| Bloomsbury By Ghostlight is the story
of a private detective uncovering the supernatural world which lies
beneath the veneer of normalcy in London. |
|
|
| Season One |
| Starring:
Chris Osborne |
| Regulars:
Janet Blackburn |
| 1.1 |
1.2 |
1.3 |
1.4 |
1.5 |
1.6 |
1.7 |
1.8 |
1.9 |
1.10 |
|
|
|
| Episode 1.1: By
The Book |
| Guest Stars:
Meredith Blakely (Mild-mannered Psychic), Mrs. Krapotka (Strong Psychic),
Natalie Evans (New Slayer), Gallagher (London Police) |
| Real air date: May 24, 2005 |
| Story air date: |
|
| Synopsis: |
|
Janet calls Chris and advises him that she has a weird situation in the
bookstore. A young woman has come into the store, picked up a book, and
had some sort of seizure. The woman is recovering, but was in a bad way
for a short time. Chris comes over to the store and does a cursory
examination/appraisal of the situation. The woman’s name is Meredith
Blakely, and she is an art dealer. She explains that when she picked up a
book in the store, she was overcome by extremely strong emotions of fear,
lust, pain, and greed. Chris determines that this has happened before, but
never to this strong a degree. Janet fills in information about the book.
About two months prior, another young woman, though really more a
teenager, came into the store with the book. She was shabbily dressed, but
self-possessed. Janet suspected she may have stolen the book, although the
girl seemed honest enough. The book was blank, and the girl explained
she’d received it as a birthday present and now needed to sell it for
some cash. With handmade marbleized paper inserts, silk stitched binding,
and an extremely fine leather cover, the book fetched 15 quid for the
girl; Janet thought she could sell it for 25. They concluded the deal, and
that was the last Janet saw of her. Several people have examined the book,
but no one has had the same reaction as Meredith. |
| Chris questions Meredith further, but she has
no more useful information. He does note that she has traces of an
uppercrust accent and files this away for later use. He and Janet run some
tests on the book later that day, consult with a professional bookbinder,
and determine a few things (such as it was made within the last few years
and is not an antique). Chris finds out that the 100% cotton rag paper
comes from a supplier out of New Hampshire, in the United States, and that
the silk thread (Kreinik) and marbleizing materials are fairly common
items (hard to trace specifically). He also takes a core sample of the
leather cover to a police contact (Gallagher), who runs it through
forensics. The cover is not the fine kidskin that Janet suspected, but
rather “flesh of the long pig.” Human, in other words. Chris and Janet
fear the worst, that this is some kind of spellbook, except that the
spells are invisible. They try some more experiments with various inks and
liquids, but as they thought, only human blood will make the spells
appear. |
| The
name of the book is the Codex Vitae, and it seems
to be a set of powerful spells pertaining to vampires (i.e., a vampire
would find them highly useful). But Chris wants to know more. He visits
Mrs. Krapotka, a Jamaican ex-patriot, who lives in Chinatown.
She’s a much more accomplished psychic than Meredith, and when she holds
the book, she describes to him an unusual scene, a man walking near the
British Museum
who then attacks a girl and tries to drink her dry (he shows his demon
face). The girl, seemingly with little effort, stakes him. The book falls
to the ground along with his ashes. Running back over Janet’s
description of the girl selling the book, the two (not surprisingly) are
one and the same. Chris has heard that there are now many slayers in the
world and suspects the girl might be one herself. Krapotka tells Chris
she’s seen this girl, that she hangs around Chinatown
and it’s odd that there are very few vampires and demons there these
days. Chris takes this info, along with her gift of a chicken foot on a
piece of twine, gives her a generous tip, and heads down the streets of
London’s Chinatown. He spends the better part of the day looking for the
girl, with no luck. Finally, in late afternoon, when he’s about to give
up, he spots her coming out of an alleyway, looking like she just got up
from bed. She goes into a Chinese grocery and comes out a few minutes
later with a handful of snacks. The girl looks grubby, threadbare, and
tired, but even Chris can see there is something about her that makes an
impression. He approaches her carefully and offers to buy her a very late
lunch in a local pub. Reticent, she goes with him and devours a platter of
food. Chris quietly and patiently explains who he is and what he thinks
she is. She tells him her name
is Natalie Evans and that some time ago (fit with timeline), she began
having strange dreams and during waking hours, found herself not only
strong and seemingly invincible, but also strangely driven to right wrong
and kills demons and vampires on the streets of London. Natalie isn’t
even sure how she knew there were such a thing, but there it is. Her
background is working class East End, at least until her father, thinking
she was on drugs or working as a prostitute, kicked her out. She’s been
living off the streets ever since. Natalie mentions that she’s been
quietly keeping some thugs away from Mr. Wu, a Chinese grocer, who gives
her a few pounds a week for loading and unloading stock. Chris says
he’ll mention it to some police who can and will take an interest in
stopping threats against Mr. Wu. He and Natalie head back to his office,
where she gets some cash and buys herself a new pair of jeans, some fresh
sneakers, and a clean t-shirt. |
| Chris’s
part-time receptionist, Bridget, tells him he’s got a client waiting,
and that “this one’s loaded.” Chris enters to find the impeccably
dressed Harold Burton-Sedgewick sitting in his office. He’s lost his
daughter Anne, and he goes on to explain how she was actually his
illegitimate daughter and not generally known to the public. Her mother
was his florist and gardener, and they were not married, but she died
about 6 years ago, after an illness. Burton-Sedgewick explains that he
provided well for the woman and her daughter. Another tragedy struck when
his wife Victoria and daughter Margaret died in a car wreck about 18
months ago. Both had been fairly close to his other daughter, even though
his daughter via marriage to his wife was his heir. Now, though, she is
gone, and he needs to find his daughter Anne. He wants to legitimize her
as his legal heir. He told her this a few months after his wife’s death,
and within less than a week, Anne had seemingly vanished without a trace.
Lord Burton-Sedgewick declined to go to the police and instead tried to
launch an investigation on his own, but he’s gotten nowhere. He is
willing to pay generously to have Anne found and returned to him, and to
keep things quiet as possible until she is made his legal heir. He pulls
out a photo of Anne, and she is the spitting image of art dealer Meredith
Blakely. |
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|
| Episode
1.2:
I Spy the Year of the Rooster |
| Starring:
Chris Osborne |
| Regulars:
Janet Blackburn |
| Guest Stars:
Meredith Blakely (Mild-mannered Psychic), Natalie Evans (New Slayer),
Gallagher (London Police), Lord Harold Burton-Sedgewick |
| Real air date:
June 7, 2005 |
| Story air date: |
|
| Synopsis: |
| Chris sits across from Harold Burton-Sedgewick,
looking at the pictures of a woman he knows under a different name and
trying to remain casual. He
stays professional, with the usual assurances of discretion and “I’ll
do what I can.” He takes a
healthy retainer, knowing that if Meridith/Anne doesn’t want to be found
he’ll give the money back. |
| Natalie comes in a little warily, and after some
chit-chat (where Chris tells her what little he knows of Slayers), she
tells Chris that as much as she appreciates food and a hot shower, her gut
tells her she’s needed in
Chinatown
. Chris assures her that, as a
Slayer, her gut is best listened to. The
girl also mentions some gruesome murders (including dismemberments) that
have happened in
Chinatown
over the past few months, and wondered if that was by the same group that
had tried to exterminate the Slayer potentials.
The detective was unconvinced. |
| Chris pays a visit to Meredith Blakely’s fledging
art gallery, and after admiring some of the pieces, asks for her help on a
case. The go to a tearoom next
door, and after a few sips the detective shows her the file.
She is stunned, she is angry, and she nearly leaves.
Chris explains the situation and says he’s is a bad spot.
She tells she was kept at a distance growing up, and she has no
intention of being drawn into that lifestyle now, with its obligations and
paparazzi. She wants the freedom to live her life on her own terms and
with her own means. She
compromises by promising a letter to Burton-Sedgewick.
To leave the meeting on a higher note, he explains the mystery of
the evil book from their previous meeting, including the Slayer and the
notion of vampires. If she is
disbelieving, she hides it well enough.
She says she remembered stories about girls who had adventures
against monsters, from a book in the Lord’s library.
Though he doesn’t say so, the detective is more interested in
that casual comment than in the previous discussion. |
| As he leaves the tearoom, Chris spies what appears
to be a Buddhist monk, complete with saffron robes, sitting on a bench and
watching him. He walks over
and sits beside the monk, who it turns out has been following him for some
time (which was especially surprising considering he was dressed in and
orange robe). The small man
says his name is Cheng-Gong, and he is a Buddhist priest (who is also well
read in Taoism, Roman Catholicism and a bit of Wicca).
He is deeply concerned about the Chinatown murders, which he thinks
are the result of a Chiang-Shih (a sort of eastern vampire-like entity).
Although at least eight young women (and, possibly, some of the
local demons as well) have died in nasty ways, Chinatown officials have
kept the case very hush-hush for fear that news of a serial killer would
ruin tourism. Even the police
have been somewhat muzzled. Cheng would very much like to meet the Slayer,
for he has heard legends of her kind.
He would even like to train her if she wished. |
| Back at the office, Chris calls Gallagher for news
on the Chinatown killings. The
Inspector replies that the case is very sensitive, but says he’ll try to
slip him copies of the files in a couple of days. |
|
Chris calls Mr. Smythe, Burton-Sedgewick’s secretary, and makes an
appointment to examine the house “for clues”.
The next morning, he does search several rooms in the mansion
(noting the girl’s fine drawings of people he suspects were dead before
her birth – people she had “seen” with her power) but spends most of
his time in the library – a large room containing thousands of books,
the library of a 19th century gentleman that were now merely a
21st century decoration. There
is indeed a seldom-visited section of old occult books, including Heroines of the AEtherial World. Once his “investigation” of the
house concludes, he rushes to Q&A Bookshop to tell Janet.
She suggests Chris make an offer for all 12 books. |
| Meredith gives Chris the letter.
She says she tells her father just how she feels, and that she
wants to be left alone. The
next morning, he rings up Smythe for an appointment.
Lord Burton-Sedgewick is nearly breathless as Chris hands him the
letter. He reads and rereads
the note, and is visibly relieved she’s still alive.
Apparently, he’s gone so far as to keep tabs on the local morgues
for his daughter. Despite
Meredith’s assertion that he wouldn’t take no for an answer, he asked
again if Chris thought she was truly alright, and did he think she would
change her mind in time (yes, and perhaps).
He asked that Chris hold a letter for his daughter, on the event
she wished to read it. When
the conversation turned to his fee, Chris offered to take the books in
lieu of cash. Burton-Sedgewick
wanted them appraised just to be fair, and found Chris’ contact
acceptable. So the detective
carted the volumes to Janet for appraisal. |
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|
| Episode
1.3:
Vampires of Rondon |
| Starring:
Chris Osborne |
| Regulars:
Janet Blackburn |
| Guest Stars:
Meredith Blakely (Mild-mannered Psychic), Natalie Evans (New Slayer),
Gallagher (London Police), Lord Harold Burton-Sedgewick |
| Real air date:
June 7, 2005 |
| Story air date: |
| Chris gets the impression that someone is
following him; he spots several agents.
He’s approached by a Mr. Raj Sengupta, and apparently affluent
and wealthy man who had the various detectives watching Osborne.
Sengupta is suspicious and mysterious; he wants to hire Chris to
check on one of his bank’s employees to see if he’s embezzling money.
Chris does so, but is under no illusions: Raj has an ulterior
motive. The two don’t really
get along, but Raj hints tha he might have another job for Chris at some
point. |
| Meanwhile, Chris gets the murder list from
Gallagher: |
 | Amy
Li: Killed March 10th. Found within 24 hours. Cause of
death was severe lacerations to throat. |
|
| Catherine
Martin: Killed April 3rd. Found in 12 hours. Cause of death
was decapitation (head torn from body). |
|
| Mai-An
Chin: Killed April 25th. Found within 36 hours. Cause of
death was loss of blood from severing of limb, plus several
lacerations to upper torso. Sexually assaulted. |
|
| Fatima
Patel: Killed May 5th. Found within 24 hours. Cause of
death was decapitation (head torn from body). Sexually assaulted. |
|
| Jiu
Shen: Killed June 6th. Found within 24 hours. Cause of
death was severe sexual assault resulting in extreme blood loss.
Several fingers and toes were torn from body. |
|
| Leonard
Wu: Killed June 30th. Found within 12 hours. Cause of death
was lacerations and trauma to torso. Not sexually assaulted. |
|
| He contacts Natalie, and she, Cheng-Gong and
Chris have a practice session at the temple, wanting to be ready when the
chiang-shih vampre attacks again. Both
men underestimate her and end up bruised and busted.
Natalie and Osborne limp out to get a bite to eat; on the way home,
Natalie walks Chris home, and the two are set on by two vampires.
Chris distracts one long enough for the Slayer to kill them both.
Natalie says she thinks she is getting the hang of the Slayer
thing. After they part ways, Chris heads to his office, only to find a
black American waiting for him. Robin Woods says that Rajesh was just
“testing the waters.” He tells him he’s impressed with the
investigator’s work (even more after seeing the Vitae Codex and hearing
all Chris has learned about it), and has heard that he would like to be a
Watcher. Robin gives him a
Xeroxed copy of a reconstituted Watcher’s Handbook.
Chris gets a commitment for upgraded security. |
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|
| Episode
1.4:
Alias Osborne |
| Starring:
Chris Osborne |
| Regulars:
Natalie Evans (Slayer) |
| Guest Stars:
Katherine Harrogate (Watcher), The Quigley Brothers (Brachen Demons),
Julie Ward (New Slayer) |
| Real air date:
July 23, 2005 |
| Story air date: December
2003 |
| London is decorated for the holidays.
Harrods’s is a madhouse, Janet is busy selling all kinds of esoteric
books, and Cheng Gong has recovered from his rumble in the dojo. Natalie
has checked in with either Chris or Cheng Gong a couple of times over the
past three weeks since the last adventure. She’s seen no more sign of
the possible Chinese vampire, nor have any flunkies attacked. There have
been no more murders. Possibly, this is due to the increased numbers of
people, along with extra security and such for the holidays. |
| Around December 15 (only 10 shopping days
left!), Chris gets the feeling he’s being watched. No further contact
has come from the Council; when Osborne has written anything to Woods,
he’s received an answer, though the delay has been considerable. Robin
says things have been hectic in mainland Europe, and he’s sorry to be so
slow in getting back to Chris. While out and about, Chris notices that he
is being tailed. She’s good looking, tall, with dark blonde hair, and
nice clothes. She strikes him as a barrister of sorts. |
| When confronted, she introduces herself as
Katherine Harrogate. She’s also a member of the Watcher’s council. She
has an assignment for Osborne…to check out a purported slayer sighting
in Manchester. When Osborne writes Robin for confirmation, he receives a
hurried reply along the lines of “Sure, check it out.” She also gives
him a burned, battered and partially intact copy of the Book of Slayers.
The latter half is missing, but this copy has most listings through the
Renaissance. She wants it back, but he’s welcome to read it and commit
it to memory. If all goes well, Harrogate will be the girl’s new
Watcher. |
| Osborne and Evans go to Manchester for some
reconnaissance. The subject,
Julie Ward, is about 13 years old. Her mother Jane teaches school, and her
father Howard is a real estate agent for Thornley Groves; she also has a
younger brother still in primary school (his name is Roger, and he’s at
St. Hughs). They live in a nice house in a Manchester suburb called
Timperley—but it is a house which “requires modernization.” It’s
taking everything the family owns to keep the house up to code. Julie just
recently became aware that she can do “cool stuff.” By nature, she is
not a bad kid, but she has been doing some questionable things on the sly,
such as stealing money and sneaking it into her mother’s collecting tin.
She also has stolen clothes from local shopping stores, some for profit,
some to wear. The sad thing is that her parents turn a blind eye to it, or
are else too distracted to notice or care; her mother is even considering
a second job. Manchester isn’t on a Hellmouth, but it’s a hellish
place-overcrowded, highly industrialized, and quite polluted. Julie has
fought a demon and won, but it was tough work. She told her parents she
got into a fight, but that the other girl started it and that her parents
made her pay Julie for a new shirt (nice excuse). |
| After watching her at school, the
investigators deduce that Julie is exceptionally mouthy and hormonal.
They need a way to get her. . . and luckily, the school is taking a
field trip to hear the Liverpool Orchestra perform “The Messiah” in a
few days. The two follow the
chartered school van and pretend to be members of the audience.
Natalie corners Julie in the bathroom and tries to recruit her, to
no avail. So Chris and Natalie
take another tack. Using his
knowledge of “rough places” (along with Natalie’s innate sense of
the supernatural), Osborne locates a demon bar in Liverpool.
They make contact with Kyle, Cam, and Colin Quigley, some Brachen
demons.. They pay the brothers
to accost Julie outside the theater and spook her good (giving them fair
warning that she is a Slayer). The
Quigleys perform admirably; July is scared, but perseveres and sends them
running. The demon attack
scatters students and teachers too, giving Natalie a chance to tell Julie,
“I told you so.” Julie willingly accepts the contact info for
Harrogate. Katherine later
confirms with Chris that she is now the girl’s watcher, and that he did
an excellent job. |
| After the Council puts in some security
improvements, Osborne sells his old flat and moves in above his office,
hoping to make his office more secure from uninvited guests.
Natalie is given a room. |
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|
| Episode
1.5:
Voices and Echoes |
| Starring:
Chris Osborne |
| Regulars: |
| Guest Stars:
Robin Woods (Watcher), Caroline Tully (DI, MI7) |
| Real air date:
December 29, 2006 |
| Story air date: January
2004 |
| Several weeks go by, and Chris divides his
time between helping Natalie and doing basic insurance and divorce
investigations. He meets with
Robin Wood, who explains that Osborne was scammed.
The Watcher’s Council has split between the traditionalists and
the “modernists;” the former believing that Slayers should be strictly
and totally under the Watcher’s control, and isolated from normal life,
the latter thinking they should lead and not force the Slayers. The
Traditionalists have set up HQ somewhere near the Scottish border.
Katherine Harrowgate was with the old school crowd, manipulating Osborne
with convincing materials and stories, and tapping Osborne’s phone to
ensure he couldn’t reach Woods. Woods
assures the investigator that the Council isn’t upset at his actions,
and told him that in the future, legitimate contacts will come through
himself, Rupert Giles (head of the Council), Wesley Wyndham-Price, or
Andrew Wells. He goes on to explain the state of the Watchers Council
since the First Evil made its move. |
| He also says there is a group called MI7,
which is actually a section within Security Service (MI5) that deals with
researching and monitoring supernatural activity.
When the Council fell last year, several of the surviving Watchers
joined their ranks. Given that
Osborne has had worked with two slayers in recent months, he expects that
the detective will be hearing from them soon.
Sure enough, a woman comes to the office the following week.
She introduces herself as DI Caroline Tully.
She asks Osborne if he could accompany her to her office. He rides
with her to a nondescript building in Vauxhall
Cross. Osborne notices intense
security at the including cameras and strategically-placed mirrors.
She carefully admits to all that Woods related, and offers him a
job as a Civilian Consultant; among other benefits, he can have the title
Detective-Inspector when he needs it, plus a stipend.
MI7 helped retrieve survivors after the explosion at the Watchers
HQ, and so far the information sharing has been quite good – cooperation
was vital to stave off the occult assaults during WW II.
She also admits that the threat level in England has risen
considerably in the three years she has worked with MI7.
Osborne notices that her makeup well-schooled expression can’t
completely hide how tired and stressed she is.
She gives him a number and asks that he think about it. |
| Osborne meets Woods at The
Old Fox and over a pints and shepherd’s pie relates all that
transpired. The American says
that a liaison between the government and the Watchers would be very
useful, but it would have to be the detective’s choice. |
| The next day, Osborne calls the number, and by
the afternoon he is sitting in a B&B safe house, talking with Tully.
Osborne tells her that his “ward” (her word for the Slayer) is
his primary concern, but with that stipulation in mind he would accept her
offer. She is visibly
relieved. A week later, after
a shortened vetting period, he is on the payroll. |
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|
| Episode
1.6: Fish Heads
|
| Starring:
Chris Osborne |
| Regulars:
Caroline Tully (DI, MI7), Cheng Gong,
Natalie Evans (Slayer) |
| Guest Stars:
Marcus Burns (curator at
British
Museum
), Emma Evans (curator at University of
London
, Near Eastern Studies), Farad Shutash (Chemosh Occultist) |
| Real
air date: October 26, 2007 |
| Story
air date: February 2004 |
| DI Tully contacts Osborne on February 4. There
has been a theft from one of the storerooms at the
British
Museum
. The item was not on display in the regular galleries, partially because
of its value, partially because of it undergoing study. The lead on the
study project is a man called Marcus Burns. He has a very impressive CV
with a specialty in Babylonian culture. |
| The item stolen is approximately 14 feet high and
11 feet wide and had been dubbed the Ashtar Gate (not to be confused with
the Ishtar Gate, which is on display). Ashtar was a Greek deviation on the
name "Astarte," who was a Canaanite mother goddess figure. She
was mixed in her morality, never hesitating to slay enemies of her people
and family, but also responsible for causing droughts and even killing a
prominent mortal king, Aqhat, because he refused to give her his magic
bow, even for the gift of immortality. Ashtar was also related to heaven,
the sea, and weather. In some contexts, she is the consort of Yahweh,
which has caused consternation among Hebrew and Christian scholars.
Ashtar's most famous deed was slaying Lotan (Leviathan), a terrible
chaos-bringing demon. |
| The gate, like its Ishtar counterpart, is
painted; in this case, the colors are rich shades of golden yellow and
red. Images of the sea garnish the stone blocks that form the gate, as do
clouds and various weapons, including an image of Ashtar slaying Lotan.
Burns estimates the gate was made in about 1600 BC, which may predate the
Ishtar Gate. |
| Osborne conducts a careful inspection of the
vault and collects some of the chipped-off paint, as well as a cell phone
that seems to have exploded from within.
All of the electronic security in the museum malfunctioned at 0100
hrs. No evidence of
transportation or intrusion is apparent, leading the investigators to
believe some form of teleportation was likely. |
| During the investigation, a call comes through; a
phylactery was stolen from the
University
of
London
's Near Eastern studies department. Although
not a unique artifact or particularly valuable outside scholarly circles,
it had been dated to the 10th century BC, and was apparently
valued for its list of rituals. Although anthropologists are skeptical,
there is some evidence it may have existed at the court of Solomon, since
his seal is upon it. A translation of the text describes a long, elaborate
ritual for the worship of the god Chemosh. He was a god of the Moabites in
Canaan
, known as the destroyer, the subduer, and the fish-god. The final step of
the ritual to worship him called for a human sacrifice.
There was no security beyond locked doors for the artifact.
Osborne interviews Emma Evans, assistant curator and scholar of the
period. Her graduate student
and research assistant is Farad Shutash. He is a whiz at languages and
very familiar with the phylactery's contents.
Osborne tells her that it could well be an inside job, so she needs
to check up on the various grad students and others who have access to the
lab. He also interviews
Shutash after class, getting some interesting bits about the deity; he
gets no hint of the student’s involvement in the crime. |
| He updates Tully over lunch, and learns that the
only thing they could pull off the crushed phone was a prefix for the
East End
; also, an attempt to trace the gate using the paint hit a major ward.
That evening, he sends Natalie and Chang Gong to the
East End
for recon, and goes to visit Seth Stanwick, a Warlock he knows by
reputation. The Stanwick seems
concerned about the rise of a cult, and uses some more paint chips to find
the stones – it is somewhere in a four-block area near Spittlefelds
Market, but a powerful ward keeps them from getting closer.
After thanking Stanwick, he takes a taxi to the location.
Natalie calls to say very large crates are being loaded onto a
lorry; then her phone goes dead. Osborne
calls Tully. |
| Osborne finds Chang and they enter the
seedy-looking flat to find a large lower room, the Slayer and five
cultists. After a quick
battle, they intimidate one of the cultists into telling them the
destination is
Anglesey
. A team from MI7 arrives, and
shortly afterward several cars head to
Wales
by different routes. Magic
prevents the cameras from picking out the lorry on the road, but before
dawn the cultists batter their way through a roadblock and reach the
island. They hole up in a
seaside rental house, and are soon surrounded.
During a perimeter sweep, Osborne finds evidence that a large
protection spell failed, and discovers the business card of
Farad Shutash. |
| Farad claims to have a hostage at gunpoint, but
Natalie recognizes her as the woman in charge back in
London
. A fight breaks out, with
Osborne knocked back by a flash of light, the woman KO’d by Natalie,
Natalie shot by Farad, and Farad gunned down by Tully and Osborne (who
brought along his not-entirely-licensed pistol).
The brute squad captures the third cultist.
The house is searched and Osborne lays claim to several books after
they are released from evidence. |
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|
| Episode
1.7: Girls, Girls, Girls |
| Starring:
Chris Osborne |
| Regulars:
Caroline Tully (DI, MI7), Cheng Gong, Natalie Evans (Slayer) Bridget
Brogan (assistant) |
| Guest
Stars: Mimi Stroud (punk vampire), Victoria “the Unchosen Slayer” |
| Real
air date: December 8, 2007 |
| Story
air date: March 2004 |
| Osborne
is cleaning up paperwork late one rainy afternoon when Bridget nervously
calls for him. The woman
standing there wears punk rock garb and and a Kinsale cloak – not that
you could tell from her reflection in the strategically-placed mirror in
the waiting room. |
| Her
name is Mimi Stroud, lead singer for the Nancy Drews back when punk was
the thing. She was Turned just
as the career was taking off in 1979, and being a pissed-off punk, she
ended up killing her sire. She
claims to be looking for a destiny, and thinks fighting with the White
Hats is it. She says she kills
very rarely, and has lots of connections in the supernatural underground
as well as the music biz. Osborne
thinks she wants play secret agent rather than big fighter.
He says he will pass along her one-page resume to his superiors and
will get back to her (she claims to be in the Virgin store at
Piccadilly Circus
most nights around midnight). Mr.
Giles finds the situation of a non-souled, uncoerced vampired playing
alongside the Slayer very odd though not entirely unprecedented, and
advises he be cautious but open to the offer. |
| Osborne
wants to inform Natalie of the new development, but her phone is out of
order. He tracks her movements
for the day – a nap after patrolling, then a work out at the dojo in the
late morning; Cheng said he thought she got a phone call on her way out.
The detective and Cheng go to Mr. Lee’s grocery; the proprietor
says she grabbed a snack and left around 14.00.
Worried, they contact DI Tully, who connects the street camera
system to Osborne’s laptop. He
tracks his Slayer to the Coliseum Theater (“Closed for Repairs”) on
the corner of William IV and St. Martins.
The front is locked, but the back door is open.
They enter, to find the backstage in a bloodstained shambles.
Hanging upside down by a rope is Natalie, barely alive.
Tully sends backup, and they transport the girl to a safehouse.
In spite of he overwhelming concern for his charge, he notes the
details of the crime scene – the trap door leading to the sewers, the
fact that there was only one other set of footprints (wearing Doc
Martins), and the fact that the girl used a deep healing meditation
technique that simulates death – a technique which Cheng taught her and
which probably saved her life. |
| A
few hours later, Natalie wakes briefly and says, “Not vampire.
The ‘unchosen Slayer’, and she’s pissed.” The message is
relayed to the MI7 team and then the Watchers, who are confused at the
reference but agree it sounds ominous. The
next morning, Natalie adds to the picture, saying she got a call from a
confused-sounding girl who said she had these powers and that she had
heard Natalie had them too. She
agreed to meet, although the Slayer thought it sounded fishy.
Though she was ready when her contact jumped her, the fight was
toe-to-toe; only when Natalie lowered her guard could her beaten foe take
her down. The girl, Victoria,
demanded to know where the Council was, and why nobody came back for her.
Natalie went into her trance, and was left for dead.
Her phone was taken, presumably the numbers were copied, and
it was found smashed in the sewers. |
| With
these pieces of the puzzle, Osborne gradually formulates a theoretical
scenario: When Buffy Summers died a second time,
Victoria
became a Slayer. The Council
eventually found and contacted her, explaining the basics of what she was
and who they were. However,
before they could progress much beyond this, the Watchers and Potentials
are attacked all over the globe, culminating in most of the Council, and
most of their prime records, being blown up.
With no one to guide her but with her eyes opened to a new dark
world, she has to make up her own job as defender of the streets. She
likely knows nothing about the mass Choosing, nor that the council was
wiped out. She has had nearly three years to hone her abilities, make her
own place in the world – and nurse a considerable grudge.
Perhaps she thought that killing “the Slayer” would make her
Chosen
. Giles, Wood and
Windham-Price are shocked at the thought, and all agree that bringing her
into the fold is a high priority.
Osborne puts a note (“
Victoria
, I need to speak with you” and his cell phone number) on his office
door, the temple, and several other places linked to numbers in
Natalie’s phone. Of greater
concern to Osborne than a rogue Slayer is the thought that someone may be
pulling her strings. |
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| Episode
1.8: Substitute
|
| Starring:
Chris Osborne |
| Regulars:
Natalie Evans (Slayer), Rupert Giles (Watcher), Seth Stanwick (Warlock) |
| Guest
Stars: Victoria “the Unchosen Slayer”, Ethan Rayne |
| Real
air date: December 22,
2007 |
| Story
air date: March 18, 2004 |
|
| After
a couple of days, Natalie is recovered.
She suggests that some of Chris’ occult contacts might be able to
track down the slayer. Chris
and his Slayer go to
Greenwich
and have a chat with Seth Stanwick, who, using some of Natalie’s hair,
concocts a spell and narrows the location to a flat in Kensington.
Stanwick seems a little disturbed by what he senses, and offers to come
along. |
| With Natalie covering the roof, the two
men knock on the door of the flat. After
a minute,
Victoria
answers the door. She seems
subtly “not right” but Chris can’t pin down it down.
She lets the “officials” in, but when it is apparent they
aren’t buying her alibi, she calls for the police – a code word that
brings the real
Victoria
downstairs. The illusion
drops, and the woman becomes a man, one that Seth apparently knows and
detests. Natalie shows up in
time to keep Chris from unconsciousness at the hands of
Victoria
, and between spells, fists and and thrown objects the imposter is laid
low.
Victoria
is likewise trussed up for a while until they can calm her down.
Seth says that the man, Ethan Rayne, has been a very naughty
chaosmonger for some time. A call is put in to a very interested Rupert
Giles, who in turn contacts MI7. The
government truck (in electric repair guise) dumps Rayne in what amounts to
a magically-sealed garbage can and whisks him away.
Giles himself comes to collect
Victoria
, and assures the watcher there is a moderate chance that the young woman
is “fixable”. Chris and
Natalie go through the flat, collecting the (very nice) clothes for
Victoria
(which Giles sends for eventually). They
also find a couple of occult tomes and a map with underground routes drawn
on. They also start planning
for their next case, for Ethan let slip there was yet another
Slayer in town. . . |
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