Polloria

Review – Bribery

Review – Bribery

Bribery fills in a storyline gap.

Background

After writing Reversal, I got to thinking about a missing piece of information.

Barking up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Before Days | Bribery

Before Days

Just how – and why – did Yimar and Treve go along with everything? And how did Polloria insinuate herself into the family?

Plot

As a prelude story, the information given about the Calafans is pretty sketchy. Chawev, the First Minister, plays a guessing game with his three children, Treve, Yimar, and Chelben. He wants them to guess who’s coming to dinner, quite literally. Bits of background information flow in, that Yipran is comatose, and is being cared for by a Dr. Baden. Baden has helpers, but only one is female. And that’s who’s on her way to join them.

Adding to the background information, their home is filled with the smell of cooking prako. Treve explains that it’s an expensive dish, and Chawev counters that their guest has generously provided it. Further, he tells them that things are going to be different, and they’re going to eat better from then on.  This rather neatly conforms to what Doug and Lili are eventually told during Local Flavor.

When Polloria, the guest of honor, arrives, she comes bearing gifts. There’s a pretty stylus for Treve, who is still, at that point in the timeline, destined for a diplomatic career. Yimar is given a small bracelet, prefiguring the Cuff of Lo gift in Friday Visit, Together, and Temper, and the bracelet for Melissa in Fortune.  Chelben, who is still a rather small child, is given a stuffed linfep toy. Treve and Yimar, at least, see through Polloria, at least in her efforts to insinuate herself into the family. As for her ambition to become the new High Priestess, that part is mentioned but they don’t seem to realize just how far she will go, or how far she has already gone.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I like the little glimpse into Calafan life, including the use of a fork, which prefigures a small plot point in Reversal.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Review, 1 comment

Portrait of a Character – Polloria

Portrait of a Character – Polloria

Polloria is a classic villainess.

Origins

For a villainess character in Reversal, I wanted someone who would be utterly ruthless, but who would also bide her time and be careful about how she’d do the deed. Enter Polloria.

Portrayal

TV Guide #1430 (flap open)

TV Guide #1430 (flap open) (Photo credit: trainman74)

Polloria is played by veteran soap actress Genie Francis. I like how this attractive actress has some versatility.

She’s also got a great Star Trek pedigree – she’s married to TNG actor Jonathan Frakes. I would have loved to have seen her somewhere on Star Trek, and she was evidently under consideration for a guest spot during the second season of TNG. But for whatever reason, that didn’t happen.

Personality

Ambitious and mean, Polloria is cutthroat. She will do anything to get what she wants, and that means authorizing Dr. Baden to begin injecting Yipran with potassium, which will cut off Yipran’s dreams. Once she is found out, she still doesn’t give up, and tries to become the Mirror Yimar’s regent, and even attempts to turn Doug through a shared dream.

Relationships

Chawev

In both universes, they carry on an affair, but it’s really just to get Polloria into position so that she can become the next Calafan High Priestess. She doesn’t care for Chawev at all, only for her naked ambitions.

I haven’t decided, yet, whether she got Baden to help her with any sort of sex or relationship, or whether it was just bribery. Baden’s dream woman is Miva, but there’s nothing yet on what his relationship with Polloria was, if anything, prior to Reversal.

Mirror Universe

Portrait of a Character – Polloria

Mirror Polloria

Unlike a lot of other characters, Polloria in the Mirror Universe isn’t much different from her Prime Universe counterpart. They’re both determined, driven, and utterly evil.

In both universes, Polloria receives a sentence of potassium injections, which leave her dreamless and comatose. But in the alternate timeline brought about in Temper, the Mirror Polloria is temporarily freed, as Empress Hoshi has essentially opened up the prisons.

Quote

“Everyone, remember, any words you say to her, she’ll pick up on. So choose carefully and don’t say much. In fact, just let your father and I do all the talking, all right?”

“This situation cannot be sustained. But dispatching this one in public is not gonna happen; there’s no time. It’ll have to be done today. Then you’ll bring Yimar in front of the people and we’ll, we’ll take her under our wing. Nurture and guide her and tell her what to do.”

Upshot

I liked creating this villain character, and even redeeming her a bit in Temper. Will she return? Possibly for a prequel story. I’m not sure.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Portrait, 0 comments

Portrait of a Character – Yipran I

Portrait of a Character – Yipran I

Yipran I now has a fate which differs from my original idea.

Origins

As I wrote Reversal, I needed a character who would, in our universe, be someone who the natives would mimic with Lili. In the Mirror Universe, she would be mimicked by Jennifer. She would be mother to Treve, Yimar, and Chelben. Enter Yipran.

Portrayal

I like Susan Sarandon for Yipran.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Susan Sarandon as Yipran I (image is for educational purposes only)

Susan Sarandon as Yipran I (image is for educational purposes only)

The actress is tough and smart, and is an Oscar winner.

She can play all manner of characters. Hence I feel she would easily be able to show a Yipran who is not yet healed. Yet she would also be one who is, in dreams, the spiritual leader of her people.

Personality

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Susan Sarandon as Yipran I (image is for educational purposes only)

Susan Sarandon as Yipran I (image is for educational purposes only)

Intelligent but damaged, High Priestess Yipran never fully recovers from what Chawev, Baden, and Polloria do to her. Essentially, by poisoning her with an excessive amount of potassium, they have cut off her dreams and eventually she becomes comatose.

In Bribery, Yimar and Treve express the desire to visit her in the main hospital, but are thwarted, as Chawev wants to bring in Polloria as their new stepmother – despite the fact that Yipran is far from dead.

By the time of Friday Visit, Yipran is slowly recovering, but her damage remains. In Fortune, she can speak clearly in dreams, but not during waking life.

Relationships

Chawev

In both universes, Yipran is the victim of her husband. He attempts to do her in, in order to pave the way for the ambitious vixen, Polloria. Treve, their eldest son, reveals in Together that Chawev and Yipran really can’t divorce, as no one wants to believe that the First Minister and the High Priestess would ever not have a perfect marriage.

Mirror Universe

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Susan Sarandon as MU Yipran I (image is for educational purposes)

Susan Sarandon as MU Yipran I (image is for educational purposes)

Just as in the prime universe, Yipran is the High Priestess of the Calafan people. As such, she is their spiritual leader, although her husband is their political leader.

In the mirror, Yipran’s life ends near the end of Reversal, as Polloria and Polloria’s cronies kill her. Hence her daughter, Yimar, succeeds her.

Quote

“Yes, and my time will be up soon anyway. But you will continue on, as planets form and die and break apart and become new things, you will watch. And as lives begin and end, you will bear witness. {And} when the last atom has been blown apart in the remnants of the Big Bang, as the last of the energy converts to dark matter, and the universe hits absolute zero, you will be there. And you will watch it, and go with it, as it turns onto itself, and again renews, in an endless cycle. For when it is all dark matter, and it has all recompressed, as it passes through another septum, one that does not yet exist, and it goes to another place, crossing another pond, there will be another Big Bang. As there have been countless ones before, there will be countless ones after.”

Upshot

Yipran spends a lot of time as a victim. However, that’s one of the main drivers of the plot in Reversal. At some point, I might write more of an origin story for her. Yet right now that is very much on the back burner.

Posted by jespah in Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Portrait, 6 comments

Portrait of a Character – Yimar

Portrait of a Character – Yimar

Yimar has more of a life than I originally planned.

Origins

I wanted a Star Trek fanfiction character who would be kind of compelled to do certain things, even if she didn’t want to. As a child, Yimar fits the bill, particularly in Bribery and then in Reversal, where she’s forced to accept her father’s lover, Polloria, as a family member, even as she and her brother, Treve, despise Polloria and she frets for the fate of her critically ill mother, the Calafan High Priestess, Yipran.

Portrayal

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Charlize Theron as Yimar (image is for educational purposes only)

Charlize Theron as Yimar (image is for educational purposes only)

Yimar, as an adult, is played by Charlize Theron. I haven’t decided who plays her as a child or a teenager.

I love this smart, beautiful, Oscar-winning actress who has been through a lot in her life.

Personality

Dutiful and intelligent, Yimar is an obedient child. But the appearance of Polloria is too much for her, and she and Treve quickly figure out the score. Yimar in particular wants to protect their mother, but she’s essentially helpless. After all, she’s just a kid.

When she becomes a teenager, she starts working as a babysitter for first Joss and then Marie Patrice and, eventually, Declan. Her existence and her willingness to work hard make it possible for Lili to return to work as the chef at Reversal. This also makes it possible for Doug to have a career again. Yimar is particularly helpful during the events of Together.

During the alternate timelines in Temper, Yimar takes on the High Priestess role (she doesn’t do this in the prime universe, in the correct timeline), and is also the leader of the Calafan government in exile. When the line is restored, she’s able to resume her regular life.

As an adult in the correct timeline, she marries and has a daughter, Yinora, who is named for Leonora Digiorno. With Yinora in the role of nighttime woman to Neil Digiorno-Madden, Yimar and her family forge a permanent connection to the Beckett-Digiorno-MaddenReed clan.

Relationships

Brian Delacroix

During Together, Brian and Yimar bond, as she is stuck caring for Joss and he’s sympathetic to her plight. They are also fairly close in age although she’s only sixteen, and he’s twenty-one. Her frank talk about sex does make him nervous, though.

Josh Rosen

In the Mirror Universe, Yimar and Josh meet during the events of He Stays a Stranger. As much older people who are both alone, they find each other attractive. The colony entity known as Branch Borodin confirms that they end up together.

Theme Music

Brian and Yimar’s theme is Michael Jackson’s PYT

Mirror Universe

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Charlize Theron as MU Yimar (image is for educational purposes only)

Charlize Theron as MU Yimar (image is for educational purposes only)

In the Mirror Universe, Yimar loses her mother as Polloria’s murderous ways garner some success. But Jennifer Crossman has also named her (Yimar) to be the next High Priestess. Polloria originally believes that she will be able to control Yimar and act as a regent. She sees Yimar as her puppet.

But the headstrong teenager has other plans.

One of the mirror Yimar’s first acts is to permanently throw open the doors between the two universes. Calafans can shuttle back and forth without any further assistance. This serves as a plot point in Temper. It also allows for a mixing of the two closely-related species that had been denied for centuries.

Later, in the HG Wells stories, the reader learns Yimar is behind plans to sell Constitution-class starship plans and parts to the Terran Empire’s enemies. Because this a means of assuring some measures of protection for the Calafan people. As matters resolve with Empress Hoshi, Yimar’s main concern is, as always, for her people. She’s a good ruler, even as her system is subjugated and overrun. Plus she does her best to keep her people safe and well-fed.

Quote

He’s the cleanest human I’ve ever known.

Upshot

I really like this character but I haven’t explored her much as an adult in the prime universe. I’ll have to try to rectify that in the future.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Portrait, 9 comments