Scratch: Author's Notes
"Oh, I go by various names. I am the wild huntsman in some countries; the black miner in others. In this neighborhood I am known by the name of the black woodsman. I am he to whom the red men consecrated this spot, and in honor of whom they now and then roasted a white man, by way of sweet-smelling sacrifice. Since the red men have been exterminated by you white savages, I amuse myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists; I am the great patron and prompter of slave-dealers and the grand-master of the Salem witches."
"The upshot of all which is, that, if I mistake not," said Tom, sturdily, "you are he commonly called Old Scratch."
(Excerpted from The Devil and Tom Walker, American folktale transcribed ca. 1837)
Way back in May, fmanalyst asked me to write her a Torchwood fanfic based on the Faust myth.
Finding characters to plausibly stick into a Torchwood Faustian story was tricky...of the three Whoniverse shows, Doctor Who is the most Faustian, particuarly S3 with Martha Jones. The only obvious story in the main body of Torchwood canon is Gwen's Faust to Jack's Mephistopheles, except it's canon and somebody else already wrote it. Lucky for me, there was an even better Mephistopheles available, one with very little backstory, a penchant for poodles, and a sidekick with a great big gaping plot hole regarding how he came to Cardiff in the first place. 57,909 words (yikes), four months of writing, three different countries, two offshore voyages, and one major hurricane later, Scratch was completed. It's a bit different from anything I've ever done before-my first effort at dark!fic, my first fic with a scene that is a retelling of a canon scene, and my first effort at worldbuilding-and also in that it's a Torchwood fic in which Torchwood itself is only peripheral to the story.
This is a birthday present for fmanalyst , and as she's quite well-read I decided to have a bit of fun and load it with references to other works as a brain candy scavenger hunt. Some were fairly easy to spot, while others were more obscure (and a few were very obscure indeed). The following is a list of works to which I allude in greater or lesser detail, a little bit of what in particular I used for the fic, and the occasional rec/review.
The Tragickal History of Doctor Faustus, by Marlowe
This one is a rather comic treatment of the story (despite its name and subject matter) that sets up Faust as a well-educated buffoon. Marlowe's Doctor Faustus was quite quick to fall from grace, as was Fjoaan Tsuhn, and I tried to put in an element of John being in some form of eternal banishment, like Mephistopheles (which is canon, after a fashion). The inspiration for the Time Vortex smelling of sulphur is taken from this story with its brimstone and damnation.
The various Faustian stories alternate between naming him “Johann Faust” or “Johann Faustus.” This version uses “Faustus,” which is Latin for “lucky”-hence “Lucky John Hunt.”
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Inferno appears in several places in this story: the nine steps from the passageway to the circular flight bridge of the Light-bearer and Lux Aeterna, the frozen lake of ice where the devil sleeps, AKA John's bedroom, Virgil (spelled in its variant Vergil) leading the protagonist through Hell, the guard Kaedoh (deliberately misspelled Cato), and so on. This story made me wander aimlessly through my piles of stuff looking for my pocket version of the Inferno, and sending me to Gutenberg when I couldn't find it.
Simoom, Raksha, and Narasimha, the leopard, she-wolf, and lion, are allegorical figures from Inferno.
Although Inferno is the best known of the three parts of the Divine Comedy and the one I allude to most often, there are also allusions to Purgatorio sprinkled in, notably in the view of the sky in Manon's casino, the seven steps from the Weavers's hallway to the alley, and in Might's and the Agent's attempts to instill repentant behaviour in Fjoaan Tsuhn through repeated mentions of modesty and economy.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hester Prynn wore the red “A” on her clothing for years and years, even after the village more or less forgave her for her transgression. When she attempts to free herself by sailing away from the Puritan colony, her own daughter more or less forces her back into wearing it. The blowfish community uses a similar form of public shaming.
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The serpent-woman creature who takes Fjoaan Tsuhn from Algirs to Earth is modeled after Milton's Sin, the daughter of Satan and quite possibly the scariest literary figure I've ever encountered.
The Devil and Tom Walker, American folktalke transcribed by Washington Irving
Of all the versions of the Faust myth, this one seemed to “fit” the best. Society's notion of what is great evil changes over time, and something that might be considered highly taboo four hundred years ago might not even make us bat an eye today. In the Goethe Faust, one of the biggest events is the corruption of Gretchen. While having one's daughter seduced and impregnated would certainly cause a fuss today, it's not likely (in western society, anyway) for her mother to suicide over it and her brother to go out and attempt an honor killing. For this reason, one of the biggest sources of conflict in the Goethe Faust just doesn't have as much emotional resonance with us, and given that Fjoaan Tsuhn's species isn't highly sexual anyway, it doesn't really work. Molding Fjoaan Tsuhn into Tom Walker sidesteps that problem-he merely sells his soul to the devil for money, much as Tom Walker did.
The devil appears to Tom Walker in “a rude Indian garb,” torn leather shirts with a tattered red fabric belt. This, along with the Skinwalker myth, was the inspiration for Coyote Walker's clothing. Yes, all the Time Agents are devils. No, the red bandana is not associated with anything else.
Gandahar, by Jean-Pierre Andrevon, adapted to film by Isaac Asimov.
This is another vaguely Faustian story involving an artificial intelligence that goes back in time to steal humans/humanoids for its own preservation. I say “vaguely Faustian” because although it's more of a Paradise Lost than Tom Walker story, there is a strong subplot in the story that the creation of the intelligence involved some kind of forbidden knowledge and dire consequences. There are two main species, one “human” and one similar but not. The similar-but-nots never speak in the present tense, only in past/future; I used this for the Weavers' “was-will be” pattern of speaking.
Gandahar somehow manages to be profoundly bizarre and completely normal all at the same time, a feat that (perhaps fittingly) makes me simultaneously admire it and scratch my head. It was adapted into an animated movie back in 1988 with Isaac Asimov doing the script. The artificial intelligence looks like a weird cross between Krang of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame and the humanized Dalek Sec from Evolution of the Daleks. I enjoyed this movie a lot and recommend it for Asimov fans, but be advised that it's one of those weird-as-hell 1980s dystopian sci-fi numbers best enjoyed with liberal amounts of pizza and beer.
Les Aventures d'un Homme de Qualite (Manon L'Escaut), by Abbe Prevost
Manon L'Escaut is a book about a nice but rather naive man who gets married to a greedy woman. His wife, Manon, has champagne taste on a beer budget, and alternately talks her husband into getting into debt and making herself a kept woman. The story itself caused a reasonable amount of sturm und drang when it was first published, even getting itself banned in a few places. Lady Manon in the casino is similarly only interested in money, sells out her lover, and so on.
A Passion in the Desert by Honoré de Balzac
This book (also turned into a movie a few years back) features a French soldier trapped in the desert some time during the Napoleonic wars and a leopardess named Simoom. Simoom is also an arabic word for a certain kind of desert wind, one that tends to kill people in spectacularly bad ways. A Passion in the Desert is an amazing story-and very true to the madness that comes from isolation-but it is not a comfortable one.
Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling
This made me feel a bit guilty, since the Just So Stories were my favorite bedtime stories as a child, and the one I quoted most often, The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo, was the one my brother and sister and I all begged our momma to read. Qualms about destroying my childhood aside, Old Man Kangaroo is a Faustian story in its own right, whereupon the kangaroo begs a desert god (the Great God Nqong) to make him unique and sought-after by five o'clock this afternoon. To no-one's surprise, things go hilariously awry. The kangaroo's mortal adversary is the fearsome Yellow Dog Dingo (/snark), whose name I appropriate as a call sign for Coyote Walker. There are two references to the Great God Nqong: first, Commander Kong is an Anglicization of Nqong, and second when Coyote Walker tells Elder Nicholas he will stand on a sandpile and bother him in his bath.
Star Trek
Kaedoh is a Klingon, a species canonically noted for rough sex. I needed a Cato to go along with Virgil, and went for a cheap laugh.
The Wizard of Oz
When Kaedoh first brings him out for inspection, Narasimha wears a green cloak trimmed with ermine similar to the Cowardly Lion after his beauty salon treatment in the Emerald City.
Finding Nemo
It's canon that the producers wanted the blowfish to look like “Nemo, only evil.” Both blowfish in canon (KKBB and Fragments) have white marks across their foreheads and both are criminals-I took some liberties with that. The Whitsunday islands are on the northeast coast of Australia, a prime diving area and home to many clownfish.
Doctor Who: Army of Ghosts, Aliens of London/Boomtown, Smith and Jones, The Sound of Drums
Simoom, Raksha, and Narasimha, Lady Manon's beasts, are controlled by silver earpieces connected to their brain stems. Manon uses these to control the animals and also as a patch to the casino's security systems. The Cybermen use similar earpieces to control the four young Torchwood employees who open the void.
General Bessingekeriaxolus is from Raxicoricofallapatorius. The hypercuffs are a Whoniverse invention, used by Jack in Boomtown to keep Margaret the Slitheen from escaping the Doctor. (Boomtown is my favorite DW comedy episode. So funny, so campy, and Jack has futuristic electroplay handcuffs. What's not to love?)
The Judoon first appeared in Smith and Jones.
Commander Kong taps his fingers in a duh-duh-duh-DUH, duh-duh-duh-DUH pattern on more than one occasion. The description of Vortex Manipulator travel without a ship is taken from the scene where Jack, Ten, and Martha jump back to 21st century London.
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
More fun. The object Coyote Walker gives to Elder Nicholas is a golden fiddle belonging to Charlie Daniels.
Mork and Mindy
Nanu nanu! When Nate is giving Fjoaan Tsuhn flack about the list the Agent gave him, he asks if his instructions include calling Orson once a week. Orson is the disembodied voice that Mork reports to at the end of each episode.
Lassie, Old Yeller, and TinTin
Again, this one started as a cheap laugh. Because Scratch deals with so many very nasty things, I wanted to lighten it up with a bit of dark comedy. John Hart thinks poodles are gorgeous, so why not create a bitchy space poodle with a taste for expensive clothing and bloodplay? Laaessy, however, was not satisfied with being a cheap anything and turned into a rather interesting, if creepy, OC. I don't know that I could have illuminated John Hart's character without her, nor guided Fjoaan Tsuhn down his road to perdition with such flair. Since I was naming one space poodle Lassie, it only made sense to name the others Old Yeller, Blue, and Rover.
Milou, the white Caynnyd working for Commander Kong, is the name of Tintin's dog in the original French version of the comic. Coyote Walker suggests that Jack and John had some nekkid fun with Milou at some point, a nod to Owen's comment about “I think he was shagging the dog.”
Mass of the Requiem
There are occasional mentions of the Requiem mass sprinkled through the fic, notably in the names of the Time Agency ships Lux Aeterna, Luceat Eis, and Lux Perpetua.
Gods and Monsters
The following is a list of gods, demons, and mythical creatures referenced in Scratch:
Iblis, the Arabic equivalent of Satan
Oriax, a demon
Botis, a demon
Raksha, a demon
Narasimha, the Hindu Lion god
Light-bearer, the translation of Lucifer, a name for Satan
Gabriel, archangel and “The Might of God,” appearing as Might the gatekeeper blowfish
Selaphiel, archangel and “Intercessor of God,” appearing as The Agent
Coyote, north American trickster god
Ouragan, Caribbean island storm god (and the root of the word Hurricane)
Old Nick, a Dutch folkloric name for Satan, appearing as Elder Nicholas
Selkies, legendary seal-people of Ireland (“sjoeltjie” is how the word would be phonetically spelled in Dutch)
Other notes (in no particular order)
The Tuca'aroba are imagined after great barracuda. Barracuda have a line of small black spots on their sides that increase dramatically in size-from fingernail-sized to teacup saucer sized-when irritated about something. Suffice to say it's impressive and more than a bit freaky to watch. The name Tuca'aroba is an anagram of baracouta, a similar (but not related) fish that lives in New Zealand waters. When I was trying to think of a name for them, I was freezing my toes off in the Bass Strait while contemplating a seaside vacation in Tonga, whose capital city is Nuku'alofa.
North American readers will probably (correctly) have recognized Coyote Walker as Native American; specifically he is Diné (Navajo). His name is inspired by both Coyote the trickster god and skinwalkers, a Diné witch. In keeping with the skinwalker myth, Coyote Walker's clothes were either trimmed with or made entirely of coyote fur. Personality-wise, Coyote Walker was heavily inspired by Jean Lafitte, the Gentleman Pirate of New Orleans, whose colorful and interesting history is far too extensive to note here. He's one of those folks whose life story can only be true because it's too out there to be made up. Most of it, anyway.
Lieutenant Ruakiwa is intended to be ethnic Maori. Like most Polynesian cultures, the Maori would wear tattoos on the face; Maori women's tattoos were over the lips and chin. It's no longer common in New Zealand to see facial tattoos, but it's always a treat when I do. They're stunningly beautiful. Ruakiwa's tattoo was also a device to mess with Fjoaan Tsuhn's head a bit.
When I wrote the Safri, I had in mind a cross between a giant squid and an elephant. Unfortunately, once I put them on the page, they wound up (in my mind) looking more like the Radish Spirit from Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, only red. Because nothing says “evil” like a giant talking daikon radish.
Ensign Calcasieu is named after Lake Calcasieu in the US state of Louisiana, onetime hideout of Jean Lafitte.
The song John Hart sings to Manon, “I know you, I danced with you once upon a dream,” are the Disney movie lyrics to the Sleeping Beauty Waltz by Tchaikovsky, in a scene heavily reminiscent of Clockwork Orange (although unintentional and I didn't realize that until months after I'd written it). John Hart and Stanley Kubrik would probably be a match made in heaven, now that I think of it. Or hell. I don't actually want to think about it too much.
There is a chapter of the excellent book Freakonomics in which the authors analyze the financial records kept by a Chicago drug gang. This was the inspiration for Fjoaan's bookkeeping abilities, particularly after he met Fly, Spoon, and Nate.
The Heretic's Fork and Judas' Seat, used by the Safri to torture John Hart, are real medieval torture devices used as late as the Spanish Inquisition. The Judas' Seat was historically made of wood and not cleaned between uses; victims who survived being impaled frequently died of infection. The Heretic's Fork was intended not to kill but to cause extreme pain and public humiliation.
The door to Lady Manon's office is Mughal-style inlay work imagined after the doors to the Taj Mahal and the palace of Noor Jahan.
John Hart teases Fjoaan Tsuhn for “not being able to hold his irgaut.” Irgaut is a deliberate misspelling of ergot, a poisonous fungus that grows on rye grains. One of the chemicals in ergot is a direct precursor to a major component of LSD.
Spoon is named after one of the rowers I used to coach. I will never, ever tell him, especially since the character is written as a drugged out Australian and he's a native New Zealander who's straight as an arrow. (Go figure.) Also, the one and only time I have ever heard the phrase “strike me pink and call me Roger” was when an actual Australian spoke it.
The Cold Wall, referenced several times in the fic, is where warm tropical water and cold temperate water meet (about 35-40 degrees latitude, depending on where you are), and it literally is like a wall. If you sail over it, the water changes temperature and color almost immediately, and it's usually marked by fog or storms. The blowfish can't survive in cold water, so theoretically they would die in the waters of Cardiff Bay. Lucky for them there is a helpful nuclear power plant nearby that uses the bay as a heat sink.
The original bearer of the name Drongo was an Australian racehorse who finished second in just about every race it ever ran. Its name survived about 100 years to be an impolite way of telling somebody that he or she is a useless idiot.
Fjoaan Tsuhn is named after the mythological Fjoaan Tsuhn of Diepbahru. “Bahru” is Bahasa Malaysia for “city,” while “diep” is Dutch for “deep.” At one point, what is now Malaysia was colonized by the Dutch East India Company. I started writing Scratch shortly after a business trip to Johor Bahru, Malaysia; the city of Diepbahru is a nod to that.
Huge thanks to my betas, used_songs , offer_of_hope , and invisible_lift , who slogged through pages and pages and pages of scribbles, magically turning the language into something resembling coherent and ensuring that the plot was no more full of holes than your average Torchwood episode. Also, huge thanks to sanginmychains for alternately holding my hand and beating my brow when I was stuck with writer's block and to offer_of_hope for listening when I would grouse about how I couldn't wait until the fish was finally dead.
Finally, happy birthday again to fmanalyst . Hope you liked it.