Timeless Heroes, for Girls and Boys

"What are you making?" Naari Magweed peeked over the edge of the table.

"Come and see," April Alice Apple patted her leg, as she continued to sketch.

"CrazySugarFreakBunny! and Epitome Eagle?" Maggie read aloud, after she'd climbed up onto April's lap.

"Your Auntie April is looking to branch out a bit," April wrapped an arm around Maggie's waist while she worked.

"You drew Mr. Epitome to look like Sam the Eagle from The Muppet Show," Maggie pointed out.

"A lot of my characters have started out as ... homages," April admitted.

"I like him," Maggie giggled. "Mr. Epitome kind of looks like Sam the Eagle in real life anyway. They both try to look serious, so they frown all the time, but it kind of makes them look silly instead."

"That's why characters like that are called 'comic foils,'" April explained.

"Like Elmer Fudd?" Maggie made the connection. "You drew Dream to look like Bugs Bunny, but ... prettier."

"That's why artists do preliminary sketches," April smiled. "It's kind of like ... brainstorming on paper. It's one thing to have ideas in your head, but once you start fleshing them out, with pencils and pens, it helps you figure out what works and what doesn't."

"Why don't you draw the Groovy Gecko-Gal anymore?" Maggie wondered.

April winced. "I guess ... she sort of feels more like a part of my past now," she bit her lower lip, "like I've ... outgrown her, maybe."

"Oh," Maggie cast her eyes downward in disappointment.

"Where's your brother?" April squeezed Maggie, suddenly anxious to change the subject.

"He's with Dream," Maggie rolled her eyes. "They're watching Doctor Who."

"What's the matter," April teased, "you don't like Doctor Who?"

"He's kind of scary," Maggie confessed. "Dream says the Fourth Doctor is the best Doctor ever, and Griffin always wants to play the Tenth Doctor, but they're both the same. They act funny and friendly at first, but then, they turn angry and mean."

"Can I tell you a secret?" April confided. "I'm not exactly a Whovian myself. When I was growing up, I didn't like Tom Baker's Doctor, either, for a lot of the same reasons as you ... plus, his bug eyes and horse teeth just creeped me out anyway. But don't forget, there are eight other Doctors, and one of them is Peter Davison."

"He was the Fifth Doctor, wasn't he?" Maggie recalled. "I remember him from the short episode where he met the Tenth Doctor. Griffin says that he must be good, because 'Five is Ten's hero!'"

"That's an interesting way of looking at it," April smirked, "but in this case, your brother is more right than he knows. Davison's Doctor ... well, back when he was the Doctor, he was a lot younger than he was in 'Time Crash.' In fact, Davison's Doctor is still the youngest of all the Doctors, and I think that affected how he was as the Doctor. Part of the reason I crushed on him as a kid was because of how emotionally earnest and vulnerable he was. He showed that, just because the Doctor isn't human, it doesn't mean he can't be humane."

"He did have a kind-looking face," Maggie smiled softly, enjoying April's enthusiasm. "But why would Dream like the Fourth Doctor more?"

"Yeah, why would my husband identify with a manic-depressive autistic savant with Peter Pan syndrome?" April muttered sarcastically to herself, before she spotted Maggie's curious stare. "Well ... as I got older, I realized that the Doctor is sort of meant to be a bit unsettling, simply because he is alien. That's part of what helped me appreciate Sylvester McCoy's Doctor ... of course, the other part was that his companion was a rebellious teenage girl with a backpack full of explosives, who smashed Daleks with a baseball bat."

"It figures," Maggie's shoulders slumped in resignation. "Girls only get to go on adventures until they grow up."

"Hey!" April objected. "That's not true!"

"Then why is Yuki the only girl left on the Lair Legion?" Maggie needed to know. "And why aren't you the Groovy Gecko-Gal anymore?"

April gaped, as she struggled to come up with an adequate answer. "The Groovy Gecko-Gal ... is who I was, before I became comfortable with being myself," she finally settled on.

"It could still be who you are," Maggie pleaded, "since you're so comfortable with being yourself now."

April pulled Maggie in close for another hug as she considered this. "Maybe," April conceded, causing Maggie to beam. "No promises, though," April tapped Maggie's nose with the tip of her finger, as Maggie nodded. "In the meantime, let's get the boys to take a break from Doctor Who, and pop in Dream's DVDs of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Somehow, I doubt either he or Griffin will mind," she chuckled, as she reflected upon Sarah Jane Smith's similarities to the older Englishwoman from Faerie on whom both boys nursed their respective crushes, "and it'll do us all some good to see that girls' adventures don't have an upper age limit."