Fourteen: New Arrivals
When Coricopat and Tantomile appeared for Crossover Class the following day, they were both grinning smugly. The students moved away nervously; knowing that nothing good ever came from faculty members looking smug.
"Please, be quiet," said Tantomile softly.
The students piped down. The Twins had that effect on people.
"Thank you," said Coricopat, nodding his head. "Today, we are going to discuss Do's and Don'ts for writing crossover fics. Now, we know that a few of you have written crossovers. Can you tell us what fandom you used?"
The students looked at each other. Finally, Jemima-luvah said: "Harry Potter."
Coricopat nodded. "Very well. Anything else?"
"Grease!" came from Lyra.
"The Phantom of the Opera!"
"Les Misérables!"
"Little Shop of Horrors!"
"A lot of musicals, we hear," mumbled Tantomile and thoughtfully patted Tantomille on the head. "And... how do you write a crossover?"
"Well," said Joanna, who had written one or two crossovers in her days, "first you cast your characters. Like Tugger, he could play Danny Zuko, because they're sort of alike, and Etcetera could be Sandy, and Bombalurina could be Rizzo! And then you make them... act."
"Act, as in 'act out the entire movie of Grease' act?" asked Coricopat calmly.
"Yes! I mean... no. I mean yes..."
"With all the original lyrics from Grease, that has only been altered slightly, if even at all?"
Joanna suddenly got very nervous. "Eh... yes?"
Tantomile sighed. "Ah yes, the classic crossover trap when writing in musical-fandoms. We just have to ask... What do you want to accomplish with writing something like that? If you're only retelling the plot of Grease in a CATS environment, then what is it that makes your story original? When people already know how it ends, why should they read it at all? What do you have to offer?"
"Not everything has to be serious writing," muttered Vicki. "I've read a lot of good stories that doesn't have a real plot..."
She winced when the Twins turned their heads to look at her.
"We know that you don't have to be a Pulitzer prize winner to write good fanfiction," murmured Coricopat, his mesmerizing eyes boring themselves into Vicki's. "And this class is not meant to offend anyone writing those sorts of stories. We're only here to offer an alternative." He turned to the rest of the class again. "Crossovers are a tricky business. You have to know both fandoms very well, and you have to know where they can plausibly be merged together and where they're extremely different. Let's take a well-spread fandom as an example..."
He walked up to the seemingly broken overhead projector that lay on the ground in the front of the class, and he and his sister did a few gestures with their paws above it. To everyone's surprise, the projector lit up, showing the image of the CATS logo to the left of the white paper hung up as a blackboard in the class area. The right side of the paper was empty, but Corciopat and Tantomille the mini-Pollicles carefully placed another image to reflect on it.
The second image was of a black-haired boy with brilliant green eyes behind round glasses. He was holding a wand in one hand, and a broomstick in the other.
"Harry Potter," said Tantomile, and a couple of HP fangirls squealed excitedly in the background. "Now, writing a CATS/HP crossover is actually not that hard. They both take place in the same country, which makes it a whole lot easier. Also, cats are among the animals that students are allowed to bring to Hogwarts. Some sort of magic exists in both fandoms, and London plays a vital part. Nothing really stands in the way of a crossover, does it?"
Korora raised his hand. "Isn't the magic very different between them? I mean, I've never seen Dumbledore or anyone throwing lightning from their hands... And Mistoffelees has never used a wand."
"An excellent point," said Coricopat and awarded Korora with one of his rare smiles. "Of course, we highly doubt that any characters from the Harry Potter universe has any idea that cats have magical powers at all. If we, Mistoffelees or Macavity are in the story, then make it a point to show us, the readers, that the magic is different. It could be interesting, to see the wizarding world from the perspective of a cat. Now, the next example..."
He nodded at Corciopat and Tantomille, who changed the image of Harry Potter to one of a man wearing a white mask that covered half his face. There was something extremely sad over his figure from where he sat by an organ, seemingly deeply engulfed in his music.
"Erik!" shrieked Misty and clapped her hands, her eyes gleaming.
The Twins winced at the shrillness of her voice.
"Yes, yes," said Tantomile and sighed tiredly. "It is the Phantom of the Opera. No need to get so worked up about it. Now... CATS characters acting out the Phantom plot aside, how can these two stories come together? Or maybe, to make it easier for you, what makes them implausible to cross over?"
Diablo waved a hand. "They're in different countries!"
"And in different times!" added Arakasema.
Tantomile nodded. "Yes. There is however one small little possibility that you can use, if you really want to. Anyone dares a guess?"
The class was silent. A few people looked like they might have an idea of what she talked about, but no one dared a guess.
Coricopat smiled again. "In the Susan Kay version of the Phantom of the Opera, Erik is the very proud owner of a Siamese. Her name is Ayesha."
"Ohhh..." soughed the class.
"Indeed."
Joanna was suddenly struck by an idea, and she raised her hand.
"Yes, miss Swanson?"
"Well, I was just wondering... The Jellicles... They get reborn, right?"
"Yes," said Tantomile. "We think that ought to be obvious by now."
"Then this Ayesha, she could have been a Jellicle? I mean, have the soul of a Jellicle? Then she could, theoretically, come from a tribe resembling the Jellicles in London, with basically the same people."
Both Twins were smiling now. "You're getting it," they chorused.
"Maybe a CATS/PotO crossover would sound impossible," said Coricopat.
"But you can most often find a loophole and create something good," his sister added.
"All you have to do is think it over first," they finished together.
"So, basically, to be able to write a CATS crossover," said Joanna, mostly to herself, "all you need is a character that has a cat, and work from there."
"Yes, something like that," said Tantomile and nodded.
"But... there must be some fandoms that just cannot be crossed over with CATS?"
The Twins looked pensive for a moment.
"There is none that we can think of right now," said Coricopat, finally. "We'd suppose that Star Wars would be somewhat implausible, because why would anyone bring a cat out into space, but that can of course be discussed. Then, we are not certain of every single fandom in the world. We can be wrong. In the end, it is always your call."
Coricopat and Tantomile looked at the students seriously.
"Remember that," they said together, their voices entwined in each other so that they sounded like one. "In the end, you make the decision. Class dismissed."
"That was an interesting lesson," said Roman de la Croix on the way to lunch. She was grinning somewhat unsettlingly, and there was a bounce in her steps that had been there ever since she'd found out that they'd have Coricopat and Tantomile teaching a class.
"I quite agree," said her roommate Antigone, who had an almost identical grin on her face.
"Just because you two stayed behind and asked the Twins embarrassing questions," muttered Korora.
"They were not embarrassing!" protested Roman. "They were perfectly reasonable and important to my story. I want to write a Coricopat/Tantomile pairing, and I'm simply doing my research like a good little student." She smirked.
"And I wanted the inside scoop about the real relationship between Jemima and Cassandra," put in Antigone. "Because those two are so totally together..."
"You two are sick."
"Different. We're different."
Joanna and Misty chuckled to themselves as they followed Roman and Antigone into the cafeteria, which was today serving Argentine joint, potatoes and greens. Or rather, it would have, had not Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer -- out of habit, of course -- stolen the joint and carried it off somewhere to feast.
"What's next on the schedule for today?" asked Joanna as she scarfed down her lunch.
Misty, who was thoroughly enjoying a bowl of cream, picked up her schedule and looked through it while cleaning her whiskers.
"Jellicle Relations," she said and returned to her cream. "Have you finished writing your story for the Lantern?"
Joanna shook her head. "Not yet. I'm getting there, though. I think. What about you?"
"Turned mine in yesterday. Maybe I'll get it back toda..."
She didn't finish her sentence. Suddenly her eyes had grown big, her mouth dropped open, and she was staring at something just behind Joanna.
Her roommate turned around, and it was like someone had hit her over the head with a mallet.
Someone had entered the cafeteria. Someone none of them had seen before. Someone who was very... male, and very, err, interesting to look at.
He was an Ironwing, just like miss Minnaloushe. His wings were the same stormy grey as hers, although his shimmered faintly in bronze as the light brushed past them. His piercing blue eyes seemed to look straight through the students. He gave the appearance of a bird of prey, constantly ready to strike.
A few of the fangirls prone to passing out did so, which caused a bemused smile to spread over the male Ironwing's face. He shouldn't have done that. The moment the fangirls saw it, they leapt up from their chairs and started running towards him, something hungry gleaming in their eyes.
"Bad idea," whispered Misty. "Oh, such a bad idea..."
Joanna couldn't speak. She was too horrified. She had though miss Minnaloushe was bad... but she couldn't imagine what OFUC would be like with two Ironwings on campus.
The fangirls, hypnotized by the sudden overdose of pretty, paid no heed to the fact that this creature could quite possibly kill them without even trying. They sped up... they squealed... and they glomped.
At first the Ironwing's eyes widened in surprise, and then he reacted. His wings were raised in some form of protection against the wave of fangirls, and his hands shot out, grabbing Mystitat and D.J. Waters by the throat and lifting them up in the air. The girls quickly came out of their lusting craze and gasped for breath.
His grasp hardened mercilessly. The whole thing would have turned into something that Mistoffelees and the Twins would have to fix later on, if not a metal feather had suddenly whined through the air and embedded itself into the Ironwing's shoulder. He hissed in pain and let go of Mystitat and D.J., who both fell to the floor with a thud. There they lied for a second or two, wheezing air back into their lungs.
The Ironwing whipped around and caught sight of miss Minnaloushe, who was standing in the doorway, glaring at him. He glared back.
"That was not very polite," he said finally.
"Since when have you cared about such things, Kihr?" she replied coldly. "And what, may I ask, is the meaning of this?"
She gestured towards the fangirls, who had, wisely enough, recognized the feather and hurried to a place safe from the wrath of miss Minnaloushe.
Grimacing, Kihr pulled out the feather from his shoulder and threw it away. "They were attacking me. I should have the right to defend myself."
"Yes, you should. Unfortunately, these students are under my protection. 'Should' does not apply. What are you doing here?"
Kihr smiled, and Joanna felt a cold chill running down her spine. That smile was eerily like the one miss Minnaloushe smiled from time to time.
"Ah, my dear," he said. "That is no way you say hello to your cousin, now is it?"
Answers to Reviews:
Jemima-luvah: Sure you can graduate with Black Rose... It's certainly good enough for Miss Minn to like it, and if she approves then it's good enough for me. And I've reviewed that story now, just so you know.
Roman de la Croix: Thy will is my command...
Eponine: You don't have to worry. We're not even into Halloween yet, and I'm planning to write the whole year at OFUC. So this story's not going to end any time soon.
Aislin of the Shadows: If you'd draw a picture of that, there would be no end to my delight. :)