Work Text:
Khan—The Island
The title is a bit awkward. “Khan-The Island” or rather “Khan/The Island” except computers sometimes don’t like slashes. I dunno, it tells me exactly what I need to know about the story, but I can see how it might be arcane to others.
In the original handwritten version, Lestrade was called Graves. It was suggested this was a pseudonym, but there’s really no reason for it; Sally and Anderson use those same names. I think I will just change it back to Lestrade, for clarity.
Here, it’s specifically said that Lestrade wears a charm, which by implication protects him from Magnus’s power. When the authorities show up, it’s not always mentioned that they’re wearing a charm, or need to; in this case it seems like a good precaution, since Magnus is actively malicious.
It’s also briefly mentioned that there might be a backstory of “evil spirits banished to the corporeal world, only to cause even more trouble.” Sometimes the background is given more play than other times; I think it’s fun to sprinkle little clues in here and there, keep it vague.
It’s a bit awkward, the scene where Bay is revealed to Magnus—in a movie I would be cutting between Magnus in the detention room and Bay in the conference room, but that’s harder to do in prose, for whatever reason. Is it several very small scenes separated by ** dividers? How about when in one scene, you hear Sally’s voice over Lestrade’s communicator, so it needs to be in italics, but then the next line is Sally speaking to Bay in the conference room, not in italics?
It’s implied that the Cosmic Partners can pick what kind of exile they want—Magnus specifically asks for a cottage by the sea, on an island where they won’t be disturbed. I don’t know if I would read too much into that, though. The point of exile is to be where they won’t be disturbed, or disturb anyone else—an island is kind of necessary for that, a defined area with only an endless, uncrossable ocean beyond. I suppose they could be on a space station in the void or something. Magnus and Bay always seem to get an English cottage by the sea cliffs, Bowen and Quince get a tropical island, and Roman and Xylos get a New England-type island, which functionally seems to be similar to England. I couldn’t think of other types of islands that would be pleasant at all.
Interestingly the name “Khan” is never actually used in the story. He’s John Harrison, and then Magnus. I guess I don’t consider that a problem.
Originally what I had written was the first 14 pages/6300 words. I resumed writing (May 2016) with the line, “Magnus took that as fair,” about not criticizing Bay’s cooking. What I added typed up to be less than a page, and about 300 words.
I’m a bit curious about the witch-charm idea, I rarely use it for whatever reason. It would be interesting to see what someone’s life was like as a young person with this charm—someone made it for them, sensing that it was needed, but how much do they really understand about what they’re suppressing? What if their partner finds them anyway? In this story the charm was especially well-made, and prevented Magnus from sensing Bay even when they were nearby. But another one might “leak” a little bit, allowing the partner to find them even though they don’t remember anything. It’s a lot easier to fix than an early blow to the head, though—remove the charm and, after a period of disorientation, they’ll remember everything. I should consider charm tattoos sometime.
Alpha Omega
This was an early story for me in the Sherlock universe, and I started out by calling Sherlock “Ben,” as I sometimes did. I’m changing it back to Sherlock as I type to avoid confusion, because there’s really no need for the name change.
John’s parents are Martha and George here. I don’t know if that’s canon, or if anything is canon.
It’s going along fairly normally, then Martha points out, “You can’t be John’s friend, you didn’t even know his name a minute ago!” and Sherlock is like, “Forget that part!” and she does—and suddenly you realize this is not a normal story at all. Classic Cosmic Partners editing of reality. Though interestingly it doesn’t make Sherlock’s inquiry much easier, because next Martha is like, “Hmm, John never mentioned having an older Alpha for a friend.”
I think this is a good, typical Cosmic Partners story. It doesn’t over-explain, but I think it lays out a lot of the basic parameters. Knowledge arrives with adolescence/adulthood, slowly at first in the form of vague longings and strange dreams, then with enough certainty to make yourself comfortable in the world and go out knocking on stranger’s doors, looking for the partner you were separated from. Bay has a normal development—he’s a little behind Magnus due to his age, but it’s all going to get filled in eventually, and he’s not going, “Who is this stranger who claims to know me?” and freaking out, as often happens in other stories where an obstacle has been raised.
I was going to do a series of these short stories—the Alpha/Omega Variations. In the next one, it might be older Omega Sherlock who comes to the door of younger Alpha John. Then maybe a pair where John is the older one, the one who’s been waiting and has more understanding of his powers. Then a short comic finale, where Sherlock shows up at John’s house, and they realize they’re both Alphas, which is the equivalent of being gay in an intolerant time. So they decide to move to San Francisco.
I really like this one story as it is, though, and I wonder if switching things around would be too repetitive. It might be interesting to see how John’s mother reacts to an older Omega looking for her Alpha son—looking down her nose a bit at Sherlock being less of a catch, thinking he’s a bit forward, etc.. But I feel like the conversation in the car would be largely the same, because even as an Omega Sherlock is pushy, and even as an Alpha John is respectful. Of course, those are not the same attributes being displayed in the current story; but I still wonder if the differences would really be worth the repetition.
I really tried with this story, it’s earnest and emotional, not really comedic or glib—I think the emotions would be the same in another scenario with a basic, narrow scope. Longing, especially for something that seems silly or fantastical; a resigned melancholy with relief at the wait being over; and eagerness to move forward while the other person is still confused.
I feel like I cover similar emotions in other stories, that have additional plot elements to keep them fresh—Omega John with a child and amnesia about his past (not Cosmic Partners, but with a similar air of melodrama and fate); Magnus and Bay “To the Ends of the Earth” where John longs silently for young aristocrat Magnus; the Hobbit stories where Bay doesn’t remember but dragon Magnus plucks him up anyway and toys with him; “Tomorrow Never Knows,” with John as a tolerant older Alpha and Sherlock as a difficult younger Omega; John as Sherlock’s young Omega in the story that starts with John saving him from the cabbie; the Fortysomething story.
I guess I feel like I’ve said a lot in this vein already, and I’m afraid that committing myself to more will be more of an exercise in avoiding repetition, than in telling a good story.
Actually what most changed my mind was how good this story was! I had it in my head it was just a quick knock-off that couldn’t stand on its own and needed to be part of a series. But having read it again, I really like it, and I worry that an attempt to do variations on a theme would actually make the whole thing seem chintzy and cheap, instead of meaningful, like a creative writing class exercise.
So, I declare it done as-is!
Hobbit 3
I have several Magnus & Bay stories based on Hobbit 2, but this is the first based on Hobbit 3, in which Bilbo’s friends are assisted at the Battle of the Five Armies by none other than Smaug, who was thought killed at the beginning of the movie. And didn’t much like them anyway. Daisy also guest-stars, having brought her friend Smaug (Magnus) back to life, and is intent on delivering Bilbo (Bay) to him per their agreement.
I like bringing Daisy into the Hobbit world. She’s obviously a powerful magical being, and other powerful magical beings, like Gandalf, can recognize her as such, even if they don’t know quite what she is, or realize she’s not really from their world.
I think in this case it’s suggested that Bay doesn’t remember his true identity because Gandalf used his magic on him when Bilbo was a child—we do know that Gandalf was acquainted with Bilbo as a child, so I think that’s a fun connection. He would have sensed this child had something extremely special, perhaps dangerous, within him and felt it prudent to contain it and keep an eye on him—but probably Gandalf knew that eventually, there would be a reckoning.
And did Gandalf realize the dragon was another powerful being connected to Bilbo? I would guess not. An ancient dragon would probably have enough magic floating around him that any extra from being a Cosmic Partner wouldn’t be noticed, especially since Gandalf hadn’t actually seen Smaug in person, just heard about him.
Lucy
This is based on Scarlett Johansson’s role in the movie Lucy, in which she plays an ordinary woman who is unwillingly subject to an extremely powerful drug, which unlocks the power of her mind to give her superhuman abilities and alter time and space. I thought that sounded like a great setup for a Cosmic Partners story about Ruby.
I thought the plot of Lucy fit so well with a twisted Cosmic Partners story! But the movie itself wasn’t something I was keen to watch often, and although I started a story about it with great ambitions, I didn’t get much done on it before I forgot most of the salient details of the movie. When I picked it up again, I decided if I could just finish the opening scene—which has Magnus and Bay living a quiet life in America with an adopted daughter—that would be sufficient to give the idea.
I was also thinking a bit of Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn in August: Osage County as a mild-mannered Southern American, or so I understand, as I haven’t seen it yet.
Mrs. Hudson appears in this story, and is implied to be a recurring character in their Cosmic Partners universe—at least, I mean for her to be. I think it’s nice to have these touches, and not worry so much about explaining them. If they need a housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson appears, the end.
I had to do a little research on the movie to figure out where some things took place. Hopefully I have it correct now. Thanks, Wikipedia!
Lestrade says they weren’t able to prevent Ruby/Lucy from being pulled into drug smuggling and ingesting the super-powerful drug because he and his people have “a lot to do” and can’t watch their charges every moment, and it all happened so quickly. It does make me wonder what that “a lot to do” actually is. Presumably they have cases other than Magnus and his friends on Earth? Because otherwise keeping an eye on three people is not really that challenging, and clearly he hadn’t even been keeping a close eye on Magnus and Bay because he didn’t know what they were up to.
Fortysomething
This is the one inspired by Benedict Cumberbatch playing the son of doctor Hugh Laurie on a short-lived British comedy called Fortysomething. I started off with enthusiasm but got distracted and then forgot a lot about the show.
The idea of Benedict Cumberbatch playing Hugh Laurie’s son, and then they both go on to play modern-day Sherlock Holmes or characters inspired by him, was too good to ignore! But the show itself was not my favorite, so after watching it through once (with some things fast-forwarded), I tried to write up something quickly.
There are a lot of interesting things I tried to do differently in this story. For example, I start by focusing not on Bay but on the girls, Galena (Sarah Polley) and Ruby (Scarlett Johansson). They are recurring but occasional characters in Magnus and Bay’s world. Also, there’s the suggestion that Paul Slippery (Hugh Laurie) is somehow special, too, and shouldn’t be able to have biological children, but he does, and is thus biologically Magnus’s father. A very rare convergence. As they have both realized their true identities, they have shaped their family and home to be even more unconventional, a sort of free-love commune with plenty of resources for whoever wants to live there. Also, here Magnus has a positive, helpful personality, which Galena initially finds hard to believe.
But I couldn’t leave Bay out, so we wrap up with a quick scene of him finding the rest of them.
I think of it like, if I were to do a Cosmic Partners team-up of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, this story would be a crossover between their stories and the Magnus & Bay series.
It’s not the most artful story, very expository and “special guest stars.” Oh well.
Galena suggests that this is an “intersection” of two groups—Magnus/Bay/Ruby/Galena and Paul/Reggie. And the cosmic authorities don’t know what to do about it—jurisdiction, I suppose—so that’s why they’re getting away with the rules being broken, such as turning their suburban house into a free-love commune that’s bigger on the inside than the outside. Ruby, of course, protests that they aren’t breaking bad rules—no one is getting hurt—so she doesn’t think the authorities would need to intervene anyway.
To the Ends of the Earth
Based on the miniseries To the Ends of the Earth, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a young wealthy man who journeys from England to Australia via ship to take up a government post that his godfather has arranged for him. It seemed a very natural thing to make this a Cosmic Partners world, and insert Daisy as well. This story is complete.
I need to double-check the character names here. I watched the beginning of the miniseries with interest, but ended up fast-forwarding through some of it, and finished the story only months later, so sometimes the details were a little fuzzy.
Doctor Strange and Everett Ross
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Doctor Strange in the Marvel universe; Martin Freeman plays Everett Ross, the CIA agent whose biggest role to date is in Black Panther, a former fighter pilot helping defend Wakanda against an interloper. Naturally people have thought of putting the two of them together, based on the pairing from Sherlock. I felt I ought to give it a try, with Cosmic Partners being the perfect venue. And, of course, Daisy appears.
As I typed this, I realized Daisy should be a lot more knowledgeable about Everett’s powers—she knows he’s Bay, even if he doesn’t. But she was cagier in the original version, and not for any reason that I could see. Like, when he asks how they got to her place, she’s like, “I’m not totally sure.” Of course she’s sure, she knows he did it, and there’s no reason to lie, even if she doesn’t want to just say something crazy flat out, like “You’re actually magical.”
It’s a fairly minor entry in the series, really. Kind of like, Oh, I’ve got to do that, but not necessarily developing it into an epic saga. The nice thing is, I can always do another, longer version if I want, like all the Hobbit versions I have of them meeting.
Hobbit 2 (cozy)
Based on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which stars Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug—of course they are also the actors who portray Watson and Holmes on the BBC’s modern remake of Sherlock. They are also the inspiration for my “cosmic partner” duo of Magnus (BC) and Bay (MF).
In the stories I’ve written with them so far, their rules seem to be a bit different than, say, Wayland and Susannah’s, in that there are occasionally other recurring characters, like Lestrade and Mycroft, and also Ruby (Scarlett Johansson, brunette), who is my creation. My plan is for her to turn up in this story, but I haven’t written that far yet.
Shorthand for this story is the “cozy dragon” story, and indeed it’s so cozy and lovely as I was rereading what I have typed already, in preparation for typing the second and final notebook. I just really love reading it and think it’s so good—it’s funny and the characters are so specific and individual, and it really fills me with a sense of comfort and the good life and that things are going to be okay, in their quiet mountain home with warmth and food and solitude.
I had been originally planning to add on another section about Magnus and Bay taking in orphaned/unwanted children from the village, and some adventures they would have. I think it would have been delightful, but a fair chunk of work, and unfortunately I let the story lay fallow for a long time (almost 5 years since the last time I typed on it!) that I felt I might have lost the voice that made it so enjoyable.
Introduce kids—there are village kids who are orphans or whatever, and something bad is going to be done to get rid of them. Bay hears about it (maybe from the nicer guy who was with Ruby) and is like, no, they’re coming here to live. Magnus has to be persuaded.
Then they come, reactions to the dragon, etc.. But they get used to each other, maybe too used—Bay has to discipline some for tying cans to Magnus’s tail.
They might all go to a village festival.
Some appropriate “and the adventure continues” scene.
Earlier, touch on sex among the adults, like Magnus catches Bay & Ruby—obviously mainly left to the imagination, but implied among all three.
I’ve been really torn about not going on with the kids part. It just ends in a good place now, and I can get it typed and posted and move on. Also, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to properly capture the tone again, the very specific relationship between Magnus and Bay; and the kids portion would be fairly long. I had some specific ideas for it, about the man Asger (he was given a name so he could recur here) coming to see Bay and telling him about the orphan children, and then the kids coming. And this scene where Bay is pacing in front of a couple of the kids repeating with disbelief, “You tied cans… to the dragon’s tail.” Not to be mean, of course, but just because kids are mischievous, and then they got Magnus to fly around, and he was startled by the cans and got upset and flew off outside, and he has to be mollified when he comes back.
But, aside from being worried about recapturing the right tone, and how long it would take to do properly, I also didn’t have a clear conception of specific kids, and it seemed like there would be some tedious filler stuff I would have to write to make them good characters.
Also, I found when I was typing the Ruby part that, while I liked it and it was important, I kind of mourned the loss of just Magnus and Bay in the relationship. What had seemed cozy and eccentric and fun suddenly seemed a little, I don’t know, weird and cutesy and potentially even sordid when explained to a third party. So that was the big reason why I decided, finally, to just end with what was written. Of course I could always add more in the future, but that rarely happens—but it could.
A Study in Bay
The “A Study in Pink” transcript used was by Ariane DeVere aka Callie Sullivan at LiveJournal.
The thing that’s different here—I know I tend to write the same thing over and over again—is that Bay doesn’t remember who he is. You have a standard setup where John Watson, medical doctor and Army surgeon, has been enslaved for some reason, and now he’s been bought by an eccentric consulting detective. However, he’s Magnus Holmes now, and he calls his slave Bay, but finally realizes the slave has no idea who he is or what’s going on—in other words, he really has been a slave, he really has had a bad time of it, and it’s going to take a while for him to trust his new master, especially with the way his new master rambles on nonsensically.
In this world there are other recurring characters, like Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, and Mycroft—all of whom seem to know Bay. The story is from his point of view, and this sort of thing really confuses him. It makes no sense with reality. I like the psychology of someone in his position, always wary, always calculating what every comment and gesture might mean—but despite how he’s been beaten down, he’s not a zombie. He tests his boundaries, he pushes to see what his new master is made of. He has that very dry wit that roils with anger under the surface.
One thing I always notice when I do stories based closely on a transcription of the show is how much TV characters talk. Of course Sherlock is a bit famous for monologuing, rather than a more normal conversational back and forth, but still, there’s a lot of dialogue to contend with, especially when characters aren’t really doing anything you can easily intersperse through the words.
I think it’s very interesting to imagine how the official adventures, like “A Study in Pink,” would change given this or that circumstance. Of course the thing is, a lot doesn’t change, so I end up recapitulating a lot of the original episode’s action and dialogue. Which can be a bit dull to read and type up sometimes. On the other hand, when you change something and it works, it’s quite clever. I think the best instance I’ve seen so far is in a Bilbo/Smaug crossover. Smaug/Sherlock rattles off how he knows stuff about Bilbo/John, Bilbo is impressed, and Smaug says, “That’s not what people usually say.” Bilbo asks what they usually say, and Smaug is like, “’Oh no a dragon!’ followed by lots of screaming and running.”
One thing I like is finding ways to puncture the original case—I’m not going to change it drastically, but when you really think about it, alternatives appear that Magnus/Sherlock tends to discount. My favorite is, what if Jennifer Wilson’s wedding ring is clean on the inside because she takes it off every day to shower? I don’t know, I’d take off my ring before showering. Do people not? That actually seems a much more normal assumption to me than that she takes it off to hide her marital status from her string of lovers.
Here’s some notes:
Spin off from different points
- When Magnus leaves Bay at the crime scene, Bay tries to escape and live among the homeless population
- The serial killer picks him up—in this version it’s supposed to be a slave, not a free cabbie. I’ve always wondered what exactly he says to people. Could be good for slave-slave interaction, also he’s certainly targeting Magnus’s slave specifically
- Doesn’t go to Angelo’s with Magnus, instead is at Baker Street when the police do their “drug bust”—so still limping
I’m going to keep the print-out of the episode transcript, in case it’s useful in the future.
I’m excited about the Magnus & Bay story A Study in Bay, where Bay is a modern-day slave who doesn’t remember Magnus or his powers, because I think it could say some interesting things about the Cosmic Partners universe, if I keep working on it.
Margaret (White Queen)
In the 2013 miniseries The White Queen, based on Philippa Gregory’s novels about the War of the Roses, Amanda Hale plays Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor who becomes Henry VII through conquest over Richard III (technically her story was covered in the book The Red Queen). Margaret’s final husband, Lord Thomas Stanley, is played by Rupert Graves, who also plays Lestrade in the BBC Sherlock series. He’s a conniving character who waits around to see who the winning side will be before committing himself. I liked Margaret’s character because she’s so self-possessed and fanatic; her only child is Henry, born when she’s just 13, and she devotes herself to making him king, without being an especially showy or grandiose figure. You have the York and Lancaster sides fighting each other, and themselves, and she kind of creeps up on the outside and takes them all by surprise with her success.
I thought it would be fun to imagine a story where Lestrade, who is usually a peripheral authority figure to Magnus and Bay, had a larger role and a Cosmic Partner in the unknowing Margaret. Here, it’s the 1400s and he has to try and woo the young mother and widow who doesn’t know her own power yet.
I had a lot of notes about Lestrade’s many stepchildren, which are a bit confusing to interpret now.
Current ages are shown, when Lestrade is 40.
First, Anne Bronson marries Charles Stowe. Their kids are:
- Mary Stowe, 62
- Richard Stowe, 61
- Charles Stowe, 59
- Margaret Stowe, 57
- Henry Stowe, 55
- Alice Stowe, 53
- Emma Stowe, 51
After Anne Bronson’s death, Charles Stowe married Mary Hutchison. Their kids:
- William Stowe, 41
- Thomas Stowe, 39
- Katherine Stowe, 36
- Elizabeth Stowe, 32
- Anne “Nancy” Stowe, 30
- Cecily Stowe, 28
- Isabel Stowe, 26
Then Charles Stowe died and Mary Hutchison married Greg Lestrade, bringing in her own Stowe kids and her Stowe stepkids. Greg was 19 when they married and they were married for 10 years until she died.
A similar pattern occurs with another woman, Elizabeth Ellis who marries Robert Worth. Their kids:
- Anne Worth, 28 (marries Starling)
- Robert Worth, 25
- Henry Worth, 23
- Maude Worth, 20
Robert Worth dies and Elizabeth Ellis marries a second time, to James Parrish. Their kids:
- Katherine Parrish, 18
- Matilda Parrish, 17
- Elizabeth Parrish, 16
- Frances Parrish, 15
- Eleanor Parrish, 13
Then James Parrish dies and Elizabeth Ellis marries a third time, to Greg Lestrade. He’s 32 and they’re only married for 3 years before she dies, leaving him with both Worth and Parrish stepkids.
Most everyone 25+ would be married already, or not going to marry.
There’s also an Elder Lands connection—these are lands in another dimension that are vaguely supernatural, and their rulers travel back and forth to the human world. Usually they’re known to humans.
Magnus = Ben
Bay = John
Galena = Enid (Sarah Polley)
Ruby = Agnes (Scarlett Johansson)
Mycroft = Miles
It’s pretty slow and rambling to start. I was working up to something long, I guess, and put a lot of thought into Greg’s backstory in this instance, and wanted to mention a fair bit of Elder Lands stuff.
Notes from the time the story was written:
Margaret is fasting, starts to faint, Greg makes her ride with him, tells her about Springdale, no fasting on journey
Going through the market town, Brixton
Staying at inns—sleeping in same bed, gets cold—10 day journey—someone thinks she’s Greg’s daughter
Up late praying
The girl who is rude in chapel—Margaret so mad—Greg sends away [this scene I remember thinking about—Margaret is so furious at a girl who is disrespectful in chapel that the sky starts to flash, etc., and there’s a real danger she’ll inadvertently cause the girl harm on the spot—like, the tangible power to curse people]
Wants to detour to shrine?
Entering Elder Lands, meeting others, Springdale
Skip 2 years—nearly 16, flirting more, birthday dance, finally
Going to visit little Henry—picks up the abused girl, curses abuser
Starts adopting—only girls
Not sure how it ends, unless they all go to Hong Kong [my totally random ending—they all just teleport to modern Hong Kong]
Parade’s End
This is based on the movie Parade’s End, which starred Benedict Cumberbatch as an upper-crust Englishman during World War I. I had a good idea about working one of the girls in as his wayward wife, but per usual I didn’t get very far with it.
As usual I didn’t work on this story for very long, but also as usual I thought I would; I didn’t skip right to the “good stuff,” I settled in for a nice, long treatise on the cultural mores of the era. But I like reading those bits now, they give the story color. Otherwise the temptation is to jump right to the scene when partners meet each other again, which can become generic.
General Notes
I was going to call this “Eternal Bond,” which is dull and clichéd but accurate; then I noticed in the JR file I’d casually referred to it as “cosmic partners,” and I like that better. It’s a little tacky, like cosmic bowling, and takes itself less seriously. Also known as Wayland/Susannah or Lennox/Cassia in the past, according to the names of the characters. The one where it’s like the characters are playing a game of hopping through time and universes. They’re born, they grow up, as they get older they realize all the power they have and all the lives they’ve lived, and they feel the urge to seek the other out. Often corresponds to worlds in movies the actors have previously done. This would be my first male/male pairing, though to be fair, I’ve only done two previous versions. And, I’m not so familiar with the actors’ works that I feel overly compelled to do this. I’m just planning ahead.
Universes I could work with: Sherlock; Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; Star Trek Into Darkness
Benedict Cumberbatch is Magnus. Martin Freeman is Bay. There, I’ve decided.
One new thing I’ve added with them is that more characters than just the two of them can recur. For example, Lestrade and Mycroft and Mrs. Hudson might pop up in some form. There can even be brunette Scarlett Johansson as Ruby, and potentially Sarah Polley as Galena. I don’t like to put too many rules on universes like this—that goes against the point, in my opinion. Magnus and Bay are the big two, and the others may have similar or lesser powers, and might recognize them or might not. (Sort of a package deal there—either they’re aware of what’s going on and have some power to influence things, or they’re as ignorant and powerless as any human.)
Like there’s one story, inspired by Star Trek Into Darkness, where Lestrade appears as a lawman from another planet that has a prior claim on John Harrison and wants to extradite him. That’s the story he gives Kirk and Pike anyway; the way he gets Harrison’s cooperation is because he (and Donovan and Anderson) have found Bay, an adult who’s grown up wearing a witch-charm that prevented Magnus from sensing him, and him from remembering anything about his true powers. You really get the sense that Lestrade and his team are cosmic-level police officers who keep an eye on Magnus and Bay and have found it necessary to intervene, since Magnus was getting troublesome without Bay and becoming an interplanetary terrorist and all.
In another story I’m working on, it’s very much Sherlock (paralleling “A Study in Pink”) with Bay as a slave Magnus has just bought—only due to a childhood head injury, Bay doesn’t remember him, or his own power. Magnus was born Sherlock but changed his name as an adult, so he’s now Magnus Holmes, brilliant consulting detective; Mycroft, Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson all recognize Bay and he’s just like, what are all you people babbling on about? He would think it was just his master who was mad, pretending to know him and talking about cosmic powers and so forth, but then there are these other people who do it, too—are they all just playing a mind game with him or what? Donovan and Anderson are there, but so far give no indication that they recognize Magnus—though honestly, if they did, they’d probably treat him with the same contempt. In this story Magnus suggests that he encounters similar mysteries over and over again, but the details change, including who did it—so in this case, he knows it wasn’t a cab driver who tempted the victims into a car and drove them to isolated areas.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III
What a great villain. He’s now trying to tell Warwick’s daughter—Anne, I think—that he killed her husband (son of the king they fought) because he loves her. Like, you make me want to kill everyone in the world, so we can be alone together. Isn’t that exactly the sort of thing an abnormal, deformed Magnus would say to Bay? [Not even that abnormal, really.]
Oh, the old, if you hate me so much, here’s a dagger, stab me trick. Chicks always fall for that.
He’s basically like, I hate everyone, so I’m just going to cause trouble for fun, because being king might be cool. Don’t know if this Anne thing is real or just a plot. But it’s all so Magnus.
And after she leaves, having gone from cursing and spitting on him to almost agreeing to marry him, he’s like, WTF, did I just win her! That was insane! He outright confessed to killing everyone she cared about. I think he’s just got her to see if he could.
Then Margaret of Anjou, the she-wolf, former queen, is just allowed to wander around at will apparently, cursing everyone in her semi-crazy rage. She could have some fun seeing things in Magnus.
He claims he’s subtle and no one suspects him of anything bad, but that’s clearly not true; lots of people think he’s a bad seed, they just don’t know how bad. Could be fun, fictionally, being the special love of this nasty piece of work, darkening the court. People don’t like him, but don’t suspect him of anything specific.
Mom Judi Dench sees through him.
People just do whatever he says—cut off a random guy’s head, spread lies. Shakespeare is expedient sometimes.
Yup, total Shakespeare, he’s just killing everyone, like Macbeth or the day of reckoning in The Godfather.
Still good-looking.
Magnus and Bay—Several different story beginnings here.
1) Star Trek universe—Magnus is playing Khan, whose reign of terror has earned him censure from cosmic policeman Lestrade, who has found the one thing that gives him leverage over Magnus—Bay, who’s been hidden from him all these years by a witch charm. Kirk and Pike have no idea what’s going on, but are forced to release Magnus into Lestrade’s custody, and Magnus and Bay are transported to a cottage by the sea.
2) Alpha/Omega universe—A planned series of vignettes in which Magnus and Bay are different ages and different Alpha/Omega combinations who face various challenges trying to find and woo each other.
3) Hobbit 2—Magnus is the dragon Smaug, Bay the Hobbit Bilbo, who shack up under a mountain together.
4) In a twist, John is the older, aggressive conquering warlord with his eye on the defeated king’s teenage stepson, who is just beginning to have strange dreams about a previous life.
5) “A Study in Bay,” following A Study in Pink, with Magnus and everyone else aware of their roles in the universe, except his new slave Bay had a head injury as a child and has no idea what they’re all going on about.