Another Constantine scrap.
Jan. 25th, 2004 01:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynRight now I'm doing scenes as they come to me; once I've got the whole thing properly written- diary entries, regular third person narration, etc. all in one- I'll post it properly somewhere and let you know. But for now I'm kicking up scraps in order to get the feel of the thing.
In the meantime, here's an intro to John, through the eyes of some ickle firsties. It needs work.
The Ravenclaw first-years hung nervously about the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. No one was quite willing to be first through that door. Not after what they'd seen at the Feast- the new teacher having a perfectly friendly conversation with the Bloody Baron. Not after the stories coming from the Hufflepuff first-years, about how the man had walked in on Peeves trying to cover Euphrasia Goat with a bucket of paint and had sent the poltergeist down the hall screaming in mortal terror. No, they didn't want to go in, and who could blame them? None of the students knew what to make of the man. . .
But they were Ravenclaws, and it was class time, and they had no choice. Silently, heads down and eyes darting nervously about the room, they filed in.
Their professor was waiting for them, sprawled in his chair with his feet up on the teacher's desk. His robes were an odd shade of light brown (Desmond Kearney thought it looked awfully like the shade of his Muggle father's mac), the cuffs and collar and a few other places touched with darker colours. He wore no House colours that anyone could see. His hair was a straggled mess, as if he'd not bothered to drag a comb through it after getting out of bed, and it didn't look as if he'd bothered to shave either. Donald Hutchins and Emmeline Plauger exchanged glances, as if to say: why is everyone so afraid of this man?
Without warning the professor stretched, pulling his feet off the desk and out of sight. He dropped both hands to the desktop with a resounding thunk!, and looked up. The expression in his blue eyes was searching, piercing- entirely at odds with his utterly careless appearance. It swept over every single one of the students in the space of a few seconds, and was followed by a quiet grunt of what might've been approval- if it weren't for that weird stretching of one corner of his mouth in a half-smile.
He pushed back from the desk and rolled his head a bit from side to side. Then he smiled, properly, and there was nothing left of the dodgy look at all. No, that was a smile that came out of nightmares, a grin so wide as to all but split the face in two. How did any human being manage to show that many teeth at once?
And then he spoke.
"'Allo, kids," he said softly, his quietly Liverpool-accented words settling into the dead silent room. "I'm John Constantine."
Desmond whimpered, slumping to the floor with a muffled *thump!*.
In the meantime, here's an intro to John, through the eyes of some ickle firsties. It needs work.
The Ravenclaw first-years hung nervously about the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. No one was quite willing to be first through that door. Not after what they'd seen at the Feast- the new teacher having a perfectly friendly conversation with the Bloody Baron. Not after the stories coming from the Hufflepuff first-years, about how the man had walked in on Peeves trying to cover Euphrasia Goat with a bucket of paint and had sent the poltergeist down the hall screaming in mortal terror. No, they didn't want to go in, and who could blame them? None of the students knew what to make of the man. . .
But they were Ravenclaws, and it was class time, and they had no choice. Silently, heads down and eyes darting nervously about the room, they filed in.
Their professor was waiting for them, sprawled in his chair with his feet up on the teacher's desk. His robes were an odd shade of light brown (Desmond Kearney thought it looked awfully like the shade of his Muggle father's mac), the cuffs and collar and a few other places touched with darker colours. He wore no House colours that anyone could see. His hair was a straggled mess, as if he'd not bothered to drag a comb through it after getting out of bed, and it didn't look as if he'd bothered to shave either. Donald Hutchins and Emmeline Plauger exchanged glances, as if to say: why is everyone so afraid of this man?
Without warning the professor stretched, pulling his feet off the desk and out of sight. He dropped both hands to the desktop with a resounding thunk!, and looked up. The expression in his blue eyes was searching, piercing- entirely at odds with his utterly careless appearance. It swept over every single one of the students in the space of a few seconds, and was followed by a quiet grunt of what might've been approval- if it weren't for that weird stretching of one corner of his mouth in a half-smile.
He pushed back from the desk and rolled his head a bit from side to side. Then he smiled, properly, and there was nothing left of the dodgy look at all. No, that was a smile that came out of nightmares, a grin so wide as to all but split the face in two. How did any human being manage to show that many teeth at once?
And then he spoke.
"'Allo, kids," he said softly, his quietly Liverpool-accented words settling into the dead silent room. "I'm John Constantine."
Desmond whimpered, slumping to the floor with a muffled *thump!*.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-25 12:54 am (UTC)Anyway. Followed you home! *g* I'm a big guilty-pleasure fan of crossovers, because it's always fun to see a familiar character through new eyes. John is definitely no exception. More. Please.
(Oh, and re: the "Sailor Hellblazer" xover someone mentioned, you don't actually have to know a lot about Sailor Moon to enjoy it-- all I knew was what my friend made me watch six years ago, and it still cracked my shit up. So yeah, I recommend it.)
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Date: 2004-01-25 04:21 am (UTC)Pity they're all too young to know how the Beatles sounded...
-- Lorrie
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Date: 2004-01-25 04:21 am (UTC)They're English.
I'm an idiot.
Anyway. Liverpool.
-- Lorrie
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Date: 2004-01-25 07:57 am (UTC)(And once again, am guilty of sneaking someone else's reference in. Euphrasia Goat appears as a child on Death's lap in Hogfather.)
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Date: 2004-01-25 01:55 pm (UTC)And wow. John sounds like he has PRESENCE.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-25 02:21 pm (UTC)See, even if I restructure the bit with Peeves so that none of the students are around to see it, I figure there will be Rumours whizzing around the student body about the new teacher. They've had five years of changes (Quirrell was absent for a year to get field experience, so he counted as a new teacher when he came back, I figure). The new guy is someone they've never heard of, like the others- but other people have heard of him. His initial trip to Diagon Alley for his supplies was the source of an awful lot of rumours- about what happened in the wand shop, in Flourish and Blott's- in Knockturn Alley, where they say he went and came out with armloads of things to be used in the Hogwarts classes this term. He terrified Peeves just by looking at him. He's on speaking terms with the Bloody Baron.
And they're eleven years old, and it's their first time at magical school, and the older students have been speculating about the trip into Knockturn, and And he's got that evil, evil smile.
Of course he's got PRESENCE. It's all about the attitude.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-25 07:56 am (UTC)I'm going to have to rework the whatsitcalled, the bit where John 'deals with' Peeves; the way I figure it, Dumbledore hires him during the summer holidays. (What better way to ensure that the latest DADA teacher isn't a secret spy for Voldemort than to use someone who's never heard of him?) There wouldn't be a student around to blanch at the Bloody Baron congratulating him. However, I doubt he'd actually alienate the Baron before the beginning-of-term feast; the same 'eeeee SCARY MAN!' effect may be had by having the Baron drift up to him at the feast and politely chat with him for just a bit about his plans for the Slytherins for the coming school year, and by- like I said- having him walk in on Peeves and scare the poltergeist with nothing more than his presence.
I do have to do a near-the-beginning scene next, though. Just to establish a few things, before stringing the story bits together with John's notes frmo the field.