Boy, these characters like altering my plans!

When I originally conceived the character of Teresa DeSantos, she wasn't supposed to break out. She was supposed to be a character who could deal with the issues raised by the collision of the Tomorrow Peoples' and Rangers' worlds, coming a bit more towards the Rangers' end.

It wasn't until towards the end of "The Song My Father Sang" that she told me otherwise. I suppose I should start more from the beginning, really. "Song" was supposed to be a one-off ("Yeah," you're no doubt saying, "I've heard that one before."), until Lucas decided to get into the act. Then Teresa, not to be outdone, told me about something I never thought would happen to her- her breakout.

So what to do, but write?

I outlined, I planned, I was going to have a nice little quiet story about Teresa and the gang adjusting to Teresa's change. Apart from a slight problem on making her break out while she was a Ranger, it was relatively simple. Regina finds out Teresa's going to break out, she stops attacking in the hope that Teresa does, Teresa does so, and suddenly the team is minus one Ranger.

I did have Teresa use common sense, unlike Rocky. When she found out she had broken out, she let her teammates know and then she left. (In Rocky's defence, his teammates didn't mostly grow up knowing about the TP.)

Elise didn't really exist before Teresa named her. She didn't precisely walk up to me, but I wrote her and she came to life in just enough time to replace Teresa. I still don't know her all that well.

I got through part one fine, sans Teresa reacting properly, so I rewrote. I'm still not sure if she reacted properly, but that would be dealt with later.

Of course, later came sooner than I thought. I had what I thought was a nice little scene going, then boom! Lucas was in love with Teresa. Teresa discovered she was in love with Lucas. They were just sitting there being lovey-dovey and driving me nuts. I still don't know how I managed to get them along in the story, but somehow I did. I forced them back to the plot with Lucas' not-so-wise decision to have Teresa not tell anyone outside her teammates that she'd broken out.

And so, I managed to get further into the plot. I'd planned one talk with each of her teammates in this story, and for the most part, I got that. Elise's brief talk about her insecurities about replacing Teresa came first. I really didn't have her on the list, but she popped up anyway. Lucas I'd already gotten. Forrest and Ian were supposed to have seperate scenes, not paired together, but they somehow ended up together, no doubt because of my need to have Ian's information show up earlier than he was plotted out to talk to Teresa.

Ian's information, along with a plot twist suggested by Mandi Ohlin, solidified what I needed for the rest of the plot. The original purpose of Ian's bit of information was to lay the scene for where Regina tried marrying Lucas and Teresa to other villian. Okay, that and I really wanted to add in a vague side-reference to Ellen Brand's PR story "Family Ties", which had some eerie parallels with some parts of "Song". BTW, Adam's encounter with Scorpina will be covered in "Parental Concerns".

The conversation kind of drifted off topic here, but it also allowed me to cover something I probably won't cover even in "Parental Concerns": that of the parents' (continuing) reactions to their kids being Rangers. I got the idea from a usenet posting on, I believe, either the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" newsgroup, or the general SF tv one. It talked about Buffy's mom's likely reactions to Buffy being the slayer. I believe that the poster listed several possible reactions. One was that the mom, upon discovering that her kid is the slayer, would immediately move as far away from the location as possible. The second was that the mom would get overprotective. The third was that the mom would allow her daughter to be the slayer, but sit and worry about it. A fourth which applies here but was not listed by that poster was that the mother accepted it. After reading that posting, I tried to classify the former Rangers into the categories. Rocky I had as category 4, Iz being probably category 3 leaning to category 1. Most of the other Ranger parents would probably fall into category 3, with tendencies towards category 2 or 1. Tommy was definitely a category 2 in my book, which is why I noted Cecelia getting her wish in the parental attention department.

(A small injoke in that section I thought I'd note was about Forrest's father, T.J., never being the Blue Ranger. As those of you who watch Power Rangers in Space know, T.J. is now the Blue Ranger. I gave Forrest his Ranger colour months before I knew T.J. would become Blue, and was surprised when T.J.'s colour changed. Of course, the events of PRiS don't exist in OA.)

Another something that surprised me is that Iz, Teresa's mother, finally made an appearance in this story. I've tried to have her away most of the time, just because she has the potential to be Mary Sue material. Yes, I was glad to see her again. From what I can tell, I wasn't the only one. Oh, and yes, Teresa's parents were intended to have a sex life.

I'm sorry to say that Cecelia didn't have much of a part in this one. (BTW, did anyone notice that I accidentally made her cold disappear inbetween parts 1 and 5?) I was really dreading having to write a scene with her, because she's a bit awkward to write. She found it awkward, too, for she left everything up to her father.

Those of you who follow my writings know that I'm not very fond of Tommy Oliver. The only Ranger I like less than him is Carlos, Adam's replacement. I rarely sync with him. That's why I was a wee bit surprised when he had his talk with Teresa. I'm glad, though, for at least that gives Teresa a resource other than her father. She's going to need it.

Mini-rant here, which PR watchers will probably agree with: lessee, you have 4-6 superheroes. You have 5-6 teenagers who wear the same colour all the time. The Rangers fight the same way as the teenagers. Nobody in Angel Grove can seem to figure this out. (I can justify this for the parents that are former Rangers that they are somehow denying it, but I can't figure anyone else out.) That's why I had Tommy spot the style change for the Yellow Ranger.

Oh, and speaking of Ranger colours: I tried to bring up the colour compulsion thing again here, along with the tendency for retired Rangers to somehow go to wearing black, grey, or white after they lose the powers. I made sure that Elise wore yellow. I'm sure someone told her that she's going to be stuck wearing yellow for the duration of her stint as a Ranger. Likewise, I had Teresa having to resist a compulsion to not wear yellow. I'm sure the moment she could drop the facade of still being the Yellow Ranger, she dropped wearing yellow for a while as well.

Anyway, it was soon time to move towards the end of the plot, as I'd covered everyone I'd needed to. As with my original plot, Lucas and Teresa were kidnapped. However, the reason for Regina doing so was changed. She went from having Teresa break out so that she could have a less experienced opponent (and then rubbing salt in the wound), to having a different reason: making Teresa want to get back to the fight any way she could, which would mean having to come to Regina's side.

What Regina didn't realize, as Teresa says, is that balance is probably one of the most important things in Teresa's life. I'm not quite sure where or how Teresa found her balance, but she did. Maybe it's because she was reminded that her TP side wasn't all that bad, nothing to be ashamed of. Part of her heritage, really. She's not a Ranger anymore, but in some ways she will always be one, just as when she was a Ranger, she never lost sight of her Tomorrow People heritage. She can't be both at the same time, of course, but if she ever completely lost one, she would go mad. Maybe it's how she's defined herself more than anything else. If her TP genes were removed without her knowledge, then she would not lose her balance, because it's a matter of culture, not genetics, although if those genes were removed and she knew it, she'd probably feel perpetually out of place in the TP world.

I realize that I've left a lot to do in this world. Teresa's change is only the beginning. How she continues to define herself as a Tomorrow Person will, of course, be something to tell. But my main point was discovering who she was as a Ranger, and I have, for the most part, told that story. All stories in this series henceforth will probably be prior to Expected Changes, exploring Teresa more through the eyes of others.