LIFE DURING PRIME-TIME - PAUL & ANGELA DABKOWSKI

Everybody in the Trueniverse has a doppelganger in the TV Universe, living on Earth Prime-Time.  Sometimes they even have more than one, living in the alternate dimensions like Skitlandia or the Tooniverse. 

Best known of course are the celebrities who play themselves in various TV shows, and I've been featuring them all year in the daily showcase "The League Of Themselves."

But ordinary folk like you and me (well, you anyway) would also be in this Brave View World.  Most of us would lead the same lives we do in the real world, with some adjustments. 

So this week, I'd like to use this showcase to salute two lovely young people who have made their lives one.  In the real world - and thanks to YouTube, in Toobworld as well....

At the beginning of June, I took a two-week vacation and hopefully you didn't notice - I set up most of the Inner Toob posts for those days in advance.

I took it so early in the Summer At The Lake season because I had a wedding weekend in Northampton, Ma.  My cousin Paul Dabkowski married the loverly Angela Jacobs, whom he met through the live action role playing game company he runs called "Magestry".

Angela is a very talented artist whose work has enhanced their LARP experiences through paintings, costumes, props, etc.  And their wedding and reception reflected that - the bridal processional music was from "The Princess Bride" and the Ring-Bearer was their dog... named Samwise.

SAMWISE THE RING-BEARER
See that dice bag around his neck?  It contains the rings.

Remember that.  It comes up later....

Angela also made the shirt Paul wore for the ceremony underneath his leather doublet, as seen above.

For the reception (at the Boy Scout reservation where the Magestry weekends are held), several board games were available for those gamers looking to play.  "Hounds" freely wandered the Hall as in the days of Beowulf.  And to cap off the evening, Paul disappeared for a bit in order to transform the lifeguard tower down by the lake into their honeymoon suite.

As always in any wedding celebration, there were a few hitches to the proceedings.  But nobody is going to remember those in the years of their marriage ahead; and if they are, they'll be remembered with laughter, for they enriched the experience.

But it may not have been so over in the TV Universe.....

Since there was so much of a mystical, magical, fantastical feel to the whole weekend, I wouldn't be surprised if Paul and Angela's televersions experienced that even moreso on this new playing level.  And since it looked like a period fantasy in modern times, there are several TV shows that could have influenced the TV wedding's proceedings - 'Charmed', 'Supernatural', 'True Blood', 'Once Upon A Time' of course, and since I've been posting how elements from the show can still be found today in Earth Prime-Time (even though I consider it to be taking place on another planet), 'Game Of Thrones' as well.

But I've chosen another modern fantasy that could also be considered science fiction - 'Warehouse 13'.

Here's the basic plotline for how Paul and Angela's wedding could have played out in Toobworld......

After the wedding rehearsal dinner the night before, Paul's groomsmen (including his brother Brian) take Paul off for a friendly game of "Dwarf Lord: The Conquest" (from 'Lizzie McGuire'*)  But there's something different about this particular board game.  One of the groomsmen, let's say it was - dun dun DUNN! - Scott Slater, brought along an unusual pair of dice which he had picked up in his travels.  

It turns out that these dice were those used at the Crucifixion of Jesus.  And because Paul rolled double sixes, he triggers the power in those dice - they trap the soul of the gamer and frees the previous player.  In this case, Paul's body is possessed by the spirit of a minstrel named Brent (which means "holy one", but maybe not in this case.....)

Just as would happen in 'Warehouse 13', the smell of fudge becomes overpowering; but everybody chalks that up to the brownies that would be later served at the reception.  

Brent really means no harm; it wasn't his fault that he was trapped in the dice.  But he is consumed with finding the love of his life from ages ago - a young woman named Isolinde.  Feeling the panic of being lost in this new age, Brent threatens violence if Isolinde is not brought to him. 

Guided by the advice of a young Warehouse agent who happens to be at the wedding as a friend of her family (Claudia or Jinxie, either will do), Angela is able to convince Paul/Brent that she is Isolinde Reborn.  She asks for the dice as a token of his love and he willingly hands them over.  Angela quickly drops them in the dice bag hanging from the neck of Samwise, which she is using as her bridal purse.

Unbeknownst to the soul of Brent, the purse had been lined with one of the Warehouse bags treated with the purple goo which acts as a neutralizing agent.  Too late Brent realizes the danger and tries to stop her, but loyal Samwise leaps to her rescue and knocks down his possessed master.....

Once they are snagged and bagged (later to be tagged), the dice are rendered harmless and Paul's soul is returned to his body.  The soul of Brent is freed to journey to the next stage and there could be witnesses who swear that they saw the spirit of Isolinde waiting for him before they both disappear in the vortex to the Other Side.

Why the names of Brent and Isolinde?  They are the characters in the epic lay poem that Paul wrote for Angela and which each of the wedding guests received at the reception (illustrated of course by Angela).  (Fie on those who left their copies behind!)

I'm not saying this is how it had to play out in the TV Universe, but as Muskie Muskrat used to say: "It's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble."

BCnU!

* They could also have played "Demons and Dragons" (from 'Quantum Leap') or "Wizards and Warlocks" (from 'The Greatest American Hero').  I just thought "Dwarf Lord: The Conquest" was the cooler name!  (And more imaginative, just like the couple.....)