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Little does he know that Tangerines are on the list
 (From Clan of the Cats. Click on image to see full-sized image.)
It's been close to two years since Jamie Robertson started the very ambitious "Vengeance of Dracula" storyline (which I think eclipses even Maritza Campos's DunDun Island storyline for sheer length of time elapsed). As would be expected with a story about Dracula, it's fairly serious more often than not, though some moments (such as when Chelsea is taking a bath and talking to Jubal's soul, which is currently within her) have been very touching.
But moments of humor have been less forthcoming. Think of it: we have Dracula, who in this world is damned by God to be a Vampire and who has thus declared war on the Church and on humanity, having been resurrected. The only people opposing him are a barely-trained girl with great potential and an ancient Vampire who has admitted that she loves Dracula. This doesn't exactly give us to moments of hilarity.
The thing is, constant horror is deadening. Eventually it isn't scary. Thus you need moments of levity to remind us of what we're fighting for, and that even when things are at their darkest, we can still laugh. Not to mention the fact that the night is ever so darker when you have light to contrast it to.
So we have this old man (I say old because he'd have to have some years on him to actually know Dracula, seeing that Vlad had been imprisoned for quite a few years) being approached by a couple of Dracula's vampires... and he portals one of them into a volcano.
This is of course amusing because the vampire in question blithely discounted this old man because "all he can do is portal things." Hey, at least his companion was smart enough to realize how dangerous that could be.
Okay, so the old man is going to help Dracula, and probably teleport Vlad's little undead army over to go after Chelsea... and things are going to get pretty dire pretty quickly. I'm not stupid. (Quiet, you in the back there!) But this was a nice little repast from the sheer delicious drama we've been immersed in for far too long. Especially with the sorceror's last words... "We can add volcanoes to the list of things that can kill a vampire. Who knew? Heh."
Well, I guess he did...
Jamie? You get a nromlicious homemade oatmeal cookie. You deserve it.
Robert A. Howard
------------------------- Now he just needs to get on Binky and ride away...
 (From Alice. Click on image to see full-sized image.)
Hmm, I think Death has met His match here. Of course, I suspect our Death is related to the Terry Pratchett Discworld Death, who, unfortunately, was never exactly the most original of entities, but I'm sure he'll take it in good stride.
I actually liked Alice's little story. It was an interesting mix of myth and whimsy, and wrapped up with a bit of some Alice goodness we all know and love so much. Really, when doesn't Alice want to be Amazing Girl? She's had quite a few "let's pretend" sessions with her super-powered imagination... but there's something fun about this one.
Now we have an origin story.
And what an origin story! Hee! Especially the ending... with Alice murmuring "Amazing..." at how she'd lifted the dolmen so easily. Really, what's a young super strong girl to do but become a superhero? It's the vogue thing to do, after all. *wink*
I actually thought the story would go on a bit longer than this, with a story of Alice facing against the mythical foes of Cuchulainn, Morrigan, Badbh, and Macha. A villain or three for her to face down. I did not expect an origin story, that all this was warming us up for such a fun gag ending. (I mean, it's so... Shazam! Heh.)
So Death goes down for the count. Say, does this mean April's immortal now? *grin*
Robert A. Howard
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