I'll do that. Probably not now, but sometime soon.
Canadian lighthouse to U.S. Warship approaching it: "This is a lighthouse. Your call!"
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Drunkard's Walk VIII: Harry Potter and the Man from Otherearth
The Prologue And Chapter One...
The Prologue And Chapter One...
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The Prologue And Chapter One...
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I'll be honest, I'm probably not going to be following this. I got up to the sudden rant when Doug brought up the phoenix, and gave up a bit after that, completely lost. Sorry.
Edit: And just realized, I posted this in the wrong thread. It was meant to be in the one about Pyeknu's side story. Derp. ----- Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea. "Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber." --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia. 
A small quibble on phrasing - in the scene with Voldilox his gaze is said to be laden with "cruelty and predation," which seems a bit awkward and possibly technically incorrect. Might I suggest "predatory cruelty" as a more streamlined wording?
-- "Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows Sofaspud Wrote:At the end, I found myself wanting more. It's hard to ask for more than that, I think. Doug feels a little different -- a little less keen on going off half-cocked, perhaps? -- and at the same time seems amazingly willing to take things at face value. It's hard to reconcile these two viewpoints, but that's the impression I got from the piece so far. I'm not sure if that's deliberate or if it's my misinterpretation.I was actually wondering about that myself, since a usual theme of the DW stories we've seen so far is for him to have violent disagreements with established characters...until it all smooths out in the end, of course. Which fits with the whole chaos factor thing with his character. Yet it does make sense for Doug to grow, to mature, to gain more wisdom - for the sake of the narrative, of course, he'd probably never stop being a musical monkey wrench on a motorcycle, but that's a different matter. Granted, it's also just the first chapter. I wasn't expecting to see this go up, honestly - a nice surprise, particularly when I'm just about to get off work. Not done reading it yet, but it looks great as always. -- Acyl Quote:I was actually wondering about that myself, since a usual theme of the DW stories we've seen so far is for him to have violent disagreements with established characters...until it all smooths out in the end, of course. Which fits with the whole chaos factor thing with his character. Yet it does make sense for Doug to grow, to mature, to gain more wisdom - for the sake of the narrative, of course, he'd probably never stop being a musical monkey wrench on a motorcycle, but that's a different matter. don't worry... he'll have a violent disagreement with he headmaster about the soul jar in harry's head and what to do about it, i'm sure  ... perhaps 'man in the box' might even solve the problem neatly -Z, Post-reader at Medium ---- If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.
Yeah, he'll get to it. He didn't have a violent disagreement with the Knight Sabers until he figured out that Boomers were sentient, remember... there's got to be a good motivation for it, and it doesn't have to be immediate.
-- Sucrose Octanitrate. Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.  Sofaspud Wrote:Doug feels a little different -- a little less keen on going off half-cocked, perhaps? -- and at the same time seems amazingly willing to take things at face value. It's hard to reconcile these two viewpoints, but that's the impression I got from the piece so far. I'm not sure if that's deliberate or if it's my misinterpretation.I neglected to address this earlier. Remember that Doug has almost a month off-screen between the first and second times we see him in the story. This is time he uses not only to play shepherd to big lizards, but to learn -- at his leisure, for once -- about the world and culture he's been dropped into this time. He doesn't have to scramble to get an ID or a place to live, and he can still go out and about and get a feel for this timeline. And do a little independent research. Although he's enough of a realist to know that the biographies of public figures and histories in general are going to be a bit biased and sanitized, he's pretty sure by the time Charlie takes him to the Burrow that he's got a good feel for who're the good guys and the bad guys. Plus he has a good gut feeling about Charlie from the first, and ends up trusting his judgment as well. So you're seeing something relatively unusual -- a Doug who's prepared to enter a new world's culture, for once. (I should probably put words to this effect somewhere in chapter 2.) His knowledge still has holes you could drive a truck through -- most importantly, he has only a general idea about the fall of Voldemort, and passed right over the whole "Boy-who-lived" thing in the one book he read about recent history. (It was a French work, and was not as fawningly worshipful of Harry as a British book would have been.) As a result, he has at best a sort of peripheral view of the "historical" Harry Potter and if he thinks of him at all ends up with a vague mental image of an adult, mostly informed by a mild confusion with James. Doug has certainly not connected the "historical" Harry Potter with the teenager at Grimmauld Place; at no point "on screen" does anyone even use Harry's surname around Doug (nor offscreen, either). By the time he finally gets to Hogwarts, Doug has acquired more books of history (British-written, even), but in what I'm suspecting will become a running gag for the early part of the story never seems to actually get around to reading them. And to be honest, the statue in the Ministry atrium has got his bullshit detector running at full when it comes to "official" accounts. He's going to be intensely suspicious of anything that looks too "mythic" in the accounts. -- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak.
Something about Doug seems off to me and I'll need to think about it some more, and re-read it all again, before I can be sure. However, this quote from Doug "Arrogance born of ignorance. Gotta love it" applies to him also. I guess that he seems to be very condescending to me and that is a good way to get your ass kicked when you least expect it.
At he's not dismissing them all as crunchies. But you're right -- Doug's got his own arrogance, and it always hits him back somehow.
-- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak. Bob Schroeck Wrote:At he's not dismissing them all as crunchies. But you're right -- Doug's got his own arrogance, and it always hits him back somehow.I believe I pointed that out after the first chapter of DW V. Although the word I used at the time was 'bigot.' Ebony the Black Dragon http://ebony14.livejournal.com "Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you." 
Well, let's also bear in mind that by this time he's several decades older (and, one would hope, wiser) than he was in DW5. Without looking it up, I think at that time he noted he hadn't aged in the last ten years. Now it's been seventy-plus years. It'd be surprising and disappointing if he hasn't picked up a bit more perspective in all that time.
----- Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
I'm wondering if Harry will get too much of a good thing-he's so happy that someone doesn't know about "The Boy Who Lived" that he may get a bit disappointed.
I can't see him being too terribly disappointed with Doug. Even if Harry finds out Doug is a Slider then it doesn't change the fact that Doug does not fawn over the 'Boy Who Lived' but instead sees him as another student. Albeit a student that often gets caught in the middle and so he needs some back-up now and then, but a student nonetheless. (And Harry would only be too happy to have backup from the DAtDA Professor for once.)
Bob Schroeck Wrote:At he's not dismissing them all as crunchies. But you're right -- Doug's got his own arrogance, and it always hits him back somehow.That's one of the things that's most entertaining about Doug. Sure, he's a total badass, and he's generally open-minded, but when he cocks up, it explodes all over him. Excellent first chapter, by the way. I'm very much looking forward to the effects Doug will have on the Wizarding World.
With luck it won't be too many more weeks until chapter 2 is released, and you'll get a bit of a better picture.
-- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak. 
Hmm. Good, but.
There seems to be far too much trust between Doug and the OotP. While he has been questioned under Verisatium, the plot requires that he become DADA teacher and Invader Zim would be a better DADA teacher than Delores, he seems to be drawn into the OotP too easily. Also, what I'd like to see is the Fred and George (or Harry and Ron) decide that Doug is an easy going nice guy and try to slack off in his class, only for Doug to really tear strips off them and tell them he has no intention of having to tell their mother that they died because they didn't learn how to defend themselves. Jinx999 Wrote:Also, what I'd like to see is the Fred and George (or Harry and Ron) decide that Doug is an easy going nice guy and try to slack off in his class, only for Doug to really tear strips off them and tell them he has no intention of having to tell their mother that they died because they didn't learn how to defend themselves.Given the time frame, I don't think that'll be happening. If anything, Harry's gonna throw himself into DAtDA with such abandon that Doug might actually become a bit concerned for the boy in one fashion or another. Fred and George, on the other hand.... Dunno. Can't really see it. They're pranksters and slackers... but even they know the Second Coming of Moldywarts is serious business... and besides, with a little sister like Ginny, they're no slouches.
Well, since this is Order of the Phoenix in the timeline, Fred and George already have the winnings from the Tri-Wizard Cup that Harry gave them, so the Joke Shop is a done deal. It remains to be seen whether they stay in school with Doug being around, or if they leave. I imagine that will depend on whether or not Umbridge shows up as a oppressive force on campus.
Ebony the Black Dragon http://ebony14.livejournal.com "Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you." Ebony Wrote:Well, since this is Order of the Phoenix in the timeline, Fred and George already have the winnings from the Tri-Wizard Cup that Harry gave them, so the Joke Shop is a done deal. It remains to be seen whether they stay in school with Doug being around, or if they leave. I imagine that will depend on whether or not Umbridge shows up as a oppressive force on campus.Here's what happens if they leave. Doug: Have fun, boys! The Twins: Thanks, Professor! Doug: *turns to Umbridge* Now look what you did, you fat pig. Those two were some of my best students, and you drove them away with your Ministry's stupid paranoia. You ever come in my class again, I'll put you in the hospital wing.
I like that. I wonder if I could fit that in...
-- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak.
Another potential personality clash comes to mind. Doug versus Filch. He openly fantasizes about hauling out the torture devices in the name of student discipline.
Doug: Get the f--- out of my office, you sadistic prick!
I've already written Doug's first encounter with Filch... and his reaction upon hearing one of those rants is mild disbelief. If Filch keeps it up, though...
-- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak.
Eh, probably save that reaction for later down the road, after Doug has heard a few too many of Filch's rants.
Well. Filch is a squib and is looked down upon by the wizards. Doug? Might be able to see this and get Filch turned around. Doug's magegift is not exactly working right.
Fudge and Umbride will be pulling their hair out, trying to calssify Doug. He's not a squib and has magic, but his magic is brought to bear in an off the wall way. Amelia Bones will be laughing as she uses the distraction Doug cuases to do some cleaing up. Doug is a hero. Will he be able to stop the death of Amelia Bones? -------------------- Tom Mathews aka Disruptor
Doug comes from a relatively mana-poor world, and that world's mages therefore use mana much more efficiently. Much of that is probably genetic, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was almost half memetic, and therefore teachable. Combine that with tapping into environmental mana, and perhaps Doug can do something about this "squib" nonsense. (The books generally treat Squibs as Wizarding folk who can't cast spells, rather than full-on Muggles from Wizarding get: they can see Dementors and Hogwarts, for instance. This implies that they merely have insufficiently-large internal mana pools, which is something that can be worked around.)
Which would, of course, really put Umbridge's panties in a twist: not only is he unclassifiable himself, but he's messing with the classifications of people she's already labeled! How dare he! On the other hand, Doug won't be at all inclined to teach Filch after his attitude comes to light, which won't take very long. On the gripping hand, perhaps Doug will run into Arabella Figg? On an almost completely unrelated tangent, Rowling loves Significant Names: "Albus" means "white"; Minerva was (if I recall correctly) the Roman name for Sophia, the embodiment of wisdom and knowledge; Severus Snape is severe and prone to verbally sniping at people; Argus Filch has a huge collection of confiscated items. So what's with "Arabella Figg"? |
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