads of fun for Gabby to meet with current popular artists and see their creations.

But on the other hand, she and Renata had missed the whole ordeal on 'Midnight', the planet where the Doctor and Donna had nearly died. They'd found some strange alien that was so intelligent it almost managed to get the Doctor thrown out of their train by some scared, manipulated humans. Renata had been outraged to hear what happened to the Doctor and demanded that they all go to whoever was in charge of the spa to get it shut down.

"Well…" the Doctor's new arrangement of the planets was interrupted when the stolen planets literally re-arranged themselves into an optimum pattern. "Look at that. Twenty-seven planets in perfect balance. Come on, that is gorgeous!"

"I'm getting tired of saying this, but...Doctor? Stolen planets!? Focus!?" Renata waved a hand at the holographic planets between them.

"Why'd the planets arrange themselves like that?" Gabby went around the hologram, eyeing each of the planets.

"Like pieces of an engine…" the Doctor mumbled in a half-thought. "It's like a power house. But what for?"

"Who could design such a thing?" The Shadow Architect breathed in awe and yet fear. Someone who could design a power tool like that was strong and fear-worthy.

"Wait…" Renata froze but she felt the wave of dreariness begin to wash over her. "It can't be...it can't be…"

"No, no…" the Doctor said rather fast but as he turned back for the computer, Renata swore she saw a look of panic flash across his face for a second.

"Ren?" Gabby feebly moved towards the Time Lady. "What's going to happen? Are-are we going to get them back?"

Renata had no idea what to say and it showed. Her eyes flickered to the Doctor and the Shadow Architect, both huddled by the computer again. None of them had the answers Gabby wanted to know and it killed Renata. "Why don't we go back to the TARDIS so I can get changed?"

Gabby knew the attempt of distraction and what it meant...and it scared her to pieces. Because if neither the Doctor nor Renata didn't know what was happening, then things were truly bad. "I-I want to sit down." Her legs felt like puddy the more she thought of her family and what they must be going through.

"Okay, we can do that," Renata quickly ushered the girl towards a staircase and sat her down on the first step. "You sit here and I'll be back in a bit." She closed her robe tighter and hurried off.

Gabby exhaled heavily. She felt so useless just sitting there with nothing to offer to the table. Her world was gone! She had to do something but...what?

In her distant thinking, she didn't notice an Albino servant coming by with a glass of water. "You need sustenance. Take the water, it purifies."

"...thanks," Gabby whispered and took the glass.

"There's a fluttering around you."

Gabby looked up at the man questionably. "Excuse me?"

"The same fluttering that's around your friend - the Time Lady? Only she is golden, and you are lavender."

Gabby's eyes instinctively flickered to the Doctor as if by extension it was the same thing looking at Renata.

"You are each something new."

"I really doubt it," Gabby took a long drink of water.

"Such a nice group of travelers...I am sorry for your loss."

Gabby lowered her glass to her lap and studied the servant for a second. For a brief moment she thought he might be playing with her feelings but...he looked earnest enough. "Yeah, thanks, I guess. No real words to tell someone when their world is gone."

"No, I mean the loss that is yet to come. I'm very sorry for you all," the servant lowered himself just enough to whisper. "But the butterflies could perhaps save you."

"Excuse me?" Gabby blinked. The servant was grim as he went on his way.

A short moment later, Renata returned wearing much more appropriate clothing. A nice, white buttoned-up blouse tucked under camel-colored pants. She went with the camel-colored flats thinking there would be some running ahead.

"Have we learned anything new?" She went over to the Doctor by the computer, but judging by his lost face there was nothing.

"Gabby?" He called to the girl by the stairs who was still trying to process what the servant's words meant. "Just think for a minute, please? There must've been some sort of warning. Was there anything happening back in your day, like... electrical storms, freak weather, patterns in the sky?"

"Other than the freaky stuff when I met you two?"

"She got you there," Renata whispered to the Doctor, something he was fast to wave her off for.

"Well, Donna did mention that she heard the bees were disappearing…"

"The bees disappearing," the Doctor sarcastically said, shaking his head. "The bees disappearing."

"You don't need to be rude - you asked me!" Gabby frowned.

"Oh...the bees disappearing!" The Doctor realized Gabby (and Donna) were very right in the matter and he was just about to brush it off. He returned to the computer with a new hope that, in turn, pulled Gabby and Renata.

"How is that significant?" The Shadow Architect studied each of the trio to understand what was so important about the insects she had only read about.

"Well, on Earth we have these insects - annoying but very useful - and according to our friend, Donna, a lot of them have been disappearing," Gabby explained.

"Or... they were going back home!" the Doctor exclaimed.

Gabby raised an eyebrow. "Back home? What do you mean…?"

"The planet Melissa Majoria."

"Bees are aliens!?"

Renata put a calming hand over Gabby's shoulder. "Your Earth is just full of surprises, isn't it?"

"You're telling me we have alien bees!?"

"Don't be so daft," the Doctor told her. "Not all of them. But, if the migrant bees felt something, some sort of danger, and escaped... Tandocca!"

"The Tandocca Scale," the Shadow Architect was beginning to understand by the looks of it.

And that's when the Doctor took off in a rambling speed that absolutely no creature should be able to master. "The Tandocca Scale is a series of wavelengths used as carrier signals by migrant bees. Infinitely small, no wonder we didn't see it. It's like looking for a speck of cinnamon in the Sahara!"

Gabby's face was a mixture of bemusement and horror, so she glanced at Renata for a better version of that and some plain answers on how the Doctor could possibly do that.

"Centuries have passed and I still have no idea," Renata exhaleed tiredly. The Doctor seemed to know exactly what she was talking about because he rolled his eyes at her.

"Just look!" He grabbed both Renata and Gabby and brought them to the computer screen. "There it is! The Tandocca trail!" There was a trail of blue light almost glittering on the screen. "The transmat that moved that planets was using the same wavelength! We can follow the path!"

"And get to Earth!" Gabby excitedly jumped. "Well let's go!" Now she grabbed the Doctor and Renata and yanked them for the TARDIS. Earth was at the tip of their fingers!

The Doctor somehow got in the lead and went straight for the console's monitor to pull up what they were looking for. "We're a bit late. The signal's scattered, but it's a start!"

"Uh, Doctor?"

He stopped to see Renata was at the doorway, pointing outside. He hurried back to see the Judoon all gathered behind the Shadow Architect. "I've got a blip! It's just a blip, but it's definitely a blip!" He told them.

"Then according to the strictures of the Shadow Proclamation, I will have to seize your transport and your technology," the Shadow Architect's words made him pause.

"Oh, really? What for?"

"The planets were stolen with hostile intent. We are declaring war, Doctor! Right across the universe! And you will lead us into battle!"

The Doctor wanted to be surprised...but he just couldn't be. It was such a predictable thing the Shadow Proclamation would pull. It was why it was far more fun when he glanced at Renata with a smirk. For one moment, they weren't arguing at all. They were just themselves again. "You want to take that one?"

The Time Lady was not remotely amused with his smugness. Of course he'd be smug. She was always on his case about never going to the Shadow Proclamation when things were bad, and much less let them handle things. Now that they were here, doing what she always said they should do, it turned out to be very bad.

"I…" she sighed, "Dammit." She had to admit defeat. "Let us go get you a key," she told the Shadow Architect with a polite smile then yanked the grinning Doctor behind her. He gladly let the doors close and immediately began to laugh as he trailed after her. "It's not funny!" She stalked over to the console. "I just lied to the Shadow Proclamation!" For her, that was blasphemy!

"Yeah you did!"

Renata stopped once she was at the console and glared at the Doctor. "I just lied...to one of the biggest, most official, departments."

"I told you-"

"-shut up!"

Gabby secretly smiled on the side. If they were bickering, making fun of each other, then it meant they couldn't be angry with each other, right?

~ 0 ~

Donna didn't know what was worse: having the Daleks roaming their world and kidnapping humans or having to explain just how terribly dangerous they were to her mother and grandfather. Her mother was scared beyond belief but that didn't stop her from disbelieving every word Donna was saying.

"I'm telling you, Mum! They're aliens from-" Donna pointed a finger above her head, "-space! The Doctor and Renata told me all about them!"

Sylvia would shake her head and mumble that they were going crazy and that if she was going to die, she would have some tea in hand. Donna groaned and let her head fall to the kitchen table in a loud thud. Her forehead would definitely hurt later.

"You couldn't get ahold of them, sweetheart?" Wilf sat right beside her.

Donna raised her head only to shake it. "They must have blocked the phone signals or something. I don't know what else to do. Martha's not picking up either and she's the only other one I had around here…"

Something peculiar happened that froze everyone in their spots. A knock on the door. And then two. And then three.

"The...whatever they're called? Is that them?" Sylvia huddled by the sink, but Donna shook her head again.

"Daleks don't knock, mother."

"No, you stay here," Wilf told her once she started heading out of the kitchen. "There's a lot of crazies right now."

"Yes, but no crazy banging nor shouts," Donna pointed out. She had hope that maybe it was Martha coming to help or at the very least to keep each other company. But when she opened the door she found a blonde on the other side with a massive gun in hand.

She was no stranger.

"I met you," Donna blinked in realization. "In-in that...that parallel world thing the fortune teller put me in! But Martha said it was all gone-"

"Hi Donna, I'd love to talk but can we do that inside where there's no Daleks lurking?" Rose Tyler had a big smile on her face despite the chaos around them. Donna wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but she nodded and stepped aside. Rose was happy to come in and leave behind the darkness, at least for a moment.

"Hold on!" Donna went after her. "Parallel worlds - the Doctor told me about that! You're not supposed to be here!"

Rose removed the hangar from her gun and set it on the couch. "Well, I was trapped...and then...things happened…" It had taken a lot for her to finally get to the right world and she wasn't going to let anything get in her way.

"You were in my world!" Donna reiterated in a frantic shout, almost begging Rose to agree so that Donna knew she wasn't crazy.

"I was," the blonde nodded her head. "I've been travelling from world to world, trying to find this Earth."

"But I don't...the Doctor said parallel worlds are sealed off. That's why…" Donna trailed off awkwardly. Reminding Rose of the terrible parting with the Doctor 2 years ago was probably something Rose didn't want to remember.

"Donna, who the hell is that?" Sylvia had come out of the kitchen with Wilf. The first thing Sylvia noticed was the massive gun on her couch.

"She's a friend of the Doctor's," Donna said with a light smile. Well, there was no Martha but they had Rose now. One for one.

"Rose Tyler," the blonde waved a nervous hand at them. Last thing she was thinking of was going through a proper greeting. Time was their only weapon, after all. "Donna, can you call the Doctor?"

"I've been trying but he's not picking up!"

That sentence alone seemed to rip through Rose. "What…?"

Donna sighed wearily. "I've been trying like mad but the signal doesn't go through. Wherever they are in space...it's not getting the signal."

"In space?" Sylvia repeated condescendingly.

"Oh mother, hush!" Donna unexpectedly snap. "It's all real, you know? Just take a look at the sky, for God's sake!"

The yelling between the two didn't seem to break through Rose. She dejectedly leaned against the couch as she processed that her only plan was on a halt. "You're my last hope. If we can't find the Doctor…"

There went the universe...universes.

~ 0 ~

The TARDIS had gone through a series of violent jerks until it suddenly stopped and threw everyone to the ground.

"Are we here!?" Gabby peeled her face off the floor and quickly laid eyes on the door.

"It's...stopped…?" the Doctor sounded confused and if he was confused then things were bad again.

"N-n-n-n-no don't say it like that, please!"

Renata got up first then helped Gabby. She was thinking like the Doctor that they couldn't have stopped. He was already at the monitor to see exactly where they had stopped.

"The Medusa Cascade," he said quietly. "I came here when I was just a kid. Ninety years old. It was the center of a rift in time and space."

"So...are the twenty-seven planets here?" Gabby left Renata's hold to see the monitor for herself. The space was beautiful with colors of blue and yellow and red all swirled together...but she didn't see her home planet. "Where...where are they?" She looked to see the Doctor was once again wearing that expression she hardly saw, because he never showed it. Hopelessness.

"The Tandocca Trail stops dead," he stepped away from the monitor, perhaps to hide his hopelessness. "...end of the line."

Gabby watched him like he was crazy. She'd never heard him say something like that, much less appear like he believed that. Her head turned to Renata in a snap to see what she would say.

She wasn't like the Doctor, but Renata had learned long ago how to hide her true feelings. Yet another gift from her family. Even if she was upset, if she was helpless, or hopeless, she should always wear a smile for everyone.

"We'll find it," Renata said. Her eyes blinked rapidly - she was thinking about Martha on Earth - and Gabby could hear the heavy inhales she was taking. "I don't know how but...we'll find it."

In any other situation, Gabby would've loved to point out how Renata and the Doctor had taken each other's roles. Renata, who was used to reality, was now daring to believe in the impossible like the Doctor and he was taking her perspective of reality to the last point. The irony.

~0~

Without Donna's working phone, Rose resorted to a computer. She didn't expect much from it but at the very least it could help with something.

"The thing is…" Donna was sitting right next to Rose in the kitchen, "In that parallel world...how did you know me?"

An amused smile spread across Rose's face while she went through the computer. "I told you that already: you're the most important woman in the universe."

"Oh come off it," Donna waved her off. "There were plenty of people connected to the Doctor after you. There was Martha-"

"Heard about her, lovely but she wasn't the one I needed."

"Alright, what about Gabby? She's young but she's definitely added something, right?"

"Gabby Gonzalez is not my domain persay."

"What do you mean?"

Rose visibly swallowed hard. "You have to remember, Donna, that I visited a lot of parallel worlds before coming to yours. I've seen versions of Gabby that...don't end so nicely."

Donna was quick to be horrified. "She dies?"

"No…" Rose tilted her head, wondering if this was even an appropriate conversation to have. With a sigh, she pulled her gaze from the screen to look at Donna. "There were a couple parallel worlds where something - I think a space art gallery of some sort - would contaminate Gabby and then she would end up as this…huge-" she made the gesture of something large with her hands, "-cosmic butterfly. And she wasn't a very nice cosmic butterfly."

"But that can't be. Our Gabby went to a space gallery too and-and nothing happened to her."

"Different world, different results. Maybe it just wasn't her."

Donna was sure the Doctor examined Gabby after Zhe's gallery, finding that Gabby was also exposed to the same toxins now hurting Renata. Maybe Gabby just wasn't hit with the same amount? Or because she's human? But then if it wasn't Gabby…

"Maybe it was someone else…" Donna whispered when it donned on her who'd been taking the worst hit from that space gallery. "Oh God, if it's Renata…"

Rose once again stopped on the computer and side-glanced Donna with a sharp look. "Renata? A Time Lady? Don't tell me you have one of her too." Donna met Rose's eyes, suddenly nervous when she remembered the whole ordeal between Renata and the Doctor. Rose presumed that was Donna's way of saying 'yes' and groaned. "Not her!"

"What? You know Renata?"

"Unfortunately. She's a Time Lady in the other worlds I crossed to but she was no help at all. She didn't care about the stars dying, nor that the Doctor didn't exist in her worlds or that he was dead."

"Well that can't be Renée," Donna used the Doctor's nickname for her as if she was trying to say that couldn't be his Renata. "You know, our Renata, she's very good at hiding her true feelings. I'm willing to bet that she was lying to you. She kind of does that." Rose didn't seem so sure. She went back to work instead, but Donna still had one more thing to say. "Our Renata here, she was contaminated badly and she's been having health issues…the Doctor's told me that he thinks she might be regenerating soon, or at least her body will try to." Donna remembered how terribly grim the Doctor was when he shared that detail with him. He was truly terrified of what could happen to Renata and there was nothing that he could do about it. Renata had been contaminated with something that nobody else had. And before the Doctor even knew who she was, he had already fallen for her. With all those feelings the situation had to be even more terrifying. Who'd want to lose someone they loved?

"Then I'm betting she's going to become the not-so-nice cosmic butterfly," Rose murmured, not particularly concerned for that bit.

Donna was worried, though, very worried. Could this have been the prediction Gabby told her about? Is that how Renata was supposed to die? And was that here? At this moment? They really needed to find the Doctor.

'You will obey Dalek instructions without question. You will obey your Dalek ma-'

Rose froze when the computer went pitch white. She blinked several times at it, wondering if they were about to catch a break.

'Can anyone hear me? The subwave network is open, you should be able to hear my voice…'

"Yes! Yes! I can hear you!" Rose was quick to say. Even Donna had leaned closer to see who was trying to talk to them. "

"Is there anyone there?"

Rose gasped. "I know that voice...!"

"This message is of the utmost importance. We haven't much time. Can anyone hear me?"

The screen cleared up a few seconds later and had Harriet Jones on the other end, flashing her ID at anyone who watched. "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister!"

"Harriet! It's me, it's me!" Rose soon realized that Harriet couldn't hear her at all. She looked at Donna who shook her head.

"It's my grandad's computer!"

"Have you got a webcam?".

"No," Wilf answered from the couch. "She-" he nodded at Sylvia beside him, "-won't let me. She said they're naughty."

Rose sighed and looked at the screen again. "Well, I can't speak to her then, can I?"

So close and so far.

~0~

Renata had opened the TARDIS doors to the empty Medusa Cascade. She wasn't sure what she was doing, but at least she was doing something. She extended her hand, focusing on that sneaky energy that had caught her off guard far too many times. Now it was her turn to control it and maybe, just maybe, it would do something good for them. There were quiet wisps of energy that would emanate from her fingertips, but nothing too significant.

"Don't hurt yourself," the Doctor came up behind her. "We still don't know what that energy can do to you."

"If it'll get us somewhere, then I don't care." She closed her eyes to try again, but this time the Doctor lowered her. With a sigh of annoyance, she opened her eyes and turned around. "Stop that. I need to try again."

"But what's the point?"

Renata simply couldn't believe that those words were actually coming out of his mouth. He even looked the part of someone with zero faith. "The point is that I'm trying to do something! Just like...just like you would."

"Well who taught you that?"

Renata's expression went full-on incredulous. "You!" She frantically gestured to him. "In your annoying, talented way. It's the thing I've never been good at but you... you've always done that. I wish I could've been like that from the start."

The Doctor gave a light shake of his head. He moved around her to close the TARDIS doors. "Maybe you've been right this whole time. It's best to see reality." If he had seen reality before, way back on Gallifrey, then maybe he would've avoided all the pain he'd carried since then.

"Don't say that, please," Renata whispered. She felt terrible thinking that her words had finally cut through the Doctor. That's never what she wanted to do. "Because the day you start thinking like me...then it's really over."

That's how badly she thinks of herself, the Doctor concluded. He wasn't that surprised, though. Zuriah usually wasn't very confident, even when she had the ability to make anyone smile. She was always so good at making everyone - anyone - feel welcomed, feel at home and Renata was just as good. As soon as she was finally settled in her new traveling life with him, she made him feel at home in his own TARDIS. She was a warm, kind woman…

He forgot how he used to feel around her.

"Doctor, it's Zuriah. She's here. She's alive and she's here. The universe is giving you a second chance to be happy."

"She has a point," Donna's input made the Doctor turn his head at her. "You've told me how much it hurt to leave her behind, especially when...when your war was over. But she's alive."

She was alive and yet he was still so scared of what would happen. He still felt the anger towards Renata even when he knew - when he accepted - that he was still in love with her, but maybe this is what Martha meant. There wasn't time to waste but it was difficult to move on right now. Maybe it was just 'right now'. He'd have to come back to that when all this mess was over...

"I know you must not value my words right now - or ever again - but I have to tell you how much you've...changed me." Renata stepped closer to him but was a bit afraid that he wouldn't want to be in such close proximity to her. "I never really got the jist of planet Earth and much less the humans...but you've changed that this past year. I finally get why you're always there to help them. They're amazing - albeit a little narcissistic sometimes - but they're people worth getting to know. And I thank you for that. Now I just want to help however I can and make that girl over there-" she nodded over to Gabby who was blankly staring at the ground, "-happy again. So, yes, my energy might not do a damn thing but I will keep trying even if it kills me."

It was impossible for the Doctor not to feel at least a little bit special. Time was, he always tries to show Zuriah the best of the world through his words. She would always question his obsession with the humans, commenting on how he should redirect that attention to their home instead. But here she was, thinking almost like him.

There came a beeping noise from the console, startling the trio inside. It was hard to tell what it was for a few seconds, until…

"PHONE!" Gabby actually fell out of the Captain's chair in her shock. The Doctor dashed for the console with Renata hot on his trail.

"That's Martha's phone! It's Martha's!" Renata was too excited when she saw the Doctor picking up the ringing phone.

"Martha, is that you?!" the Doctor called but there was nothing on the other end. He pulled the phone from his ear to see the screen. "It's a signal…"

"Can we follow it?" Gabby jumped back to her feet, albeit a little wobbly from her fall. "Like back to Earth?"

The Doctor had a stethoscope on the phone and the phone in front of the monitor, with no intention of letting the trace go. "Oh just watch me!" Renata beamed at him. He couldn't just give up - it wasn't him. "Got it! Locking on!" he cheered. He didn't warn the other two that the TARDIS was about to once again shake them - he just pulled the lever and started her up.

Renata shrieked at the sparks that flew from the console and nearly hit her face. Her arms flew over her face and in doing so, the TARDIS had an easier time throwing her back.

"Renata!" Gabby yelped from her spot.

"I'm fine, just keep going!"

But a moment later, the console went up in flames and forced Gabby to let go. She shrieked as well when she went down.

"Sorry! We're travelling through time! One second in the future!" the Doctor explained in a loud shout. "The phone call's pulling us through!"

"Just get us there!" Renata, again, yelled from the floor.

"THREE! TWO! ONE!" The Doctor yelled at the top of his lungs whilst the TARDIS shook like it never had before.

The TARDIS hurtled towards something new, exactly to where Earth and the other lost planets truly were. The fire, soon, started going out on its own.

Renata eventually climbed her way back up using the dry parts of the console for support. Her back ached and that warmth was coming back to her skin. "Please tell me we're here?"

The Doctor's grin was answer enough. He helped Gabby stand up while Renata hurriedly moved to the computer.

"The twenty-seven planets!" she beamed. "And there's the Earth, Gabby, very much present!"

"Let me see!" Gabby left the Doctor's hold to see for herself that the planets were all there. "But why couldn't we see it before?"

"The entire Medusa Cascade has been put a second out of sync with the rest of the universe. Perfect hiding place, tiny little pocket of time. But we found them!" The Doctor had come to the monitor in time to see the screen blurring. "Oh, oh... what's that?"

"Someone's trying to reach us," Renata really hoped it was Martha and Donna. She needed to know they were okay.

"Some sort of... subwave network!" The Doctor anxiously waited for the screen to completely clear up. He did his best from his end to help the network come through, but it was mostly up to their luck.

Jack Harkness was the first to appear in a square of four, followed by Sarah Jane Smith, Martha Jones and then their own square.

"Martha!" Renata beamed at the sight of her best friend. Martha grinned in relief to see their network had finally reached them.

Jack Harkness laughed in the same relief but it was followed by an angry, "Where the hell have you been!?" It made the trio blink in collective surprise.

"Well, rude," Renata muttered but she couldn't stop smiling. They were alive right now and that's all she cared for. "Wait - who's that?" She pointed a finger at Sarah Jane.

"Oh, Sarah Jane!" The Doctor was the next to beam. "An old friend! Who's the boy?" He spotted the brunette teenager standing next to Sarah Jane.

"Is Donna around there?" Gabby squirmed her way in-between the Doctor and Renata, momentarily looking like their curious child trying to see what was going on.

"Donna!" Renata gasped. Her eyes laid on Martha but it was only her.

"She's at home, I'm assuming safe? All communication is down."

The trio's hearts stopped at the questionable fate of Donna.

"You picked up another one?" Jack raised an eyebrow at Gabby.

"She's mine," Renata answered with a proud smile, truly looking the part of a mother.

"I'm Gabby Gonzalez," Gabby gave a meek wave of her hand at the screen. "And I'm not a child, no matter how Renata makes it seem."

"Doctor, it's the Daleks!" Jack exclaimed.

"They're taking people to their spaceship!" Sarah Jane added and was followed by Martha's input.

"But it's not just Dalek Caan!"

~ 0 ~

In Donna's living room, there was an equal relief to see the Doctor and Renata on their computer screen, although Rose paid more attention to the former than the latter.

"They're alive," Donna was grinning from ear to ear. "And that means we can still win this!"

"Win what? The world's ending," Sylvia said from behind.

"Mum, not now!" Donna sighed as she watched everyone jabber along on the computer. They were unable to join.

"So you do have the cosmic butterfly and the Time Lady?" Rose didn't seem too sure about them when she glanced at Donna.

"They're incredibly kind women, I swear," Donna assured her.

"She-" Rose tapped her finger over Renata, "-didn't care for humanity in your world. She was in hiding...and she knew the Doctor, but...she didn't care that he was dead."

"To be fair, that's also a version of Renata that never met the Doctor again so...she never got attached to any human like Martha...me...and Gabby," Donna said sadly. She wondered what that other version of Renata felt like being alone. She remembered how scary the Doctor had been the first time she met him. He had no control of himself, no care for his own life because he felt so utterly alone. She presumed the other Renata had to been similar.

"And she-" Rose moved her finger to Gabby, "-can be very dangerous. She was a fixed point in time in a lot of the other worlds. She was dangerous, Donna, I swear."

"I believe you," Donna promised. Rose looked very sincere in her worries and Donna couldn't just wash them away when Rose had seen things with her own eyes. "But please trust me when I tell you that these versions are not who you think they are. They're here to help."

Rose bit her lower lip and turned her gaze back to the computer. All this time she hadn't felt her stomach churn the way it was right now - despite the Dalek situation and the universes crashing - but now looking at Renata and Gabby made things feel a lot worse. It scared her even more.

~ 0 ~

The Doctor was fondly watching all of his previous companions jabber over one another, trying to explain the situation. He had no idea what they were saying but he didn't care. He was so happy to see all of them. "Look at you all, you clever people!"

"These are all previous companions?" Gabby asked him with a growing smile on her face. People just like her who would understand all of her stories!?

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded. "That's Captain Jack-" and just before the man in question was about to open his mouth, the Doctor pointed a warning finger at him, "Don't you dare!" Gabby blinked but smiled at the brunette man on the screen. He was kind of cute. "That's Sarah Jane - we go way back."

"Centuries," Sarah Jane agreed. "Now I must ask who is that?" She was talking about Renata who'd been pretty quiet but nonetheless looking just as happy as everyone else.

"Renata," the woman answered. "Nice to meet you...even though I wish it was under better circumstances."

"This is like an outer-space Facebook!" Gabby laughed once she realized the comparison. "Can we make this a daily thing? You know, when the world isn't ending."

"Oh Gabby," Renata laughed and side hugged her.

"Everyone except Rose," the Doctor distantly commented after a moment.

~ 0 ~

"I'm here, Doctor. I'm here," Rose whispered with an urgency that Donna could practically see radiating from her.

~ 0 ~

The screen in the TARDIS turned into white noise all of a sudden.

"No, no get them back!" Gabby frantically said, even banging the side of the monitor to get ahead of the Doctor.

"There's another signal coming through, there's someone else out there!" The Doctor did indeed follow Gabby's plan and banged the other side of the monitor.

"Would you two stop banging the monitor!?" Renata yanked their two hands off the poor screen. "Maybe it's Donna."

But the voice that followed was definitely not Donna. It was a raspy, almost ugly, voice that froze the two Time Lords in their places. "Your voice is different, and yet, its arrogance is unchanged."

Gabby wasn't sure who it was but judging by the looks on the pair's faces, she knew it could not be good.

"No, but he's dead…" Sarah Jane was the only companion who seemed to share the Time Lord's horror.

"Welcome to my new empire, Doctor," Davros - creator of the Daleks - emerged from the darkness to reveal a rather unappealing appearance.

"Ugh…" Gabby found herself retracting a few steps, repulsed at the terrible creature on the screen.

"I've never actually seen him…" Renata sucked in a breath of terror. Flashes of the war came back to her mind suddenly.

"It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection and the triumph of Davros, Lord and Creator of the Dalek Race," Davros said, but the Doctor only stared in silence. "Have you nothing to say?"

Gabby took the Doctor's silence as a very good reason to be afraid. "We're-we're in the TARDIS. We're...we're supposed to be safe, right?"

"But you were destroyed," the Doctor finally found some words to say. "In the very first year of the Time War, at the Gates of Elysiem. I saw your command ship flying into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. I tried to save you…"

Renata's double-take on him nearly hurt her neck from how fast she'd done it. "You did what?" Never in her lives would she ever try to save someone like Davros...but of course the Doctor would.

"It took one stronger than you," Davros told him. "Dalek Caan himself."

The Dalek himself flashed in the background, singing his words with an insane undertone. "I flew into the wild and fire. I danced and died a thousand times!"

"Emergency temporal shift took him back into the Time War itself," Davros further explained, or explained better since the other Dalek was deliriously laughing.

"But the entire War is time locked!" Renata, outraged, yelled. How could a creature like that be able to penetrate the most sealed event in history?

"And yet, he succeeded. Oh, it cost him his mind, but imagine - a single, simple Dalek succeeded where Emperors and Time Lords have failed. A testament, don't you think, to my remarkable creations?"

"And you made a new race of Daleks," the Doctor could only assume.

"I gave myself to them. Quite literally. Each one grown from a cell of my own body." Davros revealed his rotten form underneath his suit. His ribs and heart were almost entirely visible. "New Daleks. True Daleks. I have my children, Doctor. What do you have, now?"

The Doctor was still pretty shaken from the fact that Davros was there so Renata felt like it was appropriate to answer for him. "I am Renata and you ruined our world! So the only thing we're going to do is say goodbye you horrible, ugly monster!" She reached for the lever across and yanked it down with all her might, sending both the Doctor and Gabby to the floor.

The TARDIS began its descent towards Earth, never the smooth ride.

Author's Note:

Ah, so it's all coming now. Donna still went through the paralell world but now she's back on Earth helping Rose out where she can. And Rose started foreshadowing what could/might happen to Renata...or Gabby...or Renata...

And guys...they finally went to the Shadow Proclamation! But poor Renata, in her nightie, and it all blew up in her face. They were NOT helpful at all and the Doctor finally got to show it. This moment will come up later on too xD.

Can you guys believe that there's only like 6 chapters left in this story (if I don't decide to split up a few chapters). I'm so excited for the next story that I thought I'd leave behind another snippet of it. Actually, this is quite literally the beginning of the next story if anyone's curious!

P. S: As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "noble-crescent" and the tag I created for any posts having to do with my work is # noblecrescentedit.

[theromanticrationalist]

Short Treks: My Thoughts

Now that I’ve finally caught up on Short Treks, I thought I would share my thoughts on the series and the future of Star Trek. 

Short Version: It’s a bizarrely mixed bag.

Now for the long version. (SPOILERS)

Short Treks: Runaway

I love Sylvia Tilly (who doesn’t?), and this new era of Star Trek has certainly given us some interesting and lovely characterizations. This was a pretty solid short story, and I loved that we got to spend more time with Tilly. I also enjoyed how they tied this story into season 2 of Discovery, which added more depth to her character. Yes, Tilly just makes friends with random alien queens. It’s just what she does.

I also appreciated Po’s dilemma in her fears and struggles with her people about the coming changes of them becoming a warp-capable society. Thanks to Po’s ingenuity and talent, she has given her people a way to stabilize Dilithium crystals, but Po has done this out of a love of science and creativity. She fears the exploitation of her discovery and inventions for selfish gain. As a creative myself, I could relate to Po’s anguish as she desires the purity of her creation’s purpose, the soul, to be preserved above all else. #TheStruggleIsReal

In the end, though, both Tilly and Po mature and grow a little, which was satisfying to see. I look forward to seeing Tilly’s continued trajectory to her inevitable captaincy! 

Short Treks: Calypso

Another really solid story, but the only thing was that it didn’t feel like Star Trek to me. It just seemed like a beautiful and haunting science fiction story, maybe something that would be on Amazon’s Electric Dreams (love that series!). It certainly has some interesting implications for Discovery’s future, but overall it felt out of place in the lore. Despite that, this is probably the strongest of the Short Treks in writing, pacing, and emotional impact. Give me a love story with an AI/robot any day of the week.

Short Treks: Brightest Star

This was the one episode of the first batch of Treks that I was most excited about seeing. I think the strongest character and ideas of this new era of Star Trek is the character of Saru and his people, the Kelpiens and their predatory “overlords”, the Ba’ul. The planet dynamics of these species and how they’ve evolved together, and the mystery of how they are inexplicably linked is absolutely fascinating to me. Unfortunately, I feel like the writers really squandered the full potential of the ideas, which disappointed me greatly. 😞However, despite my disappointment, I did enjoy this story, albeit it was much to short. I think it needed to be 20 or 30 mins to really give the full impact of Saru’s struggle as an unusual Kelpien who looks up at the stars and speaks to them. But we don’t really get an explanation of how Saru is able to understand technology at all. We just have to accept that “he’s different”, so he just has the ingenuity to figure things out. I would have loved to have seen him when he was younger giving us examples of how his unorthodox thinking manifested in other ways in order for us to believe that he would be smart and capable enough to tinker and use technology beyond his people’s understanding. It would have also given us a chance to really immerse ourselves in the culture and mindset of the Kelpiens, to understand the psychology that shapes Saru’s very identity. In short, WE NEEDED MOAR KELPIENS AND SARU.

Overall, though, this episode was one of the very few that felt the most like Star Trek, as it exemplifies themes of questioning, seeking, searching, and asking and how that curiosity can lead us to worlds and realms beyond - that we are made for so much more than we could possibly imagine. 

This story also gave me Isaac Asimov vibes, which was cool.

Short Treks: The Escape Artist

This one was really disappointing and, frankly, very dull. Don’t get me wrong, Rainn Wilson does a fabulous Harry Mudd. He really adds nuance and cleverness to a character that originally was pretty one dimensional and campy. However, this was the one episode that NEEDED to be shorter, as it went on for far too long, and the pay off wasn’t worth it. It also left me feeling like, what was even the point? Why did they make this short story about Harry Mudd without telling us anything new about him? Yeah, we know he is conniving con man, we get it. It also doesn’t make sense continuity wise in Star Trek because I thought Doctor Noonien Soong was the leading roboticist/android expert, and Data wasn’t anywhere near to looking as life-like as Mudd’s replicas. Somehow Mudd is able to create perfect hosts-from-Westworld androids that sweat, bleed, bruise, and otherwise act like organic matter, able to express the full nuanced range of human emotion as to be clone-like duplicates of himself. Um. Okay??? I guess this lone con man fugitive has made these ingenious and world-shattering discoveries and inventions in robotics and technology. Yep.

Short Treks: Q&A

The absolute best of the Short Treks, IMLTHO. (Yeah, I may be biased...) You can read my thoughts on this episode here: X. 

Short Treks: The Trouble With Edward

Yeah. So this one is W-E-I-R-D, even by Star Trek’s standards. I also didn’t get it. I didn’t understand why it was made or why it took the tone that it did. It was funny, yeah, uncomfortably amusing, like we were watching The Office: Star Trek Edition, but WHY. Did someone ask for this? What is going on? WHY DID THEY HAVE THAT PARODY CHILDREN’S CEREAL COMMERCIAL AT THE END ABOUT EATING TRIBBLES WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING RIGHT NOW

It also doesn’t fit continuity-wise in the timeline. If someone at Starfleet was responsible for making tribbles the way that they are, then how come Kirk and the Enterprise weren’t notified as such? McCoy was the one who examined and discovered why they were breeding so much, but he could have just looked up Starfleet’s records apparently and got all the answers he needed. 

I’m not one of those fans who gets upset about continuity errors in world building, but really, there are just some things you should obviously know better not to do. 

Personally, I think the writer’s room was on Stamet’s mushrooms when they wrote this one, tbh. 😉

Short Treks: Ask Not

This was one was just ridiculous. The scenario wasn’t plausible, it was predictable, and the implications were kind of disturbing. For one, we all knew Captain Pike hadn’t turned. Yes, this perfect, plush, teddy bear of a man who is THE NUMBER ONE Space Dad of All Timeᵀᴹ who has absolute, unwavering integrity and honor is someone we are supposed to buy as having committed mutiny, or at least convince us that Cadet Thira Sidhu buys this obvious load of malarky. 

Uh, I don’t think so.

Also...THIS IS SO MESSED UP WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO YOUR CADETS. Why would you put them through this manipulative farce just to test their devotion, commitment, and integrity?! If I were this cadet I would be seriously angry and upset that I was tricked and made to go through the emotional turmoil, trauma, and distress of standing up against your commanding officer in a life endangering scenario! What the heck?? What sick, perverted, twisted mind thought of this cruel -

Oh.

Haha, okay so I think it is kind of hilarious just how merciless Number One is that she would actually come up with this kind of test. This episode was TOTALLY worth the little Spock and Number One Mutual Appreciation Society moment, as Spock, with stars in his eyes, admires Number One’s cutthroat tactics. I mean in AOS, Spock did come up with the Kobayashi Maru so it is all making sense. However, at least in the Kobayashi Maru the cadets knew they were taking a test. Cadet Thira Sidhu did not. The lighthearted and warm fuzzy ending to this episode did not at all jive with what had just happened. It would have been much more interesting to have dealt with the implications of Number One’s test on the cadets, while expanding on her character as well as telling us why Pike would even partake of and allow this to happen, but oh well. 

Short Treks: Ephraim and Dot

The idea? Creative. The characters? Cute. The animation? Really nice with an old school flair. And yet I was once again left feeling like what was the point? I mean I’m sure 3-5 year olds would enjoy watching this little short, like something akin to Looney Tunes IN SPACE, but really there wasn’t much substance here. Frankly, it just seemed like it was a nostalgia trip and Easter egg dump. 

Short Treks: The Girl Who Made The Stars

This is another very creative idea with excellent animation and an interesting look into Michael’s childhood and the ideas that shaped her. I suppose it accomplishes what it sets out to do, and is pretty effective, but personally it didn’t do much for me. It was sweet and inspirational and that’s about it. 

Short Treks: Children of Mars

This was a prologue of sorts before Picard begins, and so it was interesting to have our first look into what we will come to expect from that series. It was, undoubtedly, emotionally effecting, as it actually brought tears to my eyes. However, I did have an issue with it and I was trying to figure out what that was. I then realized - it felt like a commercial. Like one of those long commercials that tells a poignant little story in order to sell an idea or product, whatever it may be. It was too glossy, stylized, and seemed like it could be used as a kind of propoganda-esque promotion of Starfleet and its ideals. I know that is a kind of cynical way of viewing it, but that is how it felt to me in the way it chose to tell its story. I think if the girls had been allowed to be real characters we could have immersed ourselves in their story and what the both of them ended up having to face together in the end. It would have felt much more real and earnest, instead of just tugging at our heartstrings in a syrupy kind of way. 

Also, it kind of gave me The Expanse vibes. Just an observation. 

Conclusion

These Short Treks, and subsequently the CBS era of the Star Trek franchise, are a really weird mix bag for me. On one hand, I do admire their creative risks as they decide to try new ways of telling Star Trek stories, which I know not all those in the fandom appreciate or desire. Yet on the other hand, most of the time the writing is just poorly done and generic, so it all seems to just cancel itself out. 😕

Creating memorable, enjoyable, and original characters: 100%

The level of Feelzᵀᴹ felt from the storytelling and acting: 1000%

Creativity through set, costumes, and stylistic approaches and ideas: 100%

Writing: Subpar, 20%

Science: Not Even Science

In the end it seems like those running this new era of Star Trek have a lot of heart, but not enough analytical thinking or patience to take the time to build the necessary character and plot logic that makes for much more satisfying storytelling. Just saying “Space, the final frontier” a thousand times doesn’t make this Star Trek, and making us feel things through excellently composed music and acting isn’t good writing. (Also, people saying that they love science all the time doesn’t mean they are actually doing science!) So, I don’t expect much from this CBS era, but I’ll be watching it and enjoying it anyway. I’m Star Trek trash. What can I say?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Source for images: X

[fuckyeahsylviatilly]

IT’S SO FUCKING GAY!!!!!

im sorry what did I just witness

[artherra]

Ta podrobnost je až zarážející! (když vezmeme v potaz, že jedná o odpověď na téhle pekelné stránce) Obdivuju každého, kdo své světy promýšlí i z přírodovědného hlediska a tak podobně. Kamarádka, která se o tyhle věci zajímá mnohem víc než já, prohlásila o Yarasse, že je „hustá“ a já s ní rozhodně souhlasím! Budu znít jako Otesánek, když řeknu, že chci slyšet víc? I o dalších částech, samozřejmě.

Hm, další části? Pokud tě zajímá politika; Veritas (jediné město) je docela narvané - mluvím o 1200-2000 osob na km čtvereční. Z “bezpečné” oblasti o 43 km2 je samotný Veritas pouze 16 km2 rozlehlý. Žije v něm přibližně 22 000 lidí, což v porovnání s velkoměsty na zemi je vesnička. Ale I tento počet se mění podle toho, které zabijácké bytosti nebo přírodnímu jevu se podaří prorvat přes bezpečnostní opatření. Ztráty bývají ve stovkách. Yarassa je osvícenská diktatura, “vůdcem” je 39-letá Sylvia Norton. Vůdce se volí podle schopností které prokážou - když zklamou, bývá konec jejich vlády rychlý. Součástí vlády je také “kruh” - ekvivalent parlamentu, složený z 30 lidí v různých věkových kategoriích, různých náboženství, ras a pohlaví. Kruh sice nemá schpnost zarážet rozhodnutí vůdce, provádí ale jeho vůli a stará se o svoje frakce - vojenské, vědecké atd.Z pohledu architektury Veritas připomíná několik měst postavených na sobě. Tvoří ho “sloupy” - vysoké, pevně postavené mrakodrapy propojené kovovými průchody a plošinami, zajišťují oporu budovám visících ve vzduchu, a “kathry” - široké plošiny, bývají i nakřivo, tvořeny dráty a kovovými pláty. Na sloupech a kathrách je postaveno celé město pevně na sobě až do výše 1,5 kilometru. Kov a neživé materiály proplétá nezničitelná divočina v podobě stromů, bylin, hub a “polorodů”(kombinace živočich x rostlina, nebo podobné). Obyvatelé mají jiné svátky, tradice a celkově jiné chování kvůli podmínkám ve kterých žijí - jsou uvolněnější, bystřejší, inteligentnější, táhnou hlavně k improvizaci, jsou společenštější (holy hell I haven’t written in czech on this website in a long time) kvůli narvanosti a vstřícnější. Jsou také dost divní, v dobrém slova smyslu. Odvaha je taky ve velké části populace. Jednou z věcí které nutí k odvaze je městská hromadná doprava. Kdyby Šimek a Grossman se svojí tramvají slyšeli jak tramvaje jezdí tam, tak by rezignovali. MHD funguje v komplexu rychlých elektrických vlaků s 8 vagóny po 100 lidech, které nezastavují a nemají jasně vyznačené stanice, pouze zpomalují v určitých úsecích. Jejich koleje se proplétají městem jako horská dráha, naskočit do otevřených dveří vagónu můžete kdekoli, pokud si troufáte. Takzvaná “pomalá hromadná doprava” (PHD) jsou ty stejné vlaky, které akorát zastavují ve vyznačených stanicích. Tyto dva typy MHD jsou v poměru 6:1.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: A Painter Who Merged Korean Art Traditions with Abstract Expressionism

Po Kim at 417 Lafayette (courtesy The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery)

There is a curious oasis on the eighth floor of 417 Lafayette Street in Greenwich Village that was once the residence of Po Kim, a Korean painter who came to the US in the 1950s and joined the Abstract Expressionists in New York. The apartment’s only occupants are a royal blue Macaw named Charlie and a baby-pink cockatoo named Jumble, both of whom are fed a handful of cracked nuts each morning by a woman named Pema. According to Kim’s friends, as many as 50 birds formerly filled the space with song.

For three years, since Kim’s death, this 4,000-square-foot apartment — with its potential monthly rent of $8,000 dollars — has had only avian occupants. It is kept as a shrine to its former owner, who the New York Times described as “an artist with exceptional technical ability and authoritative notions about his visions of the world.” The art critic and curator Lilly Wei once deemed Kim’s apartment “a microcosm of his entire universe.” Indeed, it is a crossroads of Eastern and Western sensibilities. His orchids still bask in the mezzanine greenhouse. The rooftop garden, with stunning views of downtown Manhattan, was once lush with rose bushes, magnolia trees, Japanese maples, and cacti. His bedroom holds a collection of personal photographs, Asian antiques, delicate figurines, and books about birds and art. The room’s most striking object is his four-poster, carved wood bed, still covered with a yellow silk comforter. No one seems to know where the bed came from — maybe China, maybe Indonesia. Near the living area, a lounger topped with Japanese tatami mats provides a broad view of Kim’s studio across the northern wall. His pieces have been moved to storage, but flecks of dried paint outline where the canvases once hung.

Po Kim, “Abstract 124” (1961 – 62), oil on paper, 13 x 10.25 inches (courtesy Seho Kim, Korea Society)

Despite his mastery of painting, Kim’s name remains lost to time. In his attempt to marry Korean and American techniques, he wound up caught between two cultures. Many of his Abstract Expressionist works integrated calligraphy and free-flowing brush strokes stirred by his emotions, similar to the Eastern concept of qi, or eternal energy. In an essay, the art critic Robert C. Morgan contrasted Kim’s sensitive style with Western “action painters” and described Kim’s paintings as an “inward aura relating to karma.” Though other Abstract Expressionists also looked to the East for inspiration, Kim’s deep insight and authentic relationship to those techniques should have elevated his work and name, yet he is rarely mentioned alongside the likes of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Now, 60 years after Kim arrived in New York, a younger generation of Korean artists living here still grapples with these same feelings of displacement and otherness. And while other elements of Korean culture have become fashionable, like K-pop music and kimchi, Korean art still struggles for attention. However, a new series of exhibitions at the Korea Society paying homage to New York’s Korean masters has launched with a long overdue showcase of Kim’s work, Po Kim: In Search of Arcadia.

Po Kim at work (courtesy The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery)

Before he passed away in 2014 at age 96, Kim was a living symbol of the fall and rise of South Korea. As a young artist there, the North Koreans falsely accused him of being a leftist and tortured him by electric shock. Later, during the Korean War, he was thrown in jail for allegedly lecturing on communism to an art class. He fled to the United States in 1955 at around age 38. In New York, he gravitated toward the Abstract Expressionists, befriending well-known artists like Lenore Tawney. His works from the 1950s and ’60s employ thick brush strokes in saturated corals and turquoise, reminiscent of Tachisme and with hints of Pollock’s drip painting method. I was mesmerized by one dark and lonely piece hanging in the apartment at 417 Lafayette, “Untitled” (1958), which depicts red orbs glowing from behind dense dribbles of black paint, like sheets of rain cloaking city streetlights. In the 1970s, Kim switched to highly detailed still life drawings that foreground the beauty of ordinary objects such as corrugated walnut shells and lustrous green beans floating in an indeterminate space. A 1979 review in the New York Times declared that these pieces convey “the feeling of psychological isolation.”

Po Kim, “Untitled” (1958), oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches (courtesy Seho Kim, Korea Society)

By the ’80s, Kim was producing large-scale, fantastical scenes based on his memories. They are patchworks of strange, cartoonish figures: humans hanging upside down; a nude woman being stretched by nothingness; faces the color of dried blood; hungry lions; and a rabbit with its back arched like a hissing cat. The carnage he witnessed in Korea haunted him the rest of his life, and his nightmares were often manifested in the his work. Ironically, Kim once claimed these dark fantasy paintings allowed him to escape reality, yet their bold, haunting images seem bent toward confrontation.

On a recent afternoon, a man named Young Cho poured me a cup of green tea in Kim’s former seating area. Cho emigrated from Korea after college and became Kim’s friend in the late ’90s. He is now the president of the foundation created in 2005 by Kim and his wife, the late sculptor Sylvia Wald, which owns the entire building. Kim and Wald purchased 417 Lafayette in the mid ’70s after selling their townhouse on East 4th Street to financial advantage. Cho admired Kim’s unwillingness to abandon his Korean heritage, despite the country’s disrepair. “His life shows a Korea and United States alliance,” he said. “He was doing Western methodology, but he did not lose his Korean touch in his own art.” Cho wants to make Kim known and use his friend’s story to educate Americans about Korean history, which he says is not taught properly in school here. “Promoting him is like promoting Korea,” he said. “All the suffering, all the brightness, the honor, it’s like a Korean modern history.”

It’s a difficult and slow undertaking to unpack Kim’s legacy, and Cho has made some strides. He renovated the seventh floor where Wald lived and turned it into a permanent showroom for the couple’s work. Last fall, he hosted a dinner there to close out the Korean Art Curator Symposium and allowed Open House New York participants to wander the roof, which is now under renovation. Some of Kim’s works now hang at Chosun University in Seoul, where he taught in the late ’40s and early ’50s, while many are in the storage room at 417 Lafayette, and still others reside in private collections as well as in the permanent of institutions including the Guggenheim Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. “We are small, but [like] a Korean version of the Whitney,” Cho said of the Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Gallery, which occupies the building’s fourth floor. It’s an ambitious space that brings in established Asian artists, many of them Korean, who have shown at major venues like the Venice Biennale, the British Museum, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, yet have received relatively less recognition in the US. A recent group exhibition at the gallery called Paper Revelation showcased exquisite works created with hanji, a thin, handmade Korean paper pulled from tree bark.

Po Kim at 417 Lafayette with his bird, Charlie (courtesy The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery)

One of Cho’s biggest hurdles in promoting Kim’s work is that the artist was out of step, both culturally and stylistically, for most of his career. “They were good paintings, but they were not in the fashion of the time,” Barbara London, a former curator at the Museum of Modern Art, told me. She contrasted Jean-Michel Basquiat’s drug-fueled, club-going lifestyle to Kim’s quiet, solitary demeanor, and noted the art world’s tendency to move on quickly. “Other people were in vogue and well promoted.”

The exhibition at the Korea Society, the first Po Kim show outside 417 Lafayette since the artist’s death, is an attempt to demonstrate that Kim and Korean art can prevail in New York. Curated by Cho’s wife, Odelette Cho, it features 18 pieces spanning Kim’s decades in New York. The latest work in the show is a polychromatic, acrylic painting overlaid with neon tape from 2013, the year before he died.

Po Kim: In Search of Arcadia continues at the Korea Society (350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, Midtown, Manhattan) through December 1.

The post A Painter Who Merged Korean Art Traditions with Abstract Expressionism appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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