THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUNIPER LEE: Weird Times at Winick Junior High
The Life and Times of Juniper Lee and all related characters are property of Warner Bros.
For millennia, humanity has existed alongside a world of magic and monsters of all stripes. For most, this world is invisible, protected by factors such as a powerful arcane veil, the human mind's amazing capability to try and explain away breaches in said veil, and the magical world trying its damnedest to hide its existence in order to keep itself safe from those who would attempt to indiscriminately destroy its denizens. However, there are those who can see through it all, whether by sheer dumb luck, knowing what to look for, or by possessing powers beyond mortal ken– magic or otherwise.
These last ones in particular are sworn to carry the heaviest of burdens: the duty of keeping the peace between the two worlds however they can. Some take up this responsibility by choice, others by inheritance, and others still by having it thrust upon them due to circumstance. Regardless of methods, tools, or how they received their calling, these brave souls stand united against the forces of darkness…or at least they would in an ideal world. These days, most of these valiant protectors either remain unaware of their calling, stand alone and ignorant of the true stakes they face, are cut down before they can truly take up the fight, find themselves being pulled in all directions as they fight all manner of other threats, or fall into the clutches of the evils they're tasked with combatting– all while said evils grow stronger as they discover new avenues to exploit.
The time: now. The place: Oakfield, California, a shimmering beacon of prosperity and scientific and technological advancement. All that's left is for the players to take the stage.
Real World Video– Mission Heights
"You're not yanking my chain, are you, June?" a pre-teen girl with short spiky purple hair with violet colored highlights and dark eyes said into her phone as she grabbed a cassette box off the shelf. "Whole weekend and your grandma's keeping an eye on that brat brother of yours?"
"Ray Ray isn't a brat, Ophelia," the girl at the other end of the phone replied. "He's–"
"Look, I call 'em as I see 'em. Now, do you want to hang with yours truly for the first time in a short eternity or should I make other plans? Because if not, then I'm not blowing a week's allowance on video rentals."
"Whatcha got?"
"Last Dragon, Aliens, Return of the Living Dead, that Dracula movie from the '30s, a couple MST3k episodes, The Ronin Out of Time–"
"The which-what?"
"Some flick from the '70s that's supposedly based off an old Japanese folktale about a samurai warrior who got banished to the future by a demon or something," Ophelia explained. "Interested?"
A pregnant silence settled over the two.
"Well?"
"Your place or mine?"
"Yours has the better TV. Now, think you can do Friday night?"
"Yeah, pretty sure. See you then?"
"Assuming you don't flake out at the last minute again, yes."
A nervous chuckle rose from the phone. "I'll see what I can do. Until then, catch you later."
"Ditto."
As the Goth hung up, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. There, standing in the middle of the next aisle over, was a man in an expensive suit and sunglasses with unhealthily pale skin and eerily long, claw-like fingernails.
"You do realize that it's okay for guys to get manicures now, right?" she snarked as she picked up a copy of The Craft.
The figure was deathly silent, with the only sign of any form of acknowledgement being his slowly turning his head off to the side as if following Ophelia's movements as she turned around and made her way to the checkout counter with a bag full of videotapes hanging from her shoulder.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
With the positive reception that both "Zero Hour" and "A New Breed in the Neighborhood" seem to have gotten thus far, I decided that now was as good a time as any to branch out into other IPs and genres that have thus far escaped my notice– and seeing as how the notion of some sort of urban fantasy martial arts thing going on in the next town over from the Powerpuffs' more traditional superhero antics was something I wasn't just going to let slip away from me, I figured that The Life and Times of Juniper Lee would be a good fit for the PPGA universe (which I dubbed "Earth-55" back in the Scooby-Doo/DC Comics crossovers that preceded "Zero Hour"). Unfortunately for me, after actually giving the show a proper watch, I found myself having to try and retool a fair few parts of it to play nice with what I'd already established for the universe (read: give June more recurring baddies, try and cobble together a handwave as to how the Grimwood Girls (or at least Tanis and Sibella) are visible to normal people, and find someone else to serve as June's sidekick because I really hate her kid brother Ray Ray).
Or if you want the "TL; DR" version of all that– if you're a Juniper Lee purist, then you're probably going to want to avoid this one. On the other hand, if you want to see a bunch of 7th graders doing things like reminding a bunch of jiangshi that they're supposed to be six feet under by whacking them upside the head with baseball bats made of peach wood, dealing with some mad scientist's attempts to mesh magic with hyper-advanced technology, or messing up whatever plans some ancient undead evil sorcerer/crime boss just came up with, then you're in the right place. And yes, Big Trouble in Little China is one of the main influences on this one.
And just to round things out, the name of Ophelia and June's school is indeed a nod to the original show's creator Judd Winick, while the name of the video store is likewise a nod to the long-running MTV reality show The Real World, the third season of which (aka The Real World: San Francisco) had Winick as part of the cast. Finally, in case you're wondering what "Oakfield" is, I'll go into more detail in a later note, but for now, it's the sister city of PPGA's version of Townsville.
