Dr. Simon O'Neill (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
protagonized) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
undergrounds2016-04-21 09:43 am
protagonized) wrote in undergrounds2016-04-21 09:43 am
Entry tags:
A Daily Mail Exclusive [open/closed]
#herodog trended in the UK for a grand total of forty-eight hours in early March, long enough to spark several articles about the incident in various local tabloids and newspapers, a fifteen minute segment about it on BBC Breakfast (complete with an animal behaviour expert), and two @herodog and @londonherodog Twitter parody accounts. Then the world turned and the sensation died down and few people remembered Maria Mitchell's little brush with fame.
Except Maria herself, of course.
She had been at a low point, but the hero dog ended all that when it dragged her off the tracks and away from danger after she'd drunkenly fallen off the platform, right in the path of an oncoming Circle Line train. The dog had done more than save her life, she'd tell her friends. It had given her purpose, a reason to stop drinking and start living.
She became obsessed with finding the London Hero Dog. If she could find it and thank it, or--well, they obviously shared a bond so maybe she could give it somewhere to live for the rest of its life! Right! The universe was telling her she was meant to adopt this dog.
She just had to find it first. And maybe look at some cell phone video she'd drunkenly recorded later that night...
i - No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (18 April - Open to Previous CR)
Simon's phone has been ringing at odd hours since Friday. He's taken to just ignoring the calls, since the number is usually blocked and whoever it is must not want to reach him that badly because they don't leave voicemails or a callback number.
But today is a bit different, because today he gets a text message. It's...huh, who would be sending him a video? This is all really--
Simon pales visibly.
"Oh shit. Oh shitting fucking Jesus Christ."
He hands his phone to his companion. The video is about five seconds long, showing a white dog that blurs and then suddenly isn't a white dog anymore. The only other message is a hashtag: #herodog
ii - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? (21 April - Open to Hillingdon House)
Hillingdon House. Simon's heard of it, of course; he's reasonably well-versed in supernatural politics these days and as a shapeshifter he know that Hillingdon House ought to be his spiritual home. Had things been different and Sylvia Redbright not scooped him up and put him in her school back when he'd been a confused teenager with brand new powers, he probably would have ended up here. Shapeshifters from Hillingdon had been some of his first contacts within the supernatural community; Redbright had just gotten to him first.
But he'd never actually been here until today.
He takes a deep breath. What he's about to do is unsanctioned, potentially suicidal. He's probably just a couple of steps away from ending up a statue in the Night Council chambers, but he will definitely end up a statue in the Night Council chambers if he is the reason that the entire supernatural community ends up being exposed to the normal human one.
Simon doesn't know how Maria--he knows the woman's name now--found out about him, but Maria knows and she's threatening to go to the press about it. The Daily Mail would probably pay thousands for an exclusive on the witches and vampires and shapeshifters and everything else who currently inhabit London. They'd have a field day with it.
"How do I place a bounty?" he asks, approaching a likely-looking person.
iii - The Statute of Secrecy (29 April - Closed to Guardians)
"I've got a stalker," Simon says, and it's meant to be a joke but it's anything but. He looks even more exhausted than usual.
"I saved one person and suddenly I've got a 'hero dog' groupie."
He laughs hollowly. "She's trying to blackmail me into being her boyfriend. Says she'll expose me if I don't."
Except Maria herself, of course.
She had been at a low point, but the hero dog ended all that when it dragged her off the tracks and away from danger after she'd drunkenly fallen off the platform, right in the path of an oncoming Circle Line train. The dog had done more than save her life, she'd tell her friends. It had given her purpose, a reason to stop drinking and start living.
She became obsessed with finding the London Hero Dog. If she could find it and thank it, or--well, they obviously shared a bond so maybe she could give it somewhere to live for the rest of its life! Right! The universe was telling her she was meant to adopt this dog.
She just had to find it first. And maybe look at some cell phone video she'd drunkenly recorded later that night...
i - No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (18 April - Open to Previous CR)
Simon's phone has been ringing at odd hours since Friday. He's taken to just ignoring the calls, since the number is usually blocked and whoever it is must not want to reach him that badly because they don't leave voicemails or a callback number.
But today is a bit different, because today he gets a text message. It's...huh, who would be sending him a video? This is all really--
Simon pales visibly.
"Oh shit. Oh shitting fucking Jesus Christ."
He hands his phone to his companion. The video is about five seconds long, showing a white dog that blurs and then suddenly isn't a white dog anymore. The only other message is a hashtag: #herodog
ii - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? (21 April - Open to Hillingdon House)
Hillingdon House. Simon's heard of it, of course; he's reasonably well-versed in supernatural politics these days and as a shapeshifter he know that Hillingdon House ought to be his spiritual home. Had things been different and Sylvia Redbright not scooped him up and put him in her school back when he'd been a confused teenager with brand new powers, he probably would have ended up here. Shapeshifters from Hillingdon had been some of his first contacts within the supernatural community; Redbright had just gotten to him first.
But he'd never actually been here until today.
He takes a deep breath. What he's about to do is unsanctioned, potentially suicidal. He's probably just a couple of steps away from ending up a statue in the Night Council chambers, but he will definitely end up a statue in the Night Council chambers if he is the reason that the entire supernatural community ends up being exposed to the normal human one.
Simon doesn't know how Maria--he knows the woman's name now--found out about him, but Maria knows and she's threatening to go to the press about it. The Daily Mail would probably pay thousands for an exclusive on the witches and vampires and shapeshifters and everything else who currently inhabit London. They'd have a field day with it.
"How do I place a bounty?" he asks, approaching a likely-looking person.
iii - The Statute of Secrecy (29 April - Closed to Guardians)
"I've got a stalker," Simon says, and it's meant to be a joke but it's anything but. He looks even more exhausted than usual.
"I saved one person and suddenly I've got a 'hero dog' groupie."
He laughs hollowly. "She's trying to blackmail me into being her boyfriend. Says she'll expose me if I don't."
no subject
No one seems to understand that.
no subject
She gives a sigh then. That's not a comforting response and she knows it, but comfort isn't the strongest bullet point in her skill lists.
"Listen, I'm sure it feels real." She leans a little closer, her body language offering something like solidarity. "And I'm not calling it irrational. You're dealing with the experiences you've had. Anxiety is a normal reaction, and you aren't going to stop yourself from feeling it because I say so.
"That doesn't mean you can let it drive. Sometimes you have to look at your feelings, and realize that it feels like the end of the world and that's okay... but rationally realize that the world is probably going to go right on spinning, and let your brain make the decisions instead of that queasy feeling in your stomach."
She softens that with a smile, her tone more amused as she adds: "Does your brain really believe that twenty years from now, someone's going to look you up and connect you to some blurry video of a skinny dog turning into a skinny kid?"
no subject
"If an American man from Seattle that I've never heard of can hunt me down based on who my biological father was, someone who's actually seen me transform might be even more dangerous. Some hunters fucking hate shapeshifters, and I've got other biological relatives still in the States who would also gladly see me dead. My mum and dad nearly died because I was stupid and tried looking for my birth family using magic. I refuse to let that happen again."
no subject
"Which is a good reason to be cautious," she tells him, careful not to dismiss his fear entirely. He shouldn't be too comfortable with having his picture floating around like that. "I'm just saying, don't borrow trouble. Find out what's going on, then go from there."
She adds then, on impulse, "And it's not like you have to deal with it on your own."